The more I travel, the more I feel the need to learn the language basics of the country I’m in. Getting to grips with ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’, ‘what’s your name’ and ‘how are you?’, and the all important ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ is simply common courtesy, and everything else you pick up is a bonus.
But ever since I made the decision to travel through South America, one fact has been weighing heavily on my mind: I don’t speak Spanish.
Sitting astride the language barrier
On my past travels, not knowing the language hasn’t been as much of a problem. In India I picked up a modest amount of Hindi, especially while working in Punjab for six weeks with barely any sight of another Westerner.
It was the same in Thailand; the time I spent working on a farm gave me plenty of opportunities to practice simple phrases with my host family’s grandparents, and in Nepal, the kids I taught at school loved hearing my attempts at speaking Nepali.
For my explorations closer to home, the smattering of European language phrases I pick up on the road – of German, French, Italian, Turkish, Greek - have sufficed for time spent in and around Europe. But the majority of the languages I’ve encountered on my travels thus far have been the far flung ones I’d never had exposure to before – which meant I could effectively explain away my prior non-existent knowledge of them (and the completely different alphabets have also been a hindrance in that respect!).
Ecuador is going to be different. Living in Cuenca for five months means I’ll be encountering the same people every day; from my fellow teachers at the school I’m working at, to the host family I’ll be staying with, my day to day Ecuadorian life is going to involve a lot of interaction with Spanish speakers. All of whom are going to expect me to talk.
“So why not simply learn Spanish?” I hear you ask. Well. That’s a very good question.
Trying (and failing) to speak Spanish
When I studied abroad in San Francisco in 2009, I spent a semester taking Spanish. When enrolling for classes, the idea of ‘Spanish 101′ seemed like a really sensible idea; I knew I’d want to travel through South America at some point, so what better preparation than to try learning the lingo beforehand?
What I hadn’t prepared for was that ‘basic’ Spanish in San Francisco, California, is not ‘basic’ by anyone else’s standards. Because of California’s close proximity to Mexico, pretty much every child in the state learns Spanish at grade school – meaning I was the only total Spanish newbie in the whole class.
Over the course of the semester, I didn’t do too badly, but I didn’t do wonderfully either, and I came out the other side with a grasp of the language that was rudimentary at best. Said grasp has also apparently slipped completely away from me in the last two years, and I don’t seem to have retained any of it.
But I know that learning Spanish is a relatively manageable task which countless people the world over have been successful in. Why not me too?
So over the last few months I’ve attempted to kickstart my Spanish skills in a number of ways. And when I say attempted, I mean giving each avenue of Spanish instruction a woefully short period of time to make me significantly improve.
Don’t say I’m not a trier.
More trying (and more failing) to speak Spanish
First off, I read through copious blog entries on learning techniques, from the pricy Rosetta Stone program to total immersion in a Spanish speaking country, and from progress reports to the best Spanish learning books on the market. Every person’s contribution to the subject of Spanish learning has been hugely inspirational, and while I’ve had lots of fun imagining myself to be as fluent as them, I’ve quietly abstained from actually following said advice.
When I realised my inability to be influenced by others, I tried rereading old notes that I made in San Francisco, and leafing idly through the satisfyingly thick textbook I made a conscious effort to bring back to England when my year abroad ended. Hurray for forethought! But, sadly, my inability to concentrate put a fatal flaw in that particular effort.
In a fit of desperation, I turned to the child’s play route, downloading apps and podcasts designed for kids to learn language. I found a particularly fun iPad app called Doki, which uses little animated characters with big heads and no eyes to wander their way through real life situations and demonstrate what you’d say in Spanish in accompaniment.
Unfortunately it was a tad too ‘real life’ for me, and I was waylaid by the ‘agencia de viajes’ into virtually buying a ‘tiquete de ida’ to New Zealand (hey, look! I learned something!) and found myself chatting to the animated Greek guys in Doki City airport while waiting to board my flight.
Strangely enough, I came away from all these concerted efforts at learning Spanish with very little to show for it. Weird, huh?
A moment of realisation
Ok, so I’m a procrastinator (no surprise there, as I’m spending hours of my time perfecting this article about learning Spanish instead of actually attempting it). I keep telling myself (and everybody else who’ll listen) that once I’m actually living in Ecuador, surrounded by native speakers, will be when I feel my desire and drive to learn the language kicking in.
Ultimately, though, I know what my problem is. I’m terrified of not knowing enough. If I avoid looking at anything Spanish and attempting to learn, then I don’t have to discover how bad I am at learning it! It’s a very annoying perfectionist attitude, but it’s there nonetheless; I want to be fluent straight away.
Or at least near fluency. I am a realist, after all.
