The Final Spanish Lesson and the Four Elements

Step One: Name the elements in Spanish (El Fuego (Fire), La Tierra (Earth), El Agua (Water), and El Viento (Wind).

Step Two: Associate adjectives with each of the elements (I’ll spare you the details).

Step Three: Take away the names of the elements, and associate four different roles (or people’s names) with the adjectives.

Step Four: Add in connectors.

For fire, I put teacher. For earth, I put a preacher. For water, I put a salesperson. And, for wind: a tourist.

I recommend it. What I discovered, perhaps because of the use of the elements, was that these roles necessitate sharp contrasts in character: the teacher can be noisy and serious; the salesperson: tranquil and savage.

I can’t believe ten hours (an hour at a time) can feel so long (during the excruciating hour) and have flown so swiftly and sweetly now that I am at the end.