Learning languages
I started Spanish classes sometime early 2007. The classes used to be 6 hours a week and each level was around 70/80 hours. I then did two levels more, so by the end of 2007 I had about 200 hours of classroom Spanish study. I then took a long break (to travel New Zealand) and in the middle of 2008 I decided I want to pick up my Spanish education where I’d left it.
However, I knew by then that though classroom studying gave me a basic idea of how the language was structured and how the grammar worked, it got me nowhere close to actually speaking the language nor understand spoken Spanish. So even though I joined intermediate classes in Spanish back in Bangalore, I started looking online for more effective ways (at least for me) to learn Spanish.
The language learning blogosphere has it’s own little niche with *plenty* of advice for language learners. Most recommend immersion (being surrounded by the language) as the best way to learn a language. Now, the chances of finding a Spanish immersion environment in Bangalore are probably worse than finding a bar in Bangalore which does not play rock music.
So until I found a way to buy my tickets to South America I needed to create an immersion environment for myself here in Bangalore. By then, I’d found Coffee Break Spanish and Arvind had got me the Michel Thomas series and I’d figured out that I learn best when I listen to Spanish being taught or just generally spoken. That was around the time I had a total commute time of 3 hours to work. That proved to be a blessing in disguise. I used to listen to Spanish podcasts during the commute and then as my classes taught me more grammar I moved on to podcasts intended for Spanish *native* speakers (like Hablemos de Cine an excellent podcast by a Mexican and Peruvian about Cinema).
Flashforward to October 2009, I had a job in Lima working for an e-business company and I could finally move to a जीता, जागता (living, breathing) Spanish immersion environment. I won’t deny that the first couple of months were tough, Peruvians talk really fast and Lima has it’s own slang – vocabulary that I’d never heard before. I had no choice but to speak Spanish at my workplace and I also had in mind the dire warnings in a blog I used to read about the perils of hanging out only with English speaking expats and not using Spanish enough and staying an armchair spanish learner for the rest of your life.
Also, it helped a lot that I was in love with South American culture and that Peruvians are really patient and friendly and not snooty at all. By the end of my year in Lima I was quite happy with the way I spoke and understood the language.
I am back in Bangalore now and apart from missing Peru, I also miss speaking regularly in Spanish. I do interpretation for visiting Spanish speaking businesses sometimes but it’s just not the same. I miss my friends, the endless talks over chela (slang for beer) and the fiestas and even the kombis of Lima.
To keep in touch with Spanish and through it, to keep in touch with the culture I left behind, I still read, listen and teach Spanish. A side effect of this has been a general interest in learning new languages, I do French-Spanish intercambio (exchange) with a friend I met through my student and I’m always on the lookout to do a Portuguese intercambio.
For me, learning a new language has been like broadening my senses to a new world and to a new way of thinking. To quote AJATT (another favorite language blog) you don’t learn a language, you get used to it. And the pleasure I get being able to have a conversation with my Spanish speaking friends in their language is worth all the work I’ve put into learning it.
