how I learned Spanish
One of the strangest things for me in anticipation of traveling to London was the thought of speaking my own language, although with some different flair, in a different country. I speak plenty of English in Spain, but to hear mostly English and see primarily English while in another country seemed so strange! I joked about this with Pilar the week before leaving. Since Spain is the only other country I've traveled to (besides Germany, in an all-English environment), I was really intrigued by what the experience would be like! To be honest, traveling to the UK seemed like no big deal because of the language commonality.
Though I feel comfortable with travel in Spain and most conversational Spanish at any given time, I haven't always been this way, of course. I, unfortunately, wasn't born bilingual, and I've spent a lot of time, money, and energy striving to learn this language. There are so many ways available to learn a language, but I wanted to share the brief version of my language-learning story.
In junior high, we had to pick 2 electives for our first high school semester- if you'd gotten all A's in junior high, however, you didn't have to take a study hall and therefore got three electives (lol). I needed to take a history or geography class and an art or music and desperately wanted to start with Spanish my freshman year, but I hadn't met the "All-A get out of study hall free" requirement, so Spanish was going to be the elective cut. At the time, I remember just wanting to start my foreign language in the case that I needed to just take 2 years of Spanish and 2 years of French, if it got too hard. My mom, being herself, challenged the study hall requirement, and a few hours later, I was signed up for geography, choir, and Spanish.
I remember we started the year learning the alphabet. We gradually added in vocab and- gasp- the present tense of verb conjugating. I remember being really confused and frustrated for a week or so, and then something just clicked. It made perfect sense; well, not literally "perfect sense," but language learning definitely started to feel somewhat natural for me. Things that other students could not grasp just clicked, just like things that were so obvious to others in math seemed like rocket science to me.
By the time I graduated from high school, I took 4 years of Spanish and also 2 years of French! My junior year, I picked French as an extra elective, and then my senior year took French II online so it could fit in my schedule. I wish I would've learned more French, but the amount of Spanish I learned in 4 years of high school was amazing, mostly thanks to my awesome teacher.
I originally was going to major in Spanish in college but later changed it to a minor. I was frustrated in college because I had tested in to a class that was really below my level. We didn't speak in class and really only did workbook pages or basic textbook activities, so that disappointment led to me deciding to just minor so I didn't have to take so many classes but still could study abroad! The summer before my junior year of college was when I went to Seville. In those 8 weeks, I learned so much, mostly from being in Spain rather than even the courses I took. I took upper level Spanish courses at IWU the next year with a more challenging professor and loved the courses, but I also could tell that my level was a lot better.
The next year, I went to Madrid for my student teaching. I was excited to be back in a Spanish speaking environment, but knowing that the school was English, I didn't have an crazy language-learning expectations. From staying with Pilar, however, I learned even more than I had in Seville when my goal was just to language learn. The learning was very natural, but I relied on her since I wasn't with a study abroad program and was basically on my own! She was my main source for conversation and also a great teacher. When I got back, I took the Indiana licensure test to teach K-12 Spanish, so I am licensed in that if I ever want to teach Spanish. I also took the Spanish Oral Proficiency Interview and Written Proficiency Test, which I scored well on and are good baselines to show employers.
This fall, I gave private lessons to an elementary student in Spanish! While it was his first foreign language learning experience and we certainly weren't having high-capacity Spanish conversations, it was a great way for me to stay in practice and learn new vocab, at least. Unfortunately, his family moved out of state at the semester, so this past semester I had been perhaps the most disconnected from Spanish that I've been since before starting to learn in high school! Thankfully, Pilar and I sent audio messages on WhatsApp frequently.
And then this summer, I have experienced an entirely new kind of Spanish-learning. My everyday conversational skills are honestly quite good, but never had I worked in an entirely Spanish, professional environment. The internship has been such a challenge because of the Spanish, and I really don't feel significantly better about my language now than when I arrived. Talks with Pilar or exchanges at the grocery store really boost my confidence, because in the work setting, it's like I've never heard Spanish before.
Since I'm no longer in formal classes for Spanish, I have to look for new ways to stay fresh and retain what I know. In the future, I don't anticipate being able to take annual trips for 8 weeks or more to Spain; I've been super fortunate to have had these opportunities thus far. But, it's also not impossible to start learning or retain language in the US. If you're past your high school days and still have a desire to start learning a language, here are some tips and tricks that I try to do to stay in Spanish shape:
Though I feel comfortable with travel in Spain and most conversational Spanish at any given time, I haven't always been this way, of course. I, unfortunately, wasn't born bilingual, and I've spent a lot of time, money, and energy striving to learn this language. There are so many ways available to learn a language, but I wanted to share the brief version of my language-learning story.
In junior high, we had to pick 2 electives for our first high school semester- if you'd gotten all A's in junior high, however, you didn't have to take a study hall and therefore got three electives (lol). I needed to take a history or geography class and an art or music and desperately wanted to start with Spanish my freshman year, but I hadn't met the "All-A get out of study hall free" requirement, so Spanish was going to be the elective cut. At the time, I remember just wanting to start my foreign language in the case that I needed to just take 2 years of Spanish and 2 years of French, if it got too hard. My mom, being herself, challenged the study hall requirement, and a few hours later, I was signed up for geography, choir, and Spanish.
