Jan
4
Do you view learning as a period of life or a way of life?
For many people, learning is something that is confined to stages of one’s life. When we’re kids, it’s easy. We go to school 10 months of the year until the age of 18. Many of us go on to study at a college or university for at least another four, five or in some cases eight years. But the irony is that all this higher learning has lulled some of us into thinking that our education ends once we receive our degree.
I’ve seen this personally with people who studied Spanish in college and are now several years removed from their college experience. Because of the career path they have taken, their Spanish has sat on the shelf and gotten rusty and dusty after years of disuse. Initially many of these people did everything right – they immersed themselves in the language, sought out friends (or lovers) who were Spanish speakers, as well as lived or studied abroad. But many inevitably reach a point where they have to return to their hometown or native country where they live and work in a non-Spanish-speaking environment. With the passage of time, they unwittingly allow their Spanish to recede into the background. A saying by the American humorist Will Rogers kind of sums this up: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
So, when it comes to Spanish, do you have a strategy to advance/maintain your level? Are you doing anything intentionally on a daily basis to improve your Spanish? Of course, this may not even be a priority to you. If it isn’t, no worries. But if it is, what is your Spanish growth plan?
Here are some suggestions:
- Wake up 15 minutes earlier each day and listen to the news on Spanish-language radio or Spanish TV.
- Turn off the TV 30 minutes earlier than you’re used to and use that half-hour block of time to read something in Spanish before you go to sleep.
- Pick a time frame (at least one week but ideally one month) and place the radio under your pillow with it tuned to Spanish radio and go to sleep. (Sounds wacky but you might be surprised by how much listening comprehension your noggin absorbs. I’m not crazy about sleeping with headphones on but for some people who are iPod fanatics that might be easier.)
- Get at least one reliable conversation exchange partner (an intercambio) and commit to meeting with him or her (online or in person) at least twice a month.
- Find a Spanish conversation group in your community via MeetUp or organize one if none exists. Reach out to native Spanish speakers to join the group.
- Plan a vacation doing volunteer work in a Spanish-speaking country on a project where you will be forced to use your Spanish in a non-touristy setting.
- Draft a list of Spanish words or expressions you want to memorize and look for opportunities to “use them” throughout your day.
For this last suggestion, I recommend buying a pocket-sized notebook in which you can jot down words and phrases. That way you can look at them frequently throughout your day, whenever you’re seated or waiting for something or someone. If you’re not living in a Spanish-speaking country, you will probably have to say these words or phrases silently to yourself, in your head, just so that the people around you won’t think that you’re crazy. But don’t worry about them, you’re working on your Spanish.
In other situations, remind yourself of the Spanish words for objects or experiences you’re seeing or having throughout the day. For example, if you see a couple hugging and kissing on the street, ask yourself internally what are the Spanish nouns or verbs related to kissing and hugging. The idea is to imprint a Spanish vocabulary on top of the words you commonly use in your native language.
My own personal strategy for 2009 is to write more in Spanish. I find that writing in Spanish uncovers my weak areas. During the second-half of 2008, I shied away from writing extensively in Spanish because it doesn’t flow as naturally for me as it once did when I had to write more frequently in Spanish. But writing in Spanish is a great way for me to personally challenge myself, so it is something I plan to do more of in 2009. One possible solution for me is to enroll in a writing course where the language of instruction and the assignments will, of course, be in Spanish. I thought about doing this before in the past but my schedule didn’t allow it. It’s time to look into this again and find a class that fits my schedule or commit to designing my own personal writing seminar and doing it on my own.
Need more inspiration? Read Dutch blogger Ramses Oudt’s 2009 Spanish strategy and follow British blogger Alan Malarkey as he puts his Spanish to use during his current trip to Peru.
I’ll close this post with another saying I heard recently: “Don’t build a house where you should have a tent.” In other words, keep growing, keep learning.
What’s going to be your Spanish-learning growth strategy in 2009? Share the highlights with us below in the comments section.
