The Natural Way

Learn Spanish the natural way, just like you learned your mother tongue! Spanish fast and easy! No pains Spanish! Learn Spanish like children do! Does it all sound familiar? It should, if you have been looking around for a Spanish course. The question is, is it too good to be true? If I’m to judge on my own experience, as language learner and teacher, then the answer is: probably.

Have you ever heard of an athlete who accomplished a medal the “easy” way, or a musician who mastered her instrument with only a few lessons? Neither have I. Both the athlete and the musician have made a commitment to their disciplines; they have had bad days, plateaus and years of study. To learn a second language is not that different from learning a sport or an art. It takes time and effort. Which is not to say that it has to be drudgery. Think of Michel Angelo in the Sixtine Chapel: he must have worked very hard -and enjoy every minute of it!

Let’s look now at children. Recently I saw an advert from a renowned language company, stating that as a child, your Dad threw you a ball, said the name of the ball, you made the connection, and -voila!- you learned how to say ball. Whoever wrote the copy for such ad it’s certainly not a mother, carer or any adult in contact with children. You have to repeat the name of things to children continuously until they get it right, just as you gently constantly correct their grammar. Children undergo 16+ years of training at school to be able to talk like a moderately educated adult. So to learn a language like a child does, would take you almost two decades.

It is true that children learn foreign language very fast, especially if they are in total submersion situation. But they learn to talk like children. And they learn, among other things, by going to a school, for five to seven hours, two of which are usually devoted to the learning of grammar and usage of the second language. To say that children learn languages the easy way is an insult to all the intellectual work behind such learning.

So how should you learn Spanish? You should learn it with passion and commitment. You should be in contact with the language and the culture as much as possible. Stop considering grammar an insurmountable obstacle. See it instead as a Da Vinci code of sorts, which once deciphered, will open new ways for you to master your new language. Give time to your learning. You would not expect to gain any muscle if you only worked out one hour per week.  Why would it be any different with you Spanish learning?

The natural way of learning is one that includes time, practise, review, study, use, mistakes, corrections, curiosity and joy; one which integrates grammar, communication, high and popular culture and usage. We are learning all the time, in many diverse manners. Add a hobby in Spanish, such as cooking or drawing as part of your learning. Find a pen-pal or a speaking buddy. Read stories, even if you have to start with children tales, to gain vocabulary and see grammar in context. Learn songs, translate them and sing them. Post notes around your home with the name of objects and a few descriptive words. Make Spanish part of your everyday life. And enjoy learning.

Who's Afraid of Talking to the Loclas?

One of the things learners soon face in their journey to a new language is stage fright. They may understand what they are hearing, and in their mind they know exactly what they should say, but the fear of not being able to pronounce the words correctly, or express themselves properly or just sound a bit silly can turn the learner into a virtual mute. I used to be the one of latter one. When we first move to the USA, I knew a few English phrases, such as “My name is...”, “I’m fine, thank you” and “My pencil is yellow”.  My English teacher had been a lovely British lady, and, being these the dark days before cable and satellite TV, she had been my only reference to the English language.  So you may imagine my shock when I encountered the sing-a-long accent of the American south. If these people were speaking English, then I must have accidentally learned Chinese in school, because I could not understand a word they were saying. And it was in such circumstances that I started Middle School, after 6 years sheltered under the protective wings of a nun-run primary institution.

 So there I was, in a gigantic new school, in the middle of a sea of children who mysteriously disappeared when the bell rang.  A teacher came to me, babbling something which I understood to mean “why are you not in your classroom” and to which I answered with a blank stare. He took me to the principal’s (head teacher’s) office and after a few minutes of them asking my name and where I was from and me not answering, afraid I would get my words mixed-up, they send for someone, who I hoped, would be the Spanish teacher.  Instead, a Hindu girl entered the room and started to talk to me non-stop, and whatever she was speaking, Spanish it was not. Then it hit me.

