Like A Sponge

When it comes to learning a second (or third, or fourth) language, we all have our different methods.  When I started learning Spanish, I googled every possible method available to learn the fastest and most effective way possible.  I looked for free resources, but I also spent my share of cash on various programs and books "guaranteed" to help me reach fluency as quickly as possible.

A little more than eight years later, there are still days when I am hesitant to call myself fluent in Spanish, however, I will say that with years of practice, I have reached a level I am pretty satisfied with.  Even though there is always room to improve, I feel like I have found my most effective methods of practicing.

I may be crazy.  Well, I certainly have my quirks, and some might call me crazy, but recently I became inspired, and that's where the craziness lies.  I want to start learning Italian again.  I started (and gave up) learning Italian roughly four years ago.  Despite some success, I decided my passion for Spanish outweighed my desire to be multi-lingual, so instead of dividing my days with Spanish verb conjugations and Italian vocabulary drills, I packed away my Italian learning resources and went full speed ahead with Spanish.  There were days I regretted it, but overall, I found Spanish to be my true love when it came to foreign languages.  So why the change of heart?  Why now?

I have been living in Spain for almost six months.  My Spanish is good (although I should note, I don't necessarily attribute that to living in Spain) and I am constantly surrounded with opportunities to speak Spanish.  It's more or less natural to me, even if I don't understand everything I hear and I can't always say what I would like to say.  Unlike my level of Spanish four years ago, when I tried to challenge my brain with Italian, I am comfortable enough now with my Spanish that I am not worried I will confuse the two languages or start to forget Spanish in order to make room in my brain for Italian.  In other words, I feel my Spanish is locked in place and I can move forward with another language.

While I am excited to move forward with Italian, I should note, I am not taking it on with the same seriousness that I have with Spanish, nor am I concerned with a specific timeline for learning or even reaching a specific level.  I want to learn in the most laid back way possible.  Since I returned to reviewing my Italian material, I simply let my mind absorb the words and slowly let it come back to me.  I am attempting to learn like a sponge, and instead of racking my brain with verb charts and vocabulary lists, I simply listen and repeat much of what I hear and I study briefly each day my Anki deck, which goes over vocab and basic phrases but in a fairly random and spaced out order, which allows me to recall much of what I learned four years ago without too much effort.  To ensure I keep my Spanish sharp, I use Spanish translations for Italian words and phrases when I can, which helps me work on both languages at the same time without too much stress involved.  Since I don't plan on talking with any native Italian speakers anytime soon, it's difficult to gauge my level, but since my goal here is much more relaxed, I don't feel any pressure to necessarily test myself to see where I fall.
I want this time around to be fun.  While I am not giving myself specific goals, I do have a collection of audio CD's I am working through, and once completed, I will see where I stand.  In the past, I put too much pressure on myself to reach a certain goal at a certain time.  While I may still need to be a little more rigid when it comes to Spanish, only because it is a language I am using everyday, I feel I can go a little more softly on the Italian.  If I miss a day of studying, it's no big deal, I will just pick up where I left off the next time.  I think this is the key, for me at least, in learning a third language after my second.  That is to say I had to be pretty intense with Spanish since I had never learned a second language before, but now that I more or less have it down, the third language is a lot easier.  We shall see now, won't we?

Powerless

I really wish I had come across this video two or three months ago.  It would have made me feel much better about my situation.  Living in Spain has been a challenge since day 1. Don't get me wrong, I have no regrets about coming here.  It's a beautiful country and I see something new everyday, however it can be a bit overwhelming trying to keep up with the native Spanish speakers.  Back home in the U.S., while I was surrounded by plenty of Spanish speakers, I could always fall back on English if I ran into trouble.  Here, that just isn't the case.  I have to challenge myself each and every day to express myself as clearly as possible in Spanish.  While I practiced speaking the language for many years before moving here to Madrid, nothing could have prepared me entirely for what I would face.  Sure, I had learned how to ask for a table at a restaurant, but as far as being able to identify all of the items listed on the menu?  Not a chance.  The best I could do was seek out "pollo," and hope for the best.

