I know – 22 years. I should be fluent by now and writing professionally for Spanish-language publications. And I always feel bad whenever I go to Spanish speaking countries and they all have to speak English to me. I even know someone from our visits to Madrid who uses english learning videos for kids to make sure his children know English from a young age. “Better for their futures,” he says; and I believe that. But, no — not me. I can order food and a glass of wine, so long as the server doesn’t ask me any difficult follow-up questions, and my boyfriend will tell you – because he’s so impressed, bless him – that I was able to have a basic conversation with a pharmacist in Madrid in order to figure out I had allergies and get medicine.
Honestly, I was better at Spanish in high school because it was part of my job as a student to get a good grade in AP Spanish.
My history with this language is long and, frankly, frustrating. I’ve always had enough exposure to not forget basic things like “¿Dónde está el baño?” but not enough to remember all that pluperfect subjunctive. I’m floating around somewhere in the middle of speaking enough to trick everyone into thinking I speak a lot of Spanish, but not being able to function outside of situations you’d experience as a tourist. ¿Me entiendes?
After our recent trip to Madrid, I decided it was time to learn – for real this time. So I did my research and found an abundance of options in terms of ways to learn. For example, the UKLP Language School offers flexible private lessons for a whole host of languages, including Spanish. The prices are competitive and it has clearly been designed with flexibility in mind. However, in the end, I subscribed to Babbel. Then, last week, I spent 90 minutes attempting to converse with strangers in Spanish at an event organized by Conversational DC, a group that hosts free events at local bars for people wanting to learn a language. In preparation for a week of jury duty, I bought a workbook. (Sadly, I was dismissed before I even finished chapter two.)
Why am I so set on this? Well, first, it seems like I’d be wasting a lot of knowledge I worked really hard to gain over the last two decades if I didn’t continue. Speaking a second language also opens up a lot of doors, both personally and professionally. There are 400 million native Spanish speakers in the world, making it the second most spoken language behind Chinese. (English is #3.) And then there are nine million people that speak it as a second language. Right now, the U.S. is the second-largest Spanish-speaking country after Mexico, but it may become the largest by 2050.
There are also a ton of health benefits to being bilingual. Psychology Today says being bilingual or multilingual has cognitive benefits, helps with working memory, and has even been shown to delay dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by several years.
And just think of how many countries I can visit – 20 to be exact – where I can step off the plane and be right at home, language wise.
So if you see me carrying around that workbook, taking quizzes on my phone, or shopping at the international market just so I can learn some new words and maybe practice speaking a little, you’ll know why. I haven’t yet set a goal for achieving max fluency, but let’s just say I’m working on spending the next 20 years preparing to retire to Spain. (True story.)