Although I think I look pretty much Latina, the truth is that people all over keep mistaking me for someone from India. As the girl kept on talking, I realized that unless I clarify where I was from, nobody would be able to truly help me. So after a month of selective mutism, I opened my mouth and muttered: “me speak Spanish; me from Venezuela.” And surprise, surprise: nobody laugh at me. No one corrected me or frown-upon my poor grammar. The people in the room sighed relieved, called the Spanish teacher and sent me to my classroom. That day I introduced myself, asked for apple pie at lunch time, became part of a study group and met the girl who would be my best friend for years.  During that whole year, while I learned English painfully (no ESL classes, just total immersion learning) not at a soul mocked my accent, refuse to repeat when I said that I didn’t understand or made me feel stupid because of my Tarzan-like fluency. And in my experience, that still true for most language students.

Most native-speakers you will encounter will be happy to lend you a helping hand with your second- language acquisition. Some may be more humorous than others, and there will the occasional language Scrooge. But all on all, natives are pleased when foreigners do the effort to learn their language and most of them will show you patience and give you suggestions on your pronunciation and usage of the language. I have yet to meet the first person who thinks that a language learner is “stupid” or “silly” just because they are not proficient in their second language. If anything, most natives feel admiration for a person (especially and adult) that takes the time and trouble to start something new. So don’t be afraid to make mistakes in front of other people. Your tutor or teacher is there to guide you; your classmates are walking your same path; the locals appreciate your efforts in more ways that you can imagine. Every time you use your second language, no matter how roughly or imperfectly, you are telling them that you care: about their culture, the nation and their community. And that can only generate good-will and pave the way to true friendships.

The Journey

"When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you."

(Ithaca, by Constantine P Cavafy)

When you start your journey to a new language, enjoy the process as much as the result. A new language is a magic route, a yellow brick road to worlds you thought you knew but that hold many a surprise for you. As with any journey worth of that name (not a trip, not a holiday and certainly not "a break") there will be stumbles and falls, sore knees, mysterious clues, unfriendly guides, steep mountains, sour lakes, moments, days, even months when you will wonder, quietly first, out loud later, if the whole darn thing is truly worth it. And I will tell you right now, before we go any further, that the answer is yes. Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes!

Later on we will talk about techniques and tips; about mental maps and the use of repetition. We will discuss the value -or not- of learning Peninsular Spanish or Latin American Spanish and whatever English-speakers have to bother with the whole thing in a global world where theirs is the lingua franca of the hour. But not today.

Today I will tell you a secret, which, for some odd reason isn't advertised in the countless language books that heave shelves across the world; a secret I experienced firsthand, and found uncovered in a chick flick, too full of sexual language to really recommend it to any student younger that 27. The book, called "Scruples" by Judith Krantz, tells the story of Billy, an overweight,awkward girl who blooms into beauty and life in Paris, and finds her true self not in the language of Shakespeare, but in the newly acquired language of Racine. To paraphrase Billy, in French she was never the fat girl, the pariah, the orphan, the poor relative everybody wondered what to do with.

You are not quite the same person when you communicate in another language; your tone of voice changes (mine becomes very soft when I speak in English); your speed, your inflection, your train of thought. Once you master a second (or third) language you make connections you would have never imagined before; your opinions are influenced not by one, but two cultures and world-views; you find logic in things that seemed silly before; you become more aware of your origins, of what you considered to be the natural response to a given situation. As you fall in love with a language and, inevitably, with the people who developed it, your mind opens to a myriad of possibilities. There is usually less judgement and more understanding. Like Billy, you have the opportunity to leave behind traits you have already outgrown and explore your full potential.

When you make new friends and relationships in your new language, you don't have the weight of the past over your shoulders. You can dare to develop some personality traits without having to explain why are you behaving this or that way. Nobody will ask why are you are less shy or more refrained or more communicative or more thoughtful. A new language provides, among other things, a rebirth of sorts. A reinvention. A second chance.

So start your journey into the unknown. Follow the siren song, unafraid. You may struggle a little or a lot, but you will not drown. Remember: our mistakes are teachers in disguise. Embrace them and learn.