Photo: “Enjoying the sun,” used under license from iStockPhoto.com
Great list Eleena! A nice thing to do is just talking to yourself in Spanish. I’m used to talk to myself (how weird this may be) to make things clear for myself. In the past I did it in Dutch and English, now I just do it in Spanish
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About to volunteer in a Spanish-speaking country: great! I just decided to do exactly that instead of working in Benidorm for the summer. I mean, Benidorm in the summer will leave me with some nice cash (that I’ll probably spend right away going out with my Spanish friends, hehe) but it’s filled with guiris. Instead, I’m going to Albacete now
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Great post Eleena!
I would just add two additional ways people can practice…
1) During boring meetings at work, I try to translate whatever it is that people are blabbering about. It’s hard to do and I’m not good at it, but it’s a great way to learn something instead of wasting time!
2) People who are looking for conversation practice, can check out our Online Spanish Conversation Club at
http://spanishconversation.wikispaces.com/
Happy New Year! Keep up the great work!
I’ve tried the sleep with the radio thing. Well it was more of a I accidently slept with the television on Univision. But either way it helps a lot!!
Yo también quisiera felicitarte por otro artículo bien escrito. Una de las cosas que voy a hacer este año es buscar más oportunidades en mi comunidad de asociarme con latinos. Además, voy a leer más artículos de periódicos hispanos. Lo que sí me gustaría hacer es volver a América Latina pero ahí veremos lo que pasa.
Thanks for the positivity, guys!
@Ramses…Welcome back! Those 2 weeks flew by, didn’t they?
@Dave…Happy 2009 to you too! Good to see you here. Glad to hear that the Spanish conversation group is still going strong.
@Kyler, yes, that’s how I initially came up with that tip…from falling asleep while either the radio or the TV was on. There’s a radio show in Madrid that I used to like to listen to but I couldn’t stay awake for the entire program because it started at 1:30 a.m. weekdays.
@Ryan: Espero que logres tus metas. Yo también quiero viajar a América Latina este año, a lo mejor este verano.
As Ramses does, I talk to myself in Spanish haha and yes I’ve been caught before looking crazy but I truly think it helps. But I wanted to say great article! I love all the tips and I plan to employ a lot of them (the radio thing I really want to do, I’m weird, I like stuff like that anyway). I’m still deep in the learning stages, always I am building my vocabulary. I do this by reading magazines daily in Spanish and what I do is read until I have circled 10 words I don’t know or am unsure about and look them up. The plan is:10 words a day, 70 words a week, 280 words a month, 3360 words a year! Of course I have to review, reread, put forth effort to use them, etc. etc. We both know you can’t look them up a be done with it
But yeah great blog always!
That was a very interesting post, Eleena!
It certainly gives me some food for thought … I started learning Spanish about a month ago, from a “zero level” and no external pressure – “for fun”. I was pushing ahead very hard, but now reached a plateau – as expected . I know about 1000 or more words and can read the newspapers and simple texts without dictionary. My grammar is still rather weak and I feel that writing would be great for me at this stage. I use quite a few of the strategies you mentioned – hand-written flashcards, notes and lessons on my Palm, occasional TV fragments, intermediate level podcasts every day, some poetry and pop music,. What works nicely for me is listening/watching familiar TV shows in Spanish, following with an English transcripts (I am into FRIENDS right now). BTW, I like this blog!
Eugene,
Hitting a plateau, or what feels like a plateau, will happen frequently, especially if you’re flying solo (i.e. studying Spanish on your own). I think the key is to be patient with yourself and to look for new ways to stretch your abilities in the language, which it sounds like you’re doing. In fact, it sounds like you’ve made rapid progress in a very short time since you’re already watching Ross and Rachel bickering in Spanish!
Thanks for commenting!
Eleena,
Thank you for the comment! “Flying solo” – that sounds cool! (I am not a native English speaker
). To play further with the metaphor: when I am flying over “Spanish”, I recognize some of the “views” of the terrain, as they are similar to “English”, “French” etc (which I have been flying over before). I am trying to grasp now what is really very different in Spanish as compared to other languages I am familiar with. It seems, for example, that while verb conjugation is as convoluted as in French 
, it is actually used a lot in conversations, unlike French. I am trying to define other singularities … it IS fun.
I was able to find “House, MD” with Spanish subs: sometimes I watch the episode in English first, then switch off the sound and follow with the subs only. In truth, the next step should be a good, long novel in Spanish … may be a thriller. Not “Don Quixote” though.