Language Barrier

Today was another normal day for me in Granada. My day consists of waking up around 7:30 getting ready for school and then beginning what some may refer to a “hike” to the Center of Modern Languages for my class that starts at 9:00. Three weeks ago in RI, I would have abhorred the idea of walking 25 minutes back and forth to school and would have preferred to drive my car but I have become quite used to the walk and have actually come to enjoy it. I usually walk by myself in the morning and I find myself constantly window shopping; my route to school is in a main shopping district that is always bustling with people buying clothing, shoes, jewelry, you name it.

My class is small; there are about 10 or 11 people; most are from the U.S. although there are two students from Israel, one from Germany, and there is another international student as well. I have class for 4 hours every day and have already benefited from the explicit grammar/linguistic activities that we engage in every day. Although I have placed level 6 which is considered “advanced,” the content of our class is appropriate for any level speaker; there are so many grammar rules that I remember after I have said something incorrect and it is very frustrating but it is all part of the learning experience.

After class I usually head back to my house for a siesta with my host Mom Carmen, her husband Pepe, their daughter Mari, her husband David, and their 2 year-old son David. Although I try so hard to understand what they talk about at the dinner table it is really hard because not only do they speak rapidly, most of their words are slurred together with dropped endings (something I have noticed about most of the native speakers here in Granada) which makes my ability to understand significantly weaker. Usually I don’t speak at all while we are eating because I don’t want to contribute some random topic that has nothing to do with that they are talking about, however; today I made what I consider to be a break through! I mentioned how I would love to contribute more to their conversations but I find it quite difficult to understand them when they speak so fast. We all got some laughs from my comment and it ended on a positive note with them telling me that they will try to speak slower so I can understand them so we shall see how this goes.

The hardest thing that I have experienced since arriving in Spain is the habit of speaking English with my American friends. It is such a bad habit and it is so instinctive that I do it without thinking about where I am and why I am here; I NEED TO PRACTICE SPANISH ALL OF THE TIME! I need to discipline myself to speak only Spanish because right now I feel like I am almost stuck in the middle of two worlds and I need to constantly change gears instead of setting myself on Spanish cruise control and living completely in a Spanish –speaking environment. It is something I will be working on and trying to convince my friends to work on as well. That is all for now. Hasta luego.