¿Se Habla Español?

Soon, I hope I can answer that question with a Si, hablo Español. I am learning Spanish. Yes! I, for as long as I can remember have wanted to learn a foreign language. French would have been my first choice. I just think it feels like silk and velvet on your ears. It’s just so beautiful to listen to. But it’s impractical. At least where I live. Spanish is spoken fairly widely here- there are TV channels and radio stations, not to mention actual people who speak in Spanish everywhere I turn. So, Spanish it is.

With a job and a killer commute and a young child, taking time to go to a local college for classes would not have worked out. Plus I want to do things at my own pace. Enjoy the ride, you know. So when a friend told me of the Radio Lingua Network on iTunes has free podcasts for learning Spanish, I jumped. Not really hoping much, because, well, if it’s free, how good can it be? But I am blown away with Coffee Break Spanish. I listen to it on my uber long commute or when I jump on the treadmill. Suddenly the boring commute and the even more boring treadmill has a purpose. To enable me to learn Spanish. The lessons are 30 minute podcasts and I have covered the first 10. Several times. Listened to them for 2 weeks now. They are encouraging and enjoyable. Never thought it would be this much fun. Of course, I am at a point where I have graduated from – “Hey this is not too difficult” to “I am so damn confused.” And that is a good thing, I think.

I know three and a half languages, half because I can only speak a smattering of Kannada, not read or write it and am not terribly fluent either, but I can understand and will be able to get by in Kannada-only town. And of course I speak, read and write Hindi, Marathi and the Queen’s language. But all these languages were learnt before I was eight. I did not study their grammar while learning and it was mostly a hit-and-miss, learn as you go kinda experience. Just the way Chip is picking up Marathi and English (and a smattering of Spanish too in school) now. Which brings me to the point of how different is to learn a language in your adulthood. You are more mindful looking for patterns, you want to learn the rules and you are conscious and embarrassed to a certain extent to speak it to a native.

In the last two weeks, I have learnt something about learning a language in your adulthood. And the most important point I think I have learned is to stop translating from English or Marathi into Spanish. It just doesn’t work. At best, it is ridiculous, at worst disastrous. Take for example a very common English phrase, ‘See you later’. Try to translate that word for word in Marathi - Tula nantar baghoo, which sounds ridiculous and in Hindi – Dekhenge tumhe baad me, which is disastrous. Yesterday, I replied to a friend’s email (who is supposed to be my Spanish language buddy) with a Spanish literal translation of “see you soon’ – Veremos te pronto. I have no idea if it sounds ridiculous in Spanish especially in the context in which I said it. The correct phrase probably should have been Hasta pronto, which literally means until soon, a phrase you would not use in English at all. So, for me to get a true fluency I really need to think in Spanish. I don’t know if I will ever reach that stage. I hope to. Until then, I’ll work at those verb conjugations and tenses and idioms and listen to those podcasts every week for several hours. So, wish me ¡Bueno Suerto!