The Truth Nobody Told You about Speaking Spanish
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| "Spanish in the Community" students, using Spanish in the classroom. |
The Truth Nobody Told You about Speaking Spanish
by Justin Sandler
It has consistently interested me that so many students say
that they can understand Spanish and know a lot of vocabulary and grammar, yet
they are so afraid to speak it. Often times these types of students are even
Spanish minors and majors. I feel that
students of the Spanish language have this idea that speaking Spanish with
Hispanic people must be done without errors since they are native speakers. I
believe that this is a paralyzing approach that will prohibit many students
from learning Spanish, or any other language for that matter. In this post I hope to illustrate the
point that speaking Spanish is much more about communication than perfection.
Below I go through a couple important points to create a confidence in this new
perspective of language pursuit.
Firstly: You do not need to speak Spanish flawlessly to speak Spanish. Not only is it not
possible to speak without errors, but it is also not even necessary. Again, speaking in another language is not
about perfection but about communication.
Do not worry about using your advanced grammar, difficult words and big
beautiful ideas. It is most important
that you communicate what you wish to. Plus even our English majors here at U
of I do not always speak their own language and major perfectly, so take some
comfort in that. Perfection is not your friend, communication is.
Secondly: You do not need to understand Spanish flawlessly to speak Spanish. If you can understand
50% or more of the words and structures that a person uses, than it is very
possible you will understand the main ideas as well. Remember that it’s about communication. The context clues can be extremely useful as
well. Watch the other person’s eyes, their hands, the way they speak and the
rises and falls of their voice. From all this, and simply the context of what
is around you, there are a lot of things to cue you of the meaning needed to
understand. All of this is part of using another language, extending far past
comprehension of individual words.
Thirdly: It is extremely rare that anyone will be upset with
you for making errors while speaking with them in another language. If it is our fear that we don’t want them to
be mad at us and think we are idiots, well, they don’t. This is simply what we think they will think; not how it actually is.
I think this stems from the idea that as Americans we can be
very harsh judges of peoples English, especially those who speak it as a second
language. This is simply part of our
culture, largely because we are the most powerful country, and that business
usually is conducted in English throughout the world. However for what I have seen outside of the
US, people are so proud that we have gone out of our way to learn about their beautiful
culture and language. This is something
that really excites them, and they usually want to be part of it and help.
Think of the other person as someone who wants to make the interaction happen,
not as someone making fun of you. For everything right (or even close to right)
that you do, they get super excited to praise you. For everything wrong that you do, that
understand anyway and would love to help if you want them to. Pretty good deal
I think!
It may very well be the case that we have this same fear of
being judged because our only experience of using Spanish is in a class room,
being judged!! How ironic is that? The
one thing that is supposed to teach us to comfortable with the language, at the
same time, seems to (in a strange way) paralyze us. Of course not all Spanish
classes are like this, and these classes are very important to our development,
but remember that this is the real world I am talking about, not a college
bubble where we are taking oral exams and getting points off for saying things
wrong. They want to give you a 100%, not
take points off you. By our new logic: if you can have the strength to walk
into a Spanish class room, then you can also have the strength to communicate
with your Spanish.
Fourthly: I think a
lot of students might feel that since they have a different culture and
background on how they see the world, that there is a little bit of a
disconnect there past the simple “language barrier.” I feel this is also a dangerous idea since it
is one more thing that makes us students think, “Oh boy, there is a big gap
here, and I’m not so sure my Spanish is going to bridge it….after all…I did get
a B – on my midterm…”
Try to think of Hispanic people as people just like
you. This is not a mind trick, they
really are. All people, Americans,
Hispanics and beyond really hold true to a handful of basic things that make us
all the same. For example, they have
families, as we do. They have friends,
school, work, girlfriends, boyfriends, music, parties, clubs, bars, drinks,
foods, stress, fears, hopes and dreams, insecurities, love and… we all have
these same things! Don’t think of them
as “Hispanic people.” Instead just think of them as “people” because that’s
really a more accurate way to see anyone, especially when you want to connect
with someone else, which is the whole point of learning another language.
Right?
I know that learning a different language can be difficult,
but remember that we are all people and that our interactions in real life (not
Spanish class) are about communication, not perfection. If we can understand this idea, then we can
overcome this barrier of fear and learn to speak Spanish. Now that we have knocked down the big
barriers, it is time for you to take your Spanish to the next level. This is
the truth nobody told you about speaking Spanish. Ready: GO!
Gracias,
Justin
PS A special thanks to the Spanish classes that helped bring
us this far J
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