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 of course, so even though I enjoyed Spanish, I guess I didn't have the capacity at the time to really fall in love with it. Or, maybe as I got older, I became more and more interested in languages and other cultures. Or a combination of both! Years later, after I graduated college and got 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 was 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 on my own.

I had heard about Duolingo, so I started to navigate through it to start learning Spanish. 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 investing 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. I wasn't sure what I was expecting to happen when I got to the end of the program. Looking back, I think I had it in my head that once I finished the program, I would be super fluent and could immediately become an interpreter? 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. I also think a part of me thought that somehow it would magically get me further the second time around...or deep down I knew it wouldn't but I just wasn't sure what else to do. Again - I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I "resolved" my problem by just redoing the entire program.

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 within one program? 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. What I failed to realize is that the main thing that would help my fluency was practicing more in real life with Spanish-speaking people. I was able to speak to some Hispanic patients (especially if they knew English and we were able to speak "Spanglish"), but this exposure was limited.

I started to advance my Spanish skills on my own through other methods - but they still were not the method of actually practicing in real life on a regular basis. I watched Spanish-speaking shows, followed a Spanish-speaking podcast that I still listen to today (shout out to Spanish Obsessed!), and I tried some other advanced Spanish learning programs. These were all very helpful towards improving my level of Spanish in other areas, but I still did not gain much experience in regards to actually speaking Spanish in real life.

I think I did know that more practice in real life is what would actually propel me to the next level of fluency, but I was nervous and embarrassed (which I have realized has held me back from many things in life, not just Spanish). I decided to face my fears/nerves and volunteer to teach ESL (English as a Second Language) to adults at a nearby elementary school. This actually involved me using a lot of Spanish in order to help bridge the language gap at times when the students were trying to learn English but couldn't understand what I was saying (since I was speaking in English). This also turned into a few of the students asking me to tutor them once a week, which was so much fun! I was able to practice a lot of Spanish during the tutoring sessions as well. 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 that ended up sparking my Spanish obsession). The volunteer opportunities helped me build my confidence a lot, and the experience was so much 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. 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 the addition of all my other responsibilities and the elimination of the exposure to Spanish in real life.

I obtained a job in the social work field, and eventually received a promotion and became a manager of multiple programs (I spoke about this a bit in my "Free Your Spirit" blog post). Neither of these positions involved me speaking Spanish; very rarely did I get the opportunity to use my skills on the job. During this period of time, COVID hit the world, and my husband and I were living with his parents while we saved money for a house. We purchased a home (searching for a home was absolutely awful during COVID!) and then became pregnant with our daughter. This was all a very stressful, exciting, and tough time. In the midst of all of this, Spanish was put on the back-burner, which I feel is understandable!

The stress of managing millions of dollars in COVID relief funds to prevent homelessness, and help those who were homeless, drove me to a mental breakdown. I was also stressed from having a toddler and an infant. I eventually left this job in search of another one that was better for my mental health. I decided to be brave and look for jobs that required me to speak Spanish. Why not? It was a passion of mine, and I had become really good at it, even though I had not been able to practice it very much in the real world. I applied for a position as a bilingual health coach. I was SO nervous that they were going to ask me interview questions in Spanish, but they didn't. Luckily, they kind of just trusted that I did actually know Spanish! I got the job. This job was pivotal in improving my Spanish-speaking abilities. It was quite difficult, especially in the beginning, but as I gained more exposure and got more practice, I gained more confidence and skill. The most challenging, at least for me, were the male patients that had deep, quiet voices, and spoke very fast. This is especially hard over the phone when the connection is not always top tier quality! I worked at this company for a year and a half. Unfortunately, they made poor financial decisions and laid off all of their employees and closed down business operations. After treating the dedicated employees poorly, making us work way too hard, and then blaming us for why they were not able to sustain themselves. Yeah, that was a fun time.

After this, I decided to continue searching for Spanish-speaking positions. I found a job opening for a Spanish teacher at a private school nearby. I was so excited, even though I did not go to school to become a teacher. Therefore, I had to take an alternative path to becoming a certified teacher, which involved taking a verbal and written Spanish fluency test. This was the first time I was actually getting graded on my Spanish by an official organization (aside from high school). The exams were a little expensive (about $250 each), and I was so nervous! I ended up receiving advanced scores on both. I was so proud of myself, and realized that all of the real life practice paid off, and that I actually became fluent in Spanish. Unfortunately, I did not receive the position as a Spanish teacher, which I do ultimately understand, since I was not even a certified teacher yet. I could have still been qualified to teach Spanish, as long as I was completing the alternative teaching pathway, but I'm sure they went with another candidate who was already a certified Spanish teacher. They didn't even reach out to let me know that they went with someone else, which was the case with almost all the other jobs I applied for - they just ghosted me. It was extremely frustrating and discouraging to spend countless hours applying for jobs and not receiving a response. Several other people who were searching for jobs expressed that they were having the same problems, so that made me feel a bit better that at least it wasn't just me. Even though the Spanish teaching position did not work out, I had proven to myself through those 2 official exams that I taught myself Spanish to the point of being considered advanced in the language.

I ended up having to take an entry-level non-bilingual position that did not pay well and was something I did not want to do I worked there for about 4 and a half months, and it was miserable. I practiced Spanish every single day, early in the morning before anyone else was awake, during my breaks and lunches at work, and on my commute. I only had the opportunity to use Spanish twice at the job, but I continued to keep it a priority in my free time now that the kids were more independent and I had more energy/time for myself.

During the few months that I was employed at the entry-level position, I was looking for another job. I found one that was for a bilingual care navigator at a healthcare company. I was so excited and immediately applied. After a few rounds of interviews, I received their offer. I was so relieved and excited to be able to use Spanish again, and in the field of nutrition, which is what I originally went to school for! I'm really looking forward to starting this new job in a couple of days.

Overall, learning a language as an adult is a slow, gradual process that requires 3 main ingredients: passion, patience, and perseverance.

If you are not passionate about learning a language, you will most likely give up when you complete the easy/basic stages and enter the more difficult stages. Looking back, I can count so many times where I would have absolutely given up if I were not so genuinely interested in learning Spanish. For example, there is a verb tense in Spanish that does not exist in English. Learning it was quite difficult, and it still trips me up at times. I specifically remember struggling hard with this tense while first learning it, and not once did I want to give up. I never lost patience with myself nor the process. I just wanted more of it. It was like a challenging level of a video game that I was super motivated to beat. Learning a language is not an overnight achievement. It takes a ton of focus, effort, and time. There are many language-learning programs out there, but completing a program does not create overall fluency. There are several components of fluency in a language - grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, speaking, listening, and actually comprehending it all at regular speed in a real conversation. At one point I was pretty advanced in the grammar, vocabulary, reading, and writing areas, but still very much a beginner when it came to speaking, listening, and comprehension (especially at quick native speeds). It is quite humbling when you know so much Spanish, but then when it comes to actually speaking it or understanding natives, you feel like you know nothing at all. I had to find ways to improve the areas that I was weak in, which meant that I needed to speak/listen to native Spanish-speakers on a regular basis. This is where my job as a bilingual health coach helped me immensely. Just like most things, being book smart in a subject does not translate to being able to successfully apply it in the real world.

If anyone needs any tips on how to learn Spanish, or any language in general, I think I'm your girl for that. I can dive deeper into my process, how I overcame obstacles, and tricks I used (and still use) to improve my overall fluency. Thanks for reading!