One of my big goals on this trip was to come back nearly fluent in Spanish. Unfortunately, I must say that I haven't done as well as I had thought I would. Living in Miami and having huge exposure to the language at Valentina's parents house had given me a great head-start but I have a long way to go in training my ears to truly understand specifically what's being said. It's quite difficult to listen effortlessly without re-counting each syllable and translating them in my head.
One obstacle is purely mental too. English has been my only language for so long that sometimes before I even hear the Spanish phrase from someone else I'm already convinced I won't understand. A woman in a department store asked me a three word question and although I knew each word I still blanked out a bit because I hadn't heard them in that way before. Valentina saved me thankfully. More confident listening would go a long way for me.
I have made improvements though, mostly in speaking. And I'm definitely proud of myself when I'm reading reviews on hotels and I come across them in Italian and Spanish and I have no need to skip over them! Also, I used to feel embarrassed speaking to Valentina in my Spanish but I'm cured of that now so this journey will definitely continue long after I leave Europe.
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4 comments:
Ian, I think you give yourself less credit than you deserve. Making mistakes is part of the learning process...
hola, mi amo Haitham.
Donde estan los ladrones? los ladrones estan en Tunez!!
I can say this because I'm an Arab - I got in-group privelages :)
Thanks for the vote of confidence dude! My post was really just a cry for attention. :)
You see, that's why your a man of many languages, no fear of messing up! (Also no fear of Tunisians) I'm getting there! Just today I told a taxi driver "It's going to do a while" instead of "it's going to be a while". hehe He got the drift.
Donde esta mi pantelones?
I'm very proud of you ! No matter how much Spanish you get to learn, we love you the same. No ones knows about difficulties with a new language as much as me. jajajajajajajaja.
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