Field Notes for Spanish Learners: Reflections

5/17/10
Crispy realization: my Spanish will only advance according to how hard I work.

5/18/10
1. I learn to understand Spanish faster than I learn to express myself in it
2. Gestures! It's such a cliché, but it's true: when people can't fully communicate, everyone starts waving their hands around and drawing pictures in the air
3. You become proficient with numbers very quickly, out of necessity
4. As you're immersed in Spanish, you start to be able to talk faster
5. A lot of what I say takes the form of comprehensible fragments, rather than complete sentences. For instance, subí vos, y después... ("you go up, and afterwards...") Context makes it clear that the missing fragment is ...yo bajo ("I'll go down")
6. The more you learn, the more you realize how brokenly you speak
7. Expanding your vocabulary is like decoding a cryptogram. First you learn a new word or phrase. Then it pops up later in conversation, and for the first time you recognize and understand it. With each decoded "letter" (that is, each new vocabulary item), you understand a little bit more of the cryptogram
8. As noted in point 5 above, I often speak in chunks separated by silent pauses. What you want instead is fluid speech connected by stalling words like tipo and o sea
9. In these first couple weeks in Córdoba, I notice the effects of immersion when I write an email: common phrases come to mind first in Spanish, and then I remember the English. For instance, first I think hasta luego and then I remember "see ya", because while I say hasta luego several times a day, I almost never say "see ya".
10. Speaking Spanish all the time is exhausting—I wasn't expecting that.

6/2/10
It's interesting that I still don't think in Spanish. It's not like I consciously translate when I speak. It's just that when I'm alone with my thoughts, those thoughts are in English. I wonder how long you have to live abroad before you start thinking in a foreign language?

6/3/10
What are my biggest weaknesses in Spanish?

1. Often don't complete my sentences. Choppy speech
2. Need to communicate key information faster. Get to the point
3. Have no method to ensure my skill steadily increases. Create a study plan
4. People rarely correct my blundering speech. Even when they do, I often don't remember the correction for long. I need someone to listen to me speak, stop me whenever I make a mistake, and suggest improvements. The best way to achieve this is a language exchange, where I could help someone with their English in exchange for critiquing my Spanish.
5. Translating from English, not thinking in Spanish. This leads to saying stuff like gracias, a vos también instead of gracias, igualmente (“thanks, you too”).

6/10/10
Other observations

1.When someone is speaking Spanish and they suddenly toss in a little English—for instance, the phrase "heavy metal"—there's a good chance I won't understand them unless their pronunciation is really perfect. It's just that I'm not expecting to hear English, so it catches me off-guard.
2. Whenever I'm on a computer, I tend to avoid websites in Spanish. It's like I hunker down at the computer to immerse myself for an hour or so in the familiarity of home and English, and I'm unwilling to let Spanish intrude on that. But really I should actively pursue websites in Spanish. Similarly, I tend to avoid answering the home phone for fear of screwing up. But in the future I should make a point of answering the phone every time, to practice extemporaneous speech.

That's the end of Field Notes for Spanish Learners. Hope some folks found these posts useful, and look out for more Field Notes posts in the future!

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