my Spanish journey

Sharing more about how I’ve been working on Spanish over the past couple of years and what has helped me the most. Spoiler: Duolingo did nada for me.

Hi friends! How are you? I hope that you’re having a lovely morning. We did a waterpark and theme park yesterday, so I have a feeling today will be a little more low-key.

Now that we’re heading into our 4th week in Spain, I figured I’d do a little update on my Spanish journey and some of the things that have helped me the most. I think that as an adult, it’s so important to be a *beginner* at things; to challenge your brain in a new way and try out the hobbies and activities you’ve always wanted to do, even if you’re not good at first. I know many of my friends out there have a goal of learning a new language, so I hope this post is helpful! I’d also love to hear any strategies that have worked for you.

My Spanish journey

A little background:

– Growing up, my mom’s side of the family often spoke Spanish. Because of this, I’ve always been able to understand it, but never spoke it. I would do the thing where my family would ask me something in Spanish, and I’d respond in English. When people would speak Spanish around me, I knew what was going on, but didn’t contribute to the conversation.

– I took Spanish classes in elementary and middle school (super basic stuff) and minored in Spanish in college. I thought that it would be my chance to feel fully confident and fluent in Spanish. I wrote essays, read novels, analyzed poetry, but maybe spent 5% of the time in my college Spanish classes actually SPEAKING Spanish. So once again, it just solidified my understanding, gave me the ability to write and read in Spanish, but didn’t really get me to my goal of feeling confident speaking.

– A couple of years ago, I decided that I was going to start practicing again and really get the hang of things. We love to travel, I love to be able to interact with people in different locations, so it became really important to me. Some of our closest friends are Colombian, and they have friends who speak Spanish, so I wanted to be able to contribute and feel more comfortable with speaking. Also, I would like to start working with IHP clients in Spanish starting early next year.

I tried a few different things to refresh my skills and feel more confident speaking.

Here’s what has made an enormous difference and here’s what did absolutely nothing.

Learning Spanish as an adult

APPS:

I have not found an app that is helpful for real-world situations. I’ve tried both Duolingo and Babbel and was unimpressed with both. I feel like it’s a lot of matching and vocabulary, but little understanding behind the grammatical rules and how to use the languages in real life. Also, most of the time, you don’t even remember what you were doing. Even with using apps on an on for a bit, I didn’t learn anything new.

VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON TUTORING:

This has been the biggest gamechanger for me. I did a ton of research and came across Italki and it’s been my go-to for Spanish tutoring. I have tutoring at least once a week, but also have homework throughout the week in reading, writing, fluency, speaking, and listening. It took me a little while, but I found a tutor that pushes me (he’s actually kind of mean sometimes hahah) but is taking me OUT of my comfort zone and to the next level. (If you’d like his info, please lmk and I’d be happy to pass it along!)

PRACTICING SPANISH IN SPAIN:

Last year when we came to Spain for about two weeks, I was like, “Here we go. This is my chance!” It was a nice little confidence booster to feel like I could do it. I could order food at restaurants, ask and answer questions, order cabs, it was really NBD. Last year, I felt like locals spoke English a lot to us and was surprised by how many people in Sevilla spoke English. It feels like the opposite experience this time because of my determination to only speak Spanish while we’ve been here. I’ve been surprised by how easy and natural it feels, and have only been English-ed a couple of time. 😉

I’ve also had the opportunity to work with a lovely Spanish tutor twice a week while we’ve been here!

Most of my conversations out in the world have been surface-level: store and restaurant interactions. Buuut my deepest conversations have been with taxi drivers! In Barcelona, we chatted about a lot: the economy, quality of life in the US, how much schools and groceries cost… I loved it. I’m excited to continue practicing while we’re here and to come home and maybe finally speak Spanish with my many Spanish-speaking friends. 😉

So tell me, friends: what are you a beginner at these days?

Are you working on learning a new instrument or language? I’d love to hear about it!

xoxo

Gina