It’s so obvious to say, but gosh, learning a second language is hard. I study day and night, converse, read and breathe Spanish. I live in an area where no one speaks English, and still, I am only okay at best.
At times I feel silly for having believed those people who told me to anticipate something in my head eventually “clicking.” I had been told that this occurrence would be something like a moment of clarity and would symbolize the dawning of my second language awareness. Perhaps I’ve been foolish and this is really just another one of those things people say. But if it’s true I guess I’m still waiting for it to ‘click.’
What’s more is that recently I’ve hit a lull. After a few conversations with other multi-lingual speakers, I’ve come to learn what I’m experiencing is a common phenomenon. The lull is what now I know holds me back. In the beginning everything was new and I learned rapidly. Yet with time I’ve begun to fall back on what I already know because, even though my words are crude, they’re effective and get the point across.
In my last posting I briefly explored what achieving multi-lingual fluency really means. In the end I determined that fluency is far more a state of mind than it is a defined term. That being said, I know many get to a certain level in their language studies and choose not to go further. This is because at a certain point, one can express themselves and that is simply all that many desire to achieve. However, I have decided that my appetite for Spanish fluency can only be satisfied beyond the lull which I am experiencing.
To begin moving towards the next step is a very intimidating thing. There is a lot of distance between expression and in-depth articulation. I’m looking forward to what’s to come, but I’ve certainly learned the hard way that once school is out, foreign languages aren’t the sort of things one simply “picks up.”
Latest posts by curtisfox
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