Like Gordon, in the video above, I had always been the protagonist of my life.  I paid the bills, I drove, I knew where places were, and I knew how to find my way around.  Here in Spain, after living here for four months, I am just now gaining the confidence to drive around on my own.  I know how to get to a few places, but I fear if I take a wrong turn, all my accumulated Spanish knowledge will be useless if I can't ask for directions home.  And when the phone rings at home?  Forget it.  I know I can do it, but the thought of trying to maintain a phone conversation just give me a headache.  I know I shouldn't be avoiding these situations, I should be diving in head first at this point, but it can be very difficult to be confident when you feel so powerless.  It's amazing just how important language is in our lives each and every day.

I wonder how many out there face these struggles when it comes to learning a second language?  It's one thing to learn it as a hobby, but something entirely different to learn it as a matter of survival.  Thoughts?

It's Not A Race

This afternoon I finished reading* the first book of the Game of Thrones series that has become so popular worldwide.  I don't watch the television show, although I have seen a few episodes here and there, and my interest in the book was rooted in the fact that I was able to purchase it written in Spanish, not that I am a big fan of fantasy novels.  That being said, I enjoyed it and I am proud to have completed it, as it is over 700 pages long.  Now, I should probably add that I purchased the book well over a year ago, possibly closer to two years ago.  Why has it taken me so long to finish?  Well, I suppose the first reason is that, like I said, I am not a huge fantasy fiction fan.  I didn't read hundreds of pages at once, and I would often go weeks without reading it at all.  The second reason it took me so long is, well, it was hard!

Game  of Thrones is not the first novel I have read in Spanish, but it is the longest and most difficult novel I have attempted to this point.  That's why when I say I finished reading it, I put an *.  Yes, I read the words on the pages, and yes, I comprehended the plot, but did I understand every word?  Of course not.  Were there times I read entire pages and realized I hadn't understood a single word of it?  Surely.  I even cheated a few times and went online to view plot summaries just to make sure I really was following along with the plot.  Despite some difficulties, I am proud to say I followed along very well.

In a moment of exaggerated optimism, I purchased the second novel many months ago and made it one of the few books I was able to pack in my bags when I moved to Spain.  I plan on starting it this afternoon, but with a better plan of attack in mind.  This time around, I want to really focus on learning as I go, so I plan on reading only one chapter at a time, but focusing on picking out words and phrases I don't know and adding them to my list to study.  As they say, slow and steady wins the race and while it may take me just as long, if not longer to complete this novel, I am hoping to get more out of it than I did from the first.  Sure, I managed to finish the first novel, but was I successful in learning much from it?  That's debatable.

I think too often, especially when it comes to languages, we try to move too fast too soon.  I know, I was right there in the beginning, trying to cram as many new vocabulary words as I could into my head, but the fact is, it's not a race.  Learning a language should be fun, and it shouldn't have a finish line.  Sure, it's great to have goals, but what's going to happen if you DON'T memorize 500 new words in six months?  So what if after two years you can only use the present tense of the verbs?  No one is going to come and punish you.  You're not a failure just because it takes a little longer to finish reading your first novel in a foreign language.  I think goals are great.  In fact, I think they're crucial, but we shouldn't be disappointed in ourselves if we fail to hit the mark each time.  I see so many posts of people who are disappointed for not hitting such and such goal in such and such time.  Instead of lamenting over what you haven't accomplished, why not celebrate what you have?  Just my thoughts.  Anyone else?

What Voice Do We Listen To?

One of the biggest boosts in confidence I have had when it comes to speaking Spanish is social media.  Ever since I started dedicating my time to improving my Spanish, I have tried to use social media as a way to boost my confidence and give me the kick I needed to keep going when the going got tough.  I have discovered websites, such as The Mixxer that offer free search engines to reach out to other language learners and in turn we are able to use tools such as Skype to set up intercambios where we can take turns practicing our second or even third languages.

