Me No Gusta Grammar

I am a teacher, yes, even a long time elementary teacher, so is it ok for me to admit that I don't like grammar?  Let me be more specific:  I have never liked grammar.  Let me say that in my broken Spanish: me no gusta grammar!  I have learned many of the rules at various times in my academic life, only to promptly forget them.  As kids and teens, growing up in a house with no t.v., my sister and I read quite a bit, and a pretty good concept of what sounds right and what doesn't became pretty well ingrained, but for me, the prospect of analyzing and diagramming a sentence makes my eyes glaze over.

Keep in mind that I've never formally studied another language with any kind of depth.  With the possible exception of some weeks of Kiswahili study at Trans Africa Language School back in 1991, I haven't given grammar much thought beyond the basic nouns, verbs, adjectives, articles, adverbs, and endings covered in A Beka's fifth grade language workbook, which I had to teach a few years ago.

So what is one to do with such terminology as irregular and regular verbs?  Definite and indefinite articles?  Infinitives?  Participles?  Preterites? I am just getting the hang of the idea that an indefinite article refers to a general object (like a car or un coche) while a definite article means refers to a specific object (like the car or el coche), but the rest of that goop?  Gadzooks!  


I suspect that the more I can connect the rules of Spanish grammar to what I consider"instinctive" about what works in English, the better this second language learning thing will pan out, but I must admit that the grammar stuff is beginning to make a little more sense.  Who knows? It might even help me better understand what makes English sentences sound right or wrong.   Not sure if I will stop glazing over with the use of grammar terminology, but I really hope I get enough absorbed to better put together all the Spanish in my head to make comprehensible sentences.