So I actively shy away from even beginning to start studying properly, and sit safely in the knowledge that, without having tried, there’s no way I can say I’m bad at Spanish. The idea of being unable to say even the smallest of phrases – hell, not even knowing my numbers properly! – makes me feel defeated before I’ve even begun.
Yet another (and slightly hysterically resolved) effort to speak Spanish
So here’s the test. If I make this confession to you, my avid and lovely readers, that I’m terrible at forcing myself to bite the bullet and actually attempt to learn myself some Spanish – maybe things will change.
Over the next five months, while I’m living and teaching in Ecuador, I hereby promise that I will make every effort possible to learn, speak, and even think in Spanish. This means notebooks full of semi-translatable scribbles, taxing interchanges with the old lady at the nearby fruit stand, and copious barmen shaking their heads when I realise I can’t even order a drink to drown my sorrows in.
In a few weeks time, when I can call myself a semi-resident of Cuenca, the fun can really start – and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be equal parts of hilarious and hysterical.
Spanish or no Spanish.
Have you found it a struggle to start learning a new language? What did you do to combat the fear of not being good enough? And, perhaps most importantly, do you have any tips for a struggling and scared language perfectionist?!
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I went to Spain thining I spoke Spanish after university classes, a stint in Valladolid, Spain and reading in Spanish. I was so, so wrong, and the first year in Seville was beyond frusterating. I think you’re right in making the acknowledgment that you’ve perhaps got a long way to go, and then buckling down! Spanish is a language I’ve learned on the streets, yes, but more than anything, it was my actual committment to living it and surrounding myself with españoles!
And finding a novio doesn´t hurt, either! Suerte!!
I’m pretty much putting all my faith into the ‘living it’ aspect! And the resolution to avoid speaking English as much as I can. I’ll keep you updated on the novio front :p
This is a great post Flora, and perfectly sums up my experience with learning Spanish too! I find myself reading so many articles about the best techniques to use, ways to improve your memory (that’s what I struggle with most – remembering vocabulary!), and other things and then think to myself “well that’s Spanish practice done for today” when I haven’t even looked at a single word in the language! When I first started learning I found it really difficult and frustrating, but I have found that over time I have become much more confident and don’t kick myself as much anymore for not knowing certain things. It’s starting to get easier… I just hope I have the motivation to carry on when my course ends. I need to get myself to a Spanish speaking country like you are to put it into action!
I figure I’ll pick up the colloquialisms as I go along, and not worry so much (ie at all) about verb structures and tenses etc. That was always my downfall when I did languages at school – the vocab stuck in my head like glue though.
Oh man, I feel you on this one. 4 years of high school spanish, 2 semesters in college, 8 months backpacking through South America and 3 months of private tutoring and I can just about order at a mexican restaurant.
This is after your South America travels?! Doesn’t give me much confidence Steph..! Though I reckon staying in one city for five months will be the clincher, if anything. Otherwise I’m going to be consistently embarrassing myself in front of the same people, and that embarrassment is actually more demoralising than not being able to speak the language!
Spanish has always been hard for me, too! I’m traveling in South America right now, and while some people come here and pick it up so easily, I struggle despite my many years of learning it in school and taking lessons here. Sometimes I think it’s just the difference of trying to “think” in another language. As someone who is so used to writing and reading in English so frequently (English major, copyeditor, etc.) trying to reorder the words and use reflexive grammar just doesn’t work with my mind sometimes!! It’s almost easier for me to memorize whole phrases and spit those back out than it is to actually understand how to fluently speak. Keep on trying though – it can get frustrating, but one day it will get easier!!
Plus surely when you throw out those memorised phrases enough you end up realising how to combine those words into something else? I’m just hoping the frustration doesn’t outweigh the learning desire!
I feel like my fear of making mistakes has always gotten in the way of me really mastering a language. I studied French in high school and university, but when we actually went to France, I was tongue-tied. Whereas my boyfriend just launches into conversations even when he only knows a few words of the language, and he’s been kicking ass at picking up different languages as we’ve been traveling. I’m sure you know more than you realize – it’s just about jumping in, and accepting that you’re probably going to make 100s of mistakes, but you’ll learn from them. I don’t always follow my own advice, but I’m definitely trying to become more fearless about new languages – I think it’s the only way really learn.
Thanks Jessica, you’ve made me feel a lot better! I reckon the less I know, the more likely I am to be excited about remembering literally any Spanish word – so hopefully I’ll be that fearless kickass fluent Spanish speaker in next to no time! Perhaps…
Lol, learning languages in never easy… I’m still working on my English. I’ve just learned “Let’s talk about the elephant in the room” lol. I love sayings and expressions.
If you ever came to Madrid give me a call and we’ll practice together
I love that phrase! I can’t imagine how I’d start explaining it to a non-native speaker though
Thanks for the invite – hopefully by the time I’m back in Europe again my Spanish will be good enough to hold a decent conversation!
