My Spanish Learning Journey

I took Spanish for 2 years in high school. The first year, I really enjoyed it. I had a wonderful teacher, which helped a lot. The second year, I had a teacher that was not so wonderful, and then she ended up taking leave for half the year due to a medical situation. Our substitute was mediocre at best. I was also very caught up in all things high school related, so even though I enjoyed Spanish, I guess I didn't have the capacity at the time to really fall in love with it. Years later after I graduated college and had my first "big girl" job as a WIC nutritionist, I fell in love with Spanish. I had a patient that spoke Spanish, so I needed an interpreter. One of my coworkers was Hispanic, and certified to provide interpretation services for us as needed. As soon as she began the interpretation process, it ignited something inside of me, as silly as that sounds. I was in awe of how easily my coworker was able to go back and forth between myself and the patient, and how cool it was to witness. I loved the sound of the language, and the vibe of the culture as we discussed foods that the family would eat. That afternoon, I looked into how to learn Spanish.

I had heard about Duolingo, so I started to navigate through it. However, I noticed that some of the sentences it was teaching did not sound correct. I realized that I was remembering some of the Spanish grammar that I had learned in high school. I looked up the tense that I thought Duolingo might be teaching incorrectly, and it turns out I was right. I decided to look into other Spanish learning options that require some money, but at least they would be accurate! I found one that unfortunately recently shut down operations. It was called Fluencia. It was just $15 a month, and it was amazing! It thoroughly taught all of the basic and intermediate grammar and vocabulary. I was so excited! I worked through this program every single day without fail, because I truly loved learning Spanish. But when I got to the end of the program, I wasn't sure what I was expecting to happen. Looking back, I think I had it in my head that once I finished the program, I would be super fluent and could possibly become an interpreter right away? I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking, but I do know that I became disappointed that I wasn't 100% fluent, even though I was pretty advanced. Without the support of the program anymore, I didn't know where to turn next in order to keep improving my level of Spanish. So what did I do? I started the program all over again, for funsies.

After completing the program yet again, I realized that learning a language is a life-long journey. I'm never going to be able to know every single English word, so how could I expect myself to learn and memorize every single word in Spanish? That's not the definition of fluency. Being fluent involves the ability to carry conversations with little difficulty. Now this I was not able to do. I realized that although I was a pro at the grammar, knew a ton of vocabulary, and passed the program with flying colors, I still was not fluent because I never really practiced Spanish in real life. I was able to speak to some Spanish-speaking patients, but this exposure was limited.

I started to advance my Spanish skills on my own through other methods. I watched Spanish-speaking shows, followed a Spanish-speaking podcast that I still listen to today, and I tried some other more advanced Spanish learning programs. These were all very helpful, but I still did not gain much experience in regards to actually speaking Spanish in real life.

I realized there was something holding me back. Well, a couple of things. First, I didn't really have anyone to speak Spanish with. Second, I was nervous and embarrassed (which I have realized has held me back from many things in life, not just Spanish). I decided to volunteer to teach ESL (English as a Second Language) and I also volunteered at a free medical clinic providing Spanish interpreting services as needed. At the time I was not employed; my husband and I had recently moved back from North Carolina, where we had lived for a few years (this was where I had the WIC position). The volunteer opportunities helped me build my confidence a lot, and the experience was really fun. However, I did not make any money from it, and obviously needed to make money in order to survive. I also was pregnant with my son at the time, so unfortunately I had to stop doing both of these volunteer opportunities so that I could work. I continued studying Spanish on my own, but the rate that I advanced definitely slowed down with all my other responsibilities.