Learning a Culture

Learning a language is difficult; few would disagree. The disagreements come with the answers to the question of what is the most difficult part of that process. If we start from the position I am in, a native English speaker learning Spanish, one might say that the subjunctive is most difficult because in English grammar we use it without realizing it. Others have said that it is impossible to be fluent because there are so many verbs and so many uses for some the same verbs. One of the most frustrating things I’ve encountered in my experience with learning Spanish has nothing to do with grammar. It’s laughter. That is, being in a room with Spanish speakers and understanding what is being said when all at once everyone begins to laugh and I have absolutely no idea what’s funny. These are the typical awkward situations in which I’m not sure whether to laugh pretending that I understood the joke, discretely ask for an explanation from the person nearest me, or cock my head to one side showing my obvious lack of comprehension, which is what usually ends up happening. This is frustrating, not because I’m the only one not laughing, but because I’ve reached a level of language comprehension that I can understand the words being said yet still miss the joke. Why? Based on my reflections of humor in English, I’ve decided that it is because most jokes are funny because of the context, not the words. In the 20 years I’ve spent in the United States I’ve unintentionally collected enough cultural knowledge to understand references made to famous people, important historic events, successful movies, popular foods, etc. At least one good thing has come from the many missed jokes: I’ve discovered that it takes more than vocabulary and grammar to really know a language because to be truly fluent you have to learn the culture.