Oh man, I know what you mean. I took English for three years in school before immigrating to Canada, and when I actually got here I had a sudden, shocking realization that I didn’t know English. At all. I could conjugate irregular verbs into the past tense like a boss, but I didn’t know how to ask where the washroom was.
On that note, though, there’s nothing like having no choice but to learn a language. Because no one else spoke my language in my class, I HAD to learn English. I know other kids who just hung out with others who spoke their language, and they took a lot longer to become fluent in English.
Good luck! Spanish or not, it will be a fantastic experience
That sounds like a huge shock to the system, Maria! But clearly you thrived on knowing nothing and having to actively choose to learn English all over again. Fingers crossed I have the same reaction..!
Languages are tough, especially if you don’t start young! But I’m a believer that the best way to learn is to go in knowing (basically) nothing, and just fully immersing yourself. That way, you won’t have a choice but to learn!
Wise words, Amanda. Go hard or go home, I think!
So I’ve got this crazy idea for you: why don’t you write a short and simple blog post about anything and try to translate it to Spanish? You’ll probably need some help, but so what?
Doing it is one of the best ways to learn something, and your Spanish readers will probably get a good laugh out of it.
hi, try with music, spanish songs that we heard all the time. it’ll help you a lot with verbs and building sentences.
Great ideas, thanks! I think I’ll need a little bit of practice in Ecuador before I write any posts in Spanish – so singing Spanish songs should certainly help
Don’t stress about it! I took Spanish in High School to the Scottish equivalent of GSCE and left being able to tell you my name, age, favourite colour and where I was from (pretty much entirely useless). I felt defeated and crossed learning foreign languages of the list. Then in the summer of 2010 I went to Costa Rica and Nicaragua with Raleigh International. After five days of being in Central America I was introduced to my Nicaraguan host family who spoke absolutely no English. The first week was really tough, but I kept persisting and listening and asking friends who could speak both languages to teach me some phrases and words. By the time I left the village after 3 weeks I could understand a fair amount and have brief conversations with my family. Then after another 7 weeks in Central America, I returned back to Scotland with the ability to communicate (albeit with terrible grammar). This experience led to me changing my University course and I know study Spanish as part of my joint honours degree. Since moving to Cuenca last September my Spanish has improved dramatically and besides the occasional grammar errors, I am practically fluent. The other volunteers (the majority of whom arrived with no Spanish) are now all proficient to fluent. When you live in a Spanish speaking country you can’t help but learn the language. Books and grammar aside there is no better way to learn a foreign language than live in a country where it is spoken. So chill out, enjoy your last week at home, because before you know it you’ll be writing your blog entries en Español!
Thanks so much for the positivity, Ryan! After only a week in Ecuador I can definitely agree with your comment about improving when you’re living amongst Spanish speakers. Our host family for our Spanish course in Quito are so lovely that I can’t help attempting as much Spanish as I can with them
Flora! Can relate to going through heaps of programs, online tutorials and weird apps to learn Spanish – then I found ‘Fluenz’ and it just clicked. It was perfect for starting to have real conversations with people straight away – at least asking for directions and where the bathrooms are like a pro anyway! Was in South America back in 2011 for two months, and the little Spanish I did have from doing Level 1 (there’s 5 all up) got me around great, including for when I got lost after dark in Buenos Aires. Being surrounded by Spanish the whole time just made it better.
Downside – It’s not cheap (Maybe they’ll sponsor you
). But definitely worth a look.
And have the time of your life there!!
Sounds like a really good program! I’ll have a look into it and maybe see if they want someone to review it :p So far I’m cracking out as much Spanish as I possibly can with my host family and I think I’m improving, but we’ll see..!
I empathize, Flora. I took Spanish all through high school, but I’ve never been brave enough to really put it to use in my daily life which is tragic considering that I live in Los Angeles. My dad is always on my case about how I’m letting my Spanish go to waste. But I will say that when I was in the Dominican Republic facing power outages, I realized that it was either sink or swim – quickly recall those high school Spanish lessons and swim, or sit in the dark with no A/C or water and sink. Be patient with yourself – the words will come to you when you need them most.
My semester of Spanish classes in San Francisco seem to have made little impact on me to be honest – it’s more my knowledge of Italian that’s helping me more at the moment!
I definitely agree with the sink or swim attitude though, at least in terms of attempting to speak as much as possible. Since I arrived in Ecuador a week ago, I’ve literally tried to say all of my English-thought-up sentences in Spanish instead, and it seems to be working..!
I’m having such a terrible time trying to learn Spanish as well. I blame it on the fact that I am living in the Netherlands and am a native English speaker. I keep mixing up the two languages in my head! In reality, I probably just don’t spend enough time working on improving. I also have the problem of wanting to be perfect. I think we just have to get over this, as you learn most by making mistakes.
