and I love it.
I have had a super hard time learning Spanish in Monterrey. Learning another language has been one of the most humbling experiences I've gone through. Before I moved here, I always thought I'd just pick it up. Isn't that the way its suppose to work? You always here about those few special souls that hop into a foreign country for three months and then BAM..they're fluent. This hasn't been the case for me. Mostly because of my job and the number of bilingual Mexicans in Monterrey, Spanish has been a sloooooow moving process. It's crazy how many people speak English here. I'm never forced to speak Spanish, I only do it by choice.
For the first time though since I've moved here, I am starting to see my Spanish get better. I understand the sermons at church. I understand what my students talk about during lunch time. I write emails in Spanish. I read the newspaper in Spanish. Somedays I feel like I know nothing and others I feel like I am fluent. Language is a funny learning process. I've grown to love the journey so much more than the destination. Yes, someday I hope to be fluent in Español. But for right now, I just take each conversation, each Spanish class, each person I meet, each new verb, and embrace it.
Question to ponder:
Why is it that when Americans travel, they expect others to speak English to them but when other cultures come to the States, we expect them to speak English to us?
Food for thought...
Challenge yourself! Go learn another language!
4 comments:
Yay for you! Good luck and keep it up! I bet it'll really help to fit in and understand the culture when you know Spanish better.
Good question - perhaps because so many people outside the US do speak English already, so we've gotten used to the idea that they speak it wherever we're going? Now, I don't know if the second part to that is exactly correct. I don't think Americans expect people just traveling here to know English. By travel I assume you mean it as in visiting, only for a shortish period of time?
I tend to agree with Laura. When I lived in Germany, people wanted to practice their english with me, because they all HAD to learn it. In a lot of countries English is compulsory. Those who visit usually have had some exposure to english, so they try to speak it. But look at how much we post in english and spanish. A lot.
I definitely don't expect people to know English when I go abroad, but I secretly hope they do if I don't know their language... :)
Your Spanish is going to be so good, you probably won't even realize how good you are! :)
For your question: I think a lot of Americans tend to think that English is the "world" language (which to some extent, it is, as Laura and Katie have implied). Personally, when I travel to another country, I try to learn at least a few phrases in the native language and use them. Although I did get laughed at in Denmark when I tried to speak Danish, and they knew English so well that they preferred me to speak in English because they couldn't understand my Danish. LOL.
I think the thing I get so frustrated with is that whenever I try to speak Spanish, without fail, the person will speak English back to me. How in the world do they all know English so dang well? It's humbling to think that I have had such a hard time learning Spanish when English is so easy for them.
I think the stereotype for Americans down here is that you have to speak English to them. They just assume that you don't know any Spanish. This stereotype drives me crazy. I wish that Americans were seen as more open, ya know?
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