I have found Facebook groups who love to discuss learning Spanish, and countless YouTube videos that offer lessons and advice on how to improve your language skills.  All in all, I have found that reaching out to others is a great way to find the inspiration, motivation, and confidence to push on when I find myself in a rut.  Unfortunately, there are also negative aspects of social media.  There are those who find pleasure in bringing others down.  Instead of inspiring, they discourage, ridicule, and belittle those that are seeking positive reinforcement.  Fortunately for me, I have not come across all that many of these individuals, although I have heard plenty of stories from others.  I do my best to ignore those who thrive on negative energy, and when I do stumble across someone who wants to bring me down, I find ways to ignore and avoid that person.

All that being said, there is one voice I have found that is nearly impossible to ignore.  Despite my very best efforts, there seems to always be a way for this one voice to get to me.  That voice is the voice inside my head, and I have discovered recently that I am not the only one affected by my own worst thoughts.  My point in mentioning social media before introducing this topic was that it was on Facebook that I discovered just how overpowering ones inner voice can be, even when surrounded by positive energy.  While I have found encouragement from others to be a great motivator, sometimes all the encouragement in the world won't help if you allow your inner thoughts to bring you down.  I have seen posts from individuals who have nothing but negative things to say about themselves.  Despite all the encouragement the other members of the group try to offer, there seems to be no hope in changing their negative self outlook.  It bothers me greatly to see this, as the only person standing in their way from excelling is themselves.  I have learned from my own experience, we are our own worst critic.  If we allow ourselves to accept our own criticisms, we will never be able to advance.  Yes, it takes confidence to go out there and speak in a foreign language, but we have to overcome our own insecurities, our own self doubt, and take a very scary leap forward.  Yes, it's frightening, but we can all do it.  This was something I had to teach myself, but I also owe a lot of thanks to those who encouraged me along the way.

So, in the end, don't be afraid to reach out to those on social media for encouragement, but more importantly, don't be afraid to be your own positive motivator.  Don't let your inner voice scare you.  Challenge yourself and be positive.  Negative thoughts will get you nowhere.  Who's with me?

Back For More

It's been one year since my last entry here, and while I haven't exactly had heavy traffic, I thought I would get back to writing just a bit in the hopes of inspiring myself and others to live their lives more adventurously while learning a new language.  If you've read any of my previous entries here, my goal with this blog has always been to push myself and others to have confidence in speaking a foreign language and to use that language to better their lives.  My last entry here was written in Madrid, Spain, just a few days before I returned to the United States after spending the month of May in an apartment in the Lavapies neighborhood of Madrid.  The year that followed was not at all what I expected it to be, and here I am today, once again writing from Madrid, yes, Madrid, about how learning a second language has changed my life.

When I came back to the United States, initially I was thrilled to be home, but I quickly found myself wanting to return to Spain. The experience had opened my eyes to new things and my life in the United States would never be the same, nor could it compare to a life in Spain.  I met a very special woman while I was in Spain the first time, and for the next year, we stayed in contact, talking to each other each and every day, and in October, she came to spend a week with me in the United States.  After that week, we made plans for me to come back to Spain, this time permanently, as we were going to live together.  I am now proud to say we are to be married (a rather arduous task to take on in Spain for an American such as myself) and we are expecting our first child in November.  All of this because I took the risk of traveling to Spain all by myself as a way of discovering who I was and who I could be.  Had I never decided to speak Spanish, who knows where I would be today.

I'm not suggesting learning a second language is going to find you the love of your life, but I certainly never would have met my wife if I did not speak Spanish.  Speaking Spanish has opened doors for me, not only at home, but worldwide.  I can speak confidently to people from 21 different countries that I would not have been able to if I did not speak Spanish.  I have no plans on traveling the world, at least not right now, but speaking two languages has made my life infinitely more exciting.  After spending just one month in Spain, I was able to say good-bye to the parts of my life I no longer wanted and I was able to become the person I feel I had always been meant to be.

We may move back to the United States in the coming years, we may not, but what's important is that I have found a life here that is certainly more interesting than the one I left behind.  I'd love to hear the stories of those who have done similar things, of those who have used Spanish, or any other language for that matter, to change their lives for the better.  I know I haven't been around here much, but I plan on spending some more time here from now on.  I hope to hear from you.

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