Language

During the recent trip to the north of Spain and Portugal I could not stop thinking about how we all communicated and how we were perceived by others around us. I remember back on the first day when I arrived in Málaga and how it was such a struggle to talk with my host mother. Over time we all have grown in our abilities to communicate with the others around us. We have all had our share of communication errors, some worse than others, such as the confusion of words or the continued problems of conjugation, but over time we have been able to overcome these obstacles. Some arrived with a well entrenched knowledge of the Spanish language and continue to build upon it. Those who were not at such a high level had to acclimate quickly as some continue to do so today. For example, the four new students who arrived this semester have to keep up with a group of students whom have already been constantly speaking Spanish for a semester. With this in mind, I have many questions that revolve around the debate of language comprehension. For example, do women learn quicker than men? Do children actually pick up languages faster than adults or does it take the same amount of time just over their earlier years? Or one of the most interesting debates I have heard is that “there are people who just have the knack to learn languages and there are those who don’t”.
We all have the similar fears and desires when it comes to language comprehension. “All I want to do is be able to speak and understand those speaking” which I myself have said and heard other mutter as well. We are able to use the Spanish we know now to understand class discussions and tours with Manolo, but what about on the street? How many times have you been in a position where someone asked a question and your response was to stare back at them and say; “Qué?” For some it’s an unnerving experience, while others will be able to salvage the situation and figure out what was said. The learning environment on the street is a much quicker and sometimes harrowing experience for those not accustomed to it. For those around us the game is different. Many of the thousands of students we see in the street all want to learn English. When we go to a restaurant and order, we constantly find that the waiter will reply in English. The Spaniards around us love to talk, but you get the feeling that they also love to talk at a certain “word per second” ratio. Also, the fact that Málaga is a tourist hub for many English speakers and for groups of students that stay for maximum one semester makes it all the more difficult for people to take us seriously in our desire to only speak Spanish. But for us the comprehension of Spanish will continue to be a road that we have to construct on our own. No one can build it for us.