Well, I have now lived in
When I moved here I decided that I wanted to learn the
language. I had this romantic idea that it would be easy to learn a language
when one lives in the country – simply by osmosis, some how I’d pick it up.
Well after all isn’t that how everyone else seems to learn languages? Don’t
they go off to
Italy or
In fact I’ve identified two problems. The first is that
since I have decided to take classes, I have swiftly become overwhelmed by
grammar. Grammar that I could never have imagined existed in language. Like
many people my age, grammar was ignored in my English school but I luckily
picked up a good grasp of English from my parents.
Therefore, for me, taking classes in a Latin based language has been
extraordinary. My "O-level" Latin has done nothing to prepare me! My
beginner’s course really just scratches the surface of the complexity of
Spanish. For example I haven’t even yet studied the conjunctive. Instead I have
been given the basics of the 3 main past tenses, together with the present and present
continuous tenses as well as the simple future and future. I am now very
confused! Throw in the huge variations of the imperative and I am drowning in
words. This little bit of knowledge can be very dangerous! I now spend so much
time freaking-out about grammar I can barely open my mouth. I think,
deliberate and ponder each simple phrase construction to the point that I lose
any opportunity to participate in a conversation! Of course, all those people we
know that went of to foreign lands and came back speaking like a native, do just that! They speak like natives, flaws and all! This is typically a rough combination of the
present tense and some basic past and future. Here am I trying to consider when
to use the indefinite or the perfect form of a tense when most Spanish don’t
even know the subtleties of the tenses anyway!
I have good language days and bad language days but yesterday I had a
particularly bad day. My Spanish partner & I were having dinner with
two of his close Spanish friends. A lovely couple (that of course speak perfect
English). However, I know that I need to practice what little Spanish
vocabulary that has stuck in my resistant and very English brain. So we tried
to converse in Spanish. Yet last night I just froze. I couldn't say a thing!! I
barely ordered from the menu - I felt SO stupid, so isolated, so frustrated.
It’s amazing how so much of one’s confidence is linked to effective
communication; the ability to make or share a joke; or to play with the meaning
of a word for example. Yet without a good grasp of a language one feels like a
child, and a stupid one at that.
Of course the others at the meal table had all been there before – suffering
the language pain barrier. In fact, in many ways it was much harder for them,
as all three of them had lived and worked in the
But I imagine it is that language pain barrier that delivers the language gain.
The
Sadly, most Brits have not persevered with the Spanish language. The ease with
which one can live and work here without Spanish has successfully created a
huge and infamous ex-pat community. But I don’t want to be held hostage by my
English language. Being able to speak Spanish not only obviously enriches life
here in
Well, maybe I will have to go on one of those scary 6 week residential courses
deep in Andalucia to make my breakthrough. But then I will come back with a
strong Andaluz accent and people from Madrid
won’t understand my Spanish!
