Venezuela One - Transcription
I was born in a very beautiful small rich oil country - small in terms of people; there's only twenty-five million people now and uh rich because it has oil - named Venezuela. And, uh, when I little there were not that many people and it was a very organized, clean and uh gorgeous country. It's still gorgeous, but it has been through a lot of trouble in the past ten years. Um, we have the highest cable car in the world. We have the tallest waterfalls in the world. Beautiful beaches, lots of riches, and hopefully that beautiful country will go back to the way it used to be very soon. I hope that you will go there sometime.
I was taught little words when I was a girl in kindergarten, like "pollito - chicken; gallina - hen; lapiz - pencil; la pluma - pen." Okay? So, but I mean instructor when there, we had to take English in High School. And I always loved it because I loved the songs in the radio. I was a big radio fan. And I loved it and I wanted to learn what the words of the song said. So I always liked the sound of English. And I always did very well in English in High School. It was very basic: just the grammar rules and stuff nothing.you don't have to really talk. But I was always eager, you know, to show off that I had a good accent. And I remember, I mean, there, I was considered to have a good accent; but probably not here. My teacher in my last year in high school - we take that for five years - she said, "Oh, well, congratulations, you have a great accent." And I was so proud.
Um later, there in University, we don't have to take languages; so there was a void of ten years. And then I started preparing to come here to graduate school - and I started taking grammar classes to take the test of English as foreign language. But we don't have to speak. So it was just grammar. When I got here, I though I spoke English. And then I couldn't talk for three months.
[Our Father Rosary Prayer] Padre nuestro, que estás en el cielo. Santificado sea tu nombre. Venga tu reino. Hágase tu voluntad en la tierra como en el cielo. Danos hoy nuestro pan de cada día. Perdona nuestras ofensas, como también nosotros perdonamos a los que nos ofenden. No nos dejes caer en tentación y líbranos del mal.
(Transcribed by Bob Dorsey 5/7/02)