I remember we started the year learning the alphabet. We gradually added in vocab and- gasp- the present tense of verb conjugating. I remember being really confused and frustrated for a week or so, and then something just clicked. It made perfect sense; well, not literally "perfect sense," but language learning definitely started to feel somewhat natural for me. Things that other students could not grasp just clicked, just like things that were so obvious to others in math seemed like rocket science to me.
By the time I graduated from high school, I took 4 years of Spanish and also 2 years of French! My junior year, I picked French as an extra elective, and then my senior year took French II online so it could fit in my schedule. I wish I would've learned more French, but the amount of Spanish I learned in 4 years of high school was amazing, mostly thanks to my awesome teacher.
I originally was going to major in Spanish in college but later changed it to a minor. I was frustrated in college because I had tested in to a class that was really below my level. We didn't speak in class and really only did workbook pages or basic textbook activities, so that disappointment led to me deciding to just minor so I didn't have to take so many classes but still could study abroad! The summer before my junior year of college was when I went to Seville. In those 8 weeks, I learned so much, mostly from being in Spain rather than even the courses I took. I took upper level Spanish courses at IWU the next year with a more challenging professor and loved the courses, but I also could tell that my level was a lot better.
The next year, I went to Madrid for my student teaching. I was excited to be back in a Spanish speaking environment, but knowing that the school was English, I didn't have an crazy language-learning expectations. From staying with Pilar, however, I learned even more than I had in Seville when my goal was just to language learn. The learning was very natural, but I relied on her since I wasn't with a study abroad program and was basically on my own! She was my main source for conversation and also a great teacher. When I got back, I took the Indiana licensure test to teach K-12 Spanish, so I am licensed in that if I ever want to teach Spanish. I also took the Spanish Oral Proficiency Interview and Written Proficiency Test, which I scored well on and are good baselines to show employers.
This fall, I gave private lessons to an elementary student in Spanish! While it was his first foreign language learning experience and we certainly weren't having high-capacity Spanish conversations, it was a great way for me to stay in practice and learn new vocab, at least. Unfortunately, his family moved out of state at the semester, so this past semester I had been perhaps the most disconnected from Spanish that I've been since before starting to learn in high school! Thankfully, Pilar and I sent audio messages on WhatsApp frequently.
And then this summer, I have experienced an entirely new kind of Spanish-learning. My everyday conversational skills are honestly quite good, but never had I worked in an entirely Spanish, professional environment. The internship has been such a challenge because of the Spanish, and I really don't feel significantly better about my language now than when I arrived. Talks with Pilar or exchanges at the grocery store really boost my confidence, because in the work setting, it's like I've never heard Spanish before.
Since I'm no longer in formal classes for Spanish, I have to look for new ways to stay fresh and retain what I know. In the future, I don't anticipate being able to take annual trips for 8 weeks or more to Spain; I've been super fortunate to have had these opportunities thus far. But, it's also not impossible to start learning or retain language in the US. If you're past your high school days and still have a desire to start learning a language, here are some tips and tricks that I try to do to stay in Spanish shape:
- Sign up for words of the day. I use SpanishDict and subscribe to their daily word of the day. Sometimes I pay attention to the email, sometimes I don't, but it's a great way to get exposed to new vocab daily without much effort.
- Keep a notebook with words and phrases. This might be most helpful if you already have some base of the language. I don't take intense notes, but I have a special notebook where I keep new Spanish vocab that I hear, or if I am wondering how to say something, I look it up and write it in there. The best benefit of keeping the notebook comes when I actually take time to flip back through it and look at words I've noted in the past. I'm always surprised by how much more likely I am to remember a word when it's been written in my notebook; even if I don't remember it immediately on the next time I want to recall it, I recognise it in conversation or know that it's something I've recently identified.
- Use apps. There are a lot of language learning apps available. Duolingo was a bit simple and easy for my level, but I think it's great for quick vocab recall if you're just starting out or looking for an easy way to self-teach. As far as dictionary apps go, I recommend Word Reference. SpanishDict is okay for just Spanish, but I typically like WR's translations more. GoogleTranslate is an okay resource if you already have a good base for the language, but I would not recommend relying on it for translating full sentences.
- Consume media. I "like" multiple Spanish news sources on Facebook; without thinking about it, I am exposed to current events in Spanish when I scroll through my feeds. I also changed my phone to Spanish- again something I don't recommend for a beginner, but it helps me keep in practice. Sometimes I put on a Netflix show in Spanish with English subtitles. I listen to a lot of Spanish music. These authentic exposures to language are really helpful for pronunciation, colloquial vocabulary, and cultural references.
- Don't make it a chore. Looking back at my "Spanish testimony," I was only ever really frustrated with learning Spanish when it wasn't fun for me in my first few semesters of college. I felt obligated to take classes, and I was negatively influenced by the attitudes of the students in my classes. I think you have to genuinely want to learn Spanish and understand the time investment that you're going to have to put in, but it also needs to be something that you can enjoy and have fun doing. In Spain, intercambios, or exchanges, are popular. I imagine that there are some similar things in larger US cities, but something like that would make language learning really fun, while also providing accountability without the stress of a course.
Language learning isn't easy, and I acknowledge that it is something I absolutely love, and it comes more naturally for me. However, knowing Spanish and desiring to learn Spanish at a high level has opened so many doors for me and revealed so many things about myself. I am in a totally different place than I envisioned I would be 4, 6, or 8 years ago, and I attribute a large part of that to my first trip to Spain.
Oh, and if you ever want private lessons, let me know ;)
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