Reaching Out in Spanish

One month off the plane and I am speaking Spanish with native Colombians. My Spanish is starting to improve. At least, I am not petrified to speak out loud anymore. I guess that four years of conjugating verbs in Spanish class is finally paying off.

I speak to every Uber driver and I answer the questions posed by the grocery store clerks.

“Gracias. Pero no quiero puntos.” – “Thanks, but I don’t want the grocery store points.”

“Si, quiero un bolso.” – “Yes, I do want a bag for my items.”

I am ordering meals in restaurants and telling the waiter whether I want to pay in cash or by credit card and, “Si, quisiera una copia,” “Yes, I would like a copy of my receipt.”

Marc and I are taking classes in Spanish and we meet with conversation partners once per week.

Kathy and her teacher, Alicia

Over the years we have had many excuses to explain our slow progress in learning Spanish. We have said, “I am not good at languages,” “I am too old to learn a new language,” “My memory is poor,” “I do not have a good ear for languages” and so on.

But we persevere. Although communication in a foreign language – especially one in which I have limited competence – gives me FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY (Marc rarely has anxiety about anything). This anxiety makes me fear silly errors and the stumbling and mumbling that seems to permanently tie my tongue. I say to myself that “I will sound dim-witted”, “I am really ashamed of how poorly I know the language”, “I ought to know Spanish much better by now,” etc.

And even with all the conflicting feelings about our language skills–we went to our first language exchange in Medellin.

Language Exchange

In Medellin, Paisas (people of Medellin) have a strong desire to learn and communicate in English. There are many schools where locals learn English and foreigners learn Spanish. Social groups have organized “Meet Ups” as a way of providing locals and foreigners a location and setting to get together for conversation and information. The locals practice their English and foreigners practice their Spanish. Over time, people may even develop friendships. Exchanges are usually held at neighborhood bars, coffee shops or restaurants and they take place almost every day of the week.

Our First Meet Up

The Paisas who came on our first night were bright and curious people trying to improve their English. Marc and I were nervous about going to the language exchange because our Spanish is rudimentary and because we would probably be twice the age of the other participants. And, yes, we were the oldest people there–the two Colombians we met, were half our age. But they seemed appreciative of our help to improve their English skills. Age simply didn’t matter. What mattered is that we are native English speakers. Our Spanish competence level also didn’t matter as each of the two English learners were struggling also and understood the difficulty of learning a language.

I spoke to Julian for two hours and was so impressed with his grasp of English that I almost forgot to speak Spanish with him. He is an engineer and owner of a small company. He wants to be able to communicate in English and said that he has taught himself English from YouTube videos. He says he doesn’t watch much television in English because the characters speak too quickly for him to understand. However, after only three months of learning English he understood almost everything I said to him. Of course, I spoke a little slower than normal, enunciated and used simple words.

Marc and Andres

Marc was impressed by Andres’ desire and ability to speak English. Andres works at a fruit and vegetable market and he wants to speak English so that he can serve his foreign customers. He sees more and more foreigners coming to his store and he wants to communicate with them.

Julian asked me about my background. I answered his questions in halting Spanish. Although we had a conversation peppered with many requests for “Can you repeat that?” on my part, it made for an unforgettable evening. Sitting at a cafe with a stranger in the middle of Medellin, I was hit with the realization that I loved speaking another language, and I wanted more.

Five weeks of living in Colombia, and we are stepping out of our comfort zones daily, both linguistically and mentally. We are meeting new people and talking with locals. And being able to communicate with them on their own terms, in their own language, makes our travel experiences all the sweeter.

I hope that a few years down the road when we are completely fluent in Spanish, I can look back fondly at these tiny, seemingly insignificant moments and remember what they meant to me. It’s nice to travel to a country, but it’s a much better experience to communicate, however haltingly, in that country’s language.

Of course, we could travel the world and probably get by speaking in English, making hand gestures, pointing at pictures or relying on a translator. But we hope that our effort to say a few words in Spanish makes a difference to the people we are meeting. We want to show them that we are open-minded and willing to put ourselves out on a limb to learn, but also our communication in Spanish may make people more comfortable and more willing to share their stories and opinions.

We will return to the language exchanges and speak more with Julian, Andres and others. Although we have nothing in common with our new Colombian friends except a desire to improve our language skills, we can support each other through our halting English and Spanish.