I have a serious problem. I understand Spanish very well, but I still cannot force myself to speak it. Well, I do order food and can get by... WHEN I AM BY MYSELF! Meaning - no Spanish-speaking friends around. What the hell? And apparently, my Spanish pronunciation is super good (judging by all the 3 words that I manage to occasionally utter). The other day, I ordered "chille relleno con carne y queso" at a restaurant, and the waitress asked me "eres d'Espana" ("Are you from Spain?"). So, here I have a potential of speaking a foreign language without an accent and I can practice all I want now, and - BLOCK! Of course, this problem is not limited to Spanish. For the past 3 weeks, I've spent a lot of time with Ana, the French girl who got decomplressed. Do you think I even mentioned to her that I speak French? Of course, not. Well, I don't really speak it, but wouldn't it be nice if I took this chance to practice?
That whole thing reminds me of when I first moved to NYC. I knew English pretty well at that time (school, university, translation work), and yet for good 2-3 months (if not more) I never ordered food in a restaurant if I was with my friends. I'd let them order. I'd never speak a word of English unless absolutely necessary. In fact, my co-workers at first thought that I was a woman of a very few words... What bitter disappointment afterwards, when my English language well finally opened up!
Today, I took my first real Spanish lesson - no joke, 2 hours 4 days a week with a real Mexican teacher. The first session was to evaluate my level - we spoke only Spanish, well, tried. He made me write, read, talk. And determined that I was "intermediate" - can you believe that? Intermediate and I don't even speak!!! I'm so mad at myself! But this time I'm determined to fight this issue once and for all, and I swear that by the end of March I'll be able to carry a normal conversation with a Mexican friend, and not only a taxi driver or a waiter. Wish me luck!
My homework is to answer the question "Quien eres tu?" - "Who are you?" A loaded one, but fortunately my Spanish is very limited to turn it into a philosophical discussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment