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"wherever you go becomes a part of you"

Experiences with locals: when you know Spanish, but you're still not quite "fluent"

  • Angeline Barthel
  • Feb 17, 2018
  • 3 min read

I remember when I first started seriously learning Spanish my first year of college. Most of my professors were not native Spanish speakers, so I was constantly wondering how long it took for them to achieve fluency. I recall one professor answering this question in class, stating that he’s always learning. He still didn’t consider himself fluent. Back then, I thought it was clear that he was fluent, having a PhD in Spanish (how does one even get a PhD in a language?!) and to have been studying it since high school. However, now that I’ve spent about five months abroad, I understand what he was saying now.

You can spend so much time studying from a book or learning vocabulary online, but nothing is quite like talking to a native speaker. There are twenty countries in the world whose official language is Spanish. All of those countries carry their own dialects, words, accents, lingos, phrases, etc. You name it. For example, I have a fellow classmate who studied abroad in Argentina before coming to Sevilla. During a break once, we had a breakfast laid out. I was reaching for the butter, and I would call that mantequilla, the word I learned in school and here. However, he asked me if I could pass him the manteca, which is the word for butter in Argentina. Weird. I imagine it’s an interesting experience for him to learn different words for different things he already has learned.

The point is, in my experience, you will never be “fluent” in a language that you did not grow up speaking. You most likely will never know all of the words of that language. Plus, fluency is different for everyone. Personally, I struggle with listening. For me, to consider myself fluent, I want to be able to understand a fast conversation. I’m trying to do this by hanging out with more locals more often to let my ears get accustomed to the street talk in Sevilla. It’s a challenge for me because at the same time I want to get to know my American classmates, and you just want to talk in English because it’s so much easier. Other people consider fluency by not making any mistakes when speaking or nailing down the accent.

Lately, I’ve run into the “problem” – well, not quite a problem, but an issue I suppose – where I do meet locals, and they realize I’m from the United States, probably because of my accent. Then, they start to speak in English. Dude! Tío! I’m here to learn espaaaaaañoooollll. No quiero hablar en íngles. Last night, on my way home from the bars, this man asked what time it was in Spanish. I am pretty sure that is what he said, but, again, the Sevillian accent is still hard to distinguish. After I showed him the time from my phone, he gave me and my roommate a look, signifying to me that he’s thinking we don’t know Spanish that well. Anyways, I told him that I do speak Spanish in Spanish.

It’s slightly discouraging when I try to listen to someone and I can’t always understand what they’re saying because in my head I tell myself, “Yes! I can speak Spanish! Just give me a chance.” Moreover, I’m doing my research project on yoga which requires me to interview locals and I have to do it in Spanish. Just yesterday as well, I interviewed a person for the first time strictly only in Spanish. We went to a bar to record the interview. I’m not going to lie, with the noise and his low voice, I had a slightly difficult time understanding. He was from Cádiz (a city an hour away from Sevilla), so he didn’t have the Sevillian accent which helped. However, I realize it was a learning experience, and I’m happy that I’m continuing to challenge myself.

It is important to realize all of this when learning another language. It takes a lot of pressure off to not feel the need to be perfect. It’s easier said than done! Sure, you just want to be able to speak and understand the language already, but it takes lots of hard work and patience, which includes making mistakes. I’m happy with all the progress that I’ve made in three years.

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