Best of luck on improving your Spanish.
Aww Kaitlin, I’m sure if you spent some time in a Spanish speaking country then you’d improve in no time!
I’ve had the perfection problem for so many issues in my life, but luckily I’ve decided to completely ignore it this time. Lots of my Spanish sentences out here in Ecuador are really clumsy and badly put together, but I still keep trying because I’ve already found my Spanish comes back quicker and quicker with each attempt!
Best of luck to you too
You should get a language partner! Someone may have already suggested this but I figured it couldn’t hurt to say it again. I found a language partner who helps me improve Spanish and I help him improve his English. We speak for an hour in Spanish, then in an hour in English. It is very helpful and I also found a skype language partner. She lives in Colombia and it is the same deal as the in-person language partner.
Thanks for the suggestion Stacey! I’m definitely planning to find myself an Ecuadorian conversation partner once I arrive in Cuenca – I’m sure there’ll be lots of willing people!
Okay, so I know this is probably advice too late but I’m going to give it anyway: The best thing I’d recommend learning first and foremost are the most common verbs and the most basic grammar structures of Spanish – I LACK THEM!
I’ve been living here in Mexico for nearly a year and a half and my Spanish is still pathetic because I know a lot vocabulary, my listening and reading is pretty good, but because I’ve never had a Spanish class/lesson in my life and never learned the basic structures, I falter. I can’t carry a conversation and THIS is why I can’t practice.
Most people find they can improve their Spanish once they’re in a Spanish-speaking country because they already have those basics. I don’t. And that’s where I fail. :/
Good luck!
Hi Flora! I discover your blog today but I have a thesis pending while I dreaming about traveling around the world (and looking for travel blogs) I also suffer from procrastrination
I am from Colombia, now we are closer!, in fact, I am trying to improve my english.
If you come to Bogotá let me know and we can practice
one day in English and one day in Spanish or half days 
I love traveling but I woudl like to practicing it more
Hugs!
Hi Laura Victoria, thanks for reading! I’d love to practice my Spanish with you if I make it to Bogota on this trip
Good luck with your thesis!
It’s all about immersing yourself into the country and going for it! Well done, keep going!
Lou x
Cheers Lou, that’s the plan!
Great article Flora. I think you hit the nail on the head with many student’s initial frustrations, and/or lack of ambition – I certainly don’t think you have the latter!
Like some of the other comments and many blogs throughout the web- I truly believe one must overcome the “embarrassment” part (just know that you will make lots and lots of mistakes), and just TALK. Talk and talk some more. Immersion, is truly the best way – kudos to you for finding it.
Buena suerte!
PS – great gravatar pic!
Muchas gracias! I’m very happy that most of my Spanish-related embarrassments have ebbed away by now, and I’m more than ok with making up slightly confused sentences to get my point across. Who knows if it’s actually working but I’m happy enough!
Hey flora!
Love your website. My boyfriend and I have the spent the majority of the last year and a half in Latin America and were still trying to get a handle on things! The more conversation, the better I’ve found. Stick with it though!
Oh, and I’m not sure where you got this “pretty much every child in the state learns Spanish at grade school” because that’s definitely not true. I wish!
Looking forward to reading more posts!
christine
Hi Christine – sorry if I got that wrong! The impression I had when living in San Francisco was that most Californian grade schools taught Spanish, but maybe that was regulated more to SF than the whole state..
You’re right though, the more conversation the better! Buen suerte
Hi Flora!
I completely understand how you feel.
I moved to Costa Rica last year and I knew two words: “hola” and “gracias” before I left. I got embarrassed if someone talked to me and I couldn’t understand but I was determined to learn because I get super frustrated not being able to communicate. I found this really good website where I study 1-2 hours everyday and my Spanish has improved SO much. I think everyone has different learning curves and approaches when learning a new language as everyone has a different learning style. But you are lucky because you live in a Spanish speaking country so you have the wonderful benefits of full immersion! Take advantage of it, don’t be embarrassed to make mistakes and force yourself to speak to locals. I learned that you can’t care too much about your accent and as long as you keep practicing, you will get it. I had to surround myself with people who only spoke Spanish and no English and that makes you learn fast! I’ve been exactly where you are so I totally understand that feeling of “why can’t I just understand!” It is difficult and frustrating in the beginning but believe me, it is so rewarding in the end.
Just discovered your website and love it! Looking forward to reading more
Thanks so much for such a thoughtful comment Samantha! I completely agree that it takes different approaches for different people – turns out that I benefit hugely from being forced to speak another language rather than simply sitting down and educating myself in the ways of it! The only problem is when I spend a lot of time with English speakers – then I find it all too easy to lapse! What site have you been using to practice your Spanish with? And I’m so glad you’re enjoying the site – please do stick around!