As many of you know, I’ve studied Spanish as a second language for at least 20 years. When I changed careers and stopped teaching Spanish, I didn’t practice as much, except in conversations with one or two Hispanic friends, especially Julio, may he rest in peace.
But a few years ago, I increased the intensity of my practice. I dedicated myself again to improving my fluency, but since it’s not my job, I’ve had to find creative ways to integrate it into my life. To practice “immersion” without actually being immersed. My strategies include:
They have helped me a lot and allowed me to reconnect with old Spanish-speaking friends and some new ones, a topic I plan to write about another time.
Something I’ve discovered in language learning, whether Spanish or any other language, is that it’s necessary to put into practice what Jesus says in the Gospel: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
When you start learning Spanish, that’s what it’s like. You’re like a child who can’t speak and has to learn everything from scratch — the alphabet, pronunciation, the simplest words. And even when you’ve progressed further, like me, you discover there’s still a lot you don’t know. Sometimes when I’m among Spanish speakers, I feel like a child, babbling and searching for the words to express what I want to say.
For this reason, some people don’t even start learning a second language. When I was a Spanish teacher, some students didn’t dare to enter into this mode of being like a child. They avoided participating in classes, not because they lacked initiative or talent, but because they felt ridiculous when they spoke Spanish. Because they realized they were completely out of their element. But you have to embrace that feeling of being out of place to learn another language. It’s an essential part of learning, and not just with languages.
Anyway, I still don’t think I’m progressing as much as I should. My biggest problem is a lack of vocabulary, as if there’s a gap in my Spanish lexicon that I need to fill before I reach a native level. I read and watch a lot of things, I talk to others, but I always end up looking up words in the dictionary or very basic phrases I want to say but can’t remember how — like “traffic light” (semáforo) “farmer” (granjero), or “to blow one’s nose” (sonarse la nariz) to give a few examples from my saved history on WordReference.com.
Well, my conclusion is that my daily practice is too passive. Watching a movie or reading something is fine, but if I don’t then put it into practice, I forget what I’ve learned. I’m thinking of using the following strategies to learn more actively:
We’ll see. I don’t know if I’ll have the discipline, but they seem like good ideas nonetheless.