Español III
Today I finished my Spanish classes, yay! I'm excited to do something different, because in the last week I really began to feel like I have reached the limit of the usefulness of classes, for now at least. We've been "practicing" the subjunctive by answering inane questions and giving lame advice to hypothetical problems. It's just not doing it for me anymore--I feel like I've covered the major grammatical structures, so now I need to use the language for real to actually improve. Which is the main reason why I'm starting to volunteer with children next week--I'll be spending at least 4 hours a day in an environment where all communication is in Spanish, so it's got to help. But I'm also terrified that they are going to hate me, because they'll expect me to know more and I'll just be dumb.
It is very not clear to me how my Spanish has improved over the past 2 months. Taylor says it has, but I honestly do not feel that I am much more competent "el la calle" (on the street, as one of my Spanish teachers always likes to say). Being here has suddenly made me understand how it is possible to live in a country and never really learn the language--e.g. immigrants to the U.S. As long as you have a basic support structure of friends, and even more so if you have some employment and services available in your native language, it is so easy to get by with just some basic words. You can hear the other language every day on the street, and even watch tv, but it doesn't have to sink in unless you force yourself into a situation where it has to. And when you are an adult, with a developed personality, interests, and skills, life is just so much more comfortable in your native language (or even a second language in which you are already fluent). So although I definitely believe that every new language enriches a person's life, and that integrating into local society (which requires language competency) is valuable, I certainly will never pass judgment on anyone who doesn't speak the language of where they live. And I have the highest respect for those who learned a new language later in life and completely adapted themselves to live in a new place.
It is very not clear to me how my Spanish has improved over the past 2 months. Taylor says it has, but I honestly do not feel that I am much more competent "el la calle" (on the street, as one of my Spanish teachers always likes to say). Being here has suddenly made me understand how it is possible to live in a country and never really learn the language--e.g. immigrants to the U.S. As long as you have a basic support structure of friends, and even more so if you have some employment and services available in your native language, it is so easy to get by with just some basic words. You can hear the other language every day on the street, and even watch tv, but it doesn't have to sink in unless you force yourself into a situation where it has to. And when you are an adult, with a developed personality, interests, and skills, life is just so much more comfortable in your native language (or even a second language in which you are already fluent). So although I definitely believe that every new language enriches a person's life, and that integrating into local society (which requires language competency) is valuable, I certainly will never pass judgment on anyone who doesn't speak the language of where they live. And I have the highest respect for those who learned a new language later in life and completely adapted themselves to live in a new place.
posted by HelenO at
1:08 PM
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