I know the pain and struggle of speaking and immersing yourself in a new language. It really does cause you to zone out and shut down sometimes! All I can say is to stick with it: I find after ~3-5 days immersed (no English!) you start dreaming in the new language, then after 2 weeks or so, you find yourself lasting much longer, speaking for much longer and not tiring as easily. Once you have the fundamentals down, it gets easier, and somewhat quickly. But that first week is indeed tough. Your struggle is real! Now imagine all of those who came to the US without studying online for three years prior....
My father said the trick is allowing your brain to process the word without translating it. We tend to slow everything down in that millisecond it takes for our brains to shift from casa to house. He was fortunate to live in Mexico, with quite a few family members that did not speak English.
When I was 19, I interned for a company in Germany. Most of the people I worked with spoke English, so that wasn't very helpful for learning. But, once I left that work environment, it was total emersion, solo—negotiating the train system, defending my position at the grocery store, wine-soaked conversations with my non-English speaking landlord.
Amazingly after three months, I could hold a conversation. Enough so, a cab driver thought I was German. One unexpected benefit was the language gave me a kind of shield, a new persona. I could say things to people in German that I would demure away in English. I finally stood up to the women weaponizing their purses to knock me back a spot at the cheese counter.
I've been learning Spanish on Duo for 1051 days, and I can't hold a conversation or think of something meaningful to say to the folks who managed the vegetables at my favorite store. A few months in Mexico off the beaten path like you do is probably all it would take to crest the hill of fluency. The switch from thinking the language to speaking is a profound transition. But fantastic when it happens. A few more weeks or hitch-hiking, and I bet you'd be fluent.
Whoa! long comment, sorry - great topic that resonates with so many people.
Excellent essay, Hank. Thank you for it. For what it's worth, I have spent about three years cumulatively in places where Spanish is the primary language, and would rank Mexico as having one of the more difficult versions to speak and follow because there are so many words and expressions unique to the country, and so many unique to individual regions of Mexico. Puerto Rican Spanish was harder to follow, but in San Juan, where I was based, most people speak English better than we gringos do (in keeping with what you say about how the rest of the world values bilingualism), and there is so much Spanglish there, so there is some "balance" in regards to difficulty. You might find parts of Central and South America to be easier on your brain, but ultimately, language involves muscle memory that requires sustained practice no matter what. I consider myself fluent, but had definitely reached a point of speaking Spanish more effortlessly years ago than I do now.
I put the car radio on the local norteno station for a year before we went to Argentina. Every errand, commute, it was just background noise until the patterns started breaking through. Nothing prepared me for that Argentine accent though…
Good people appreciate the fact you’re trying, and would step right up to answer you when you ask, Como se dice…
I know the pain and struggle of speaking and immersing yourself in a new language. It really does cause you to zone out and shut down sometimes! All I can say is to stick with it: I find after ~3-5 days immersed (no English!) you start dreaming in the new language, then after 2 weeks or so, you find yourself lasting much longer, speaking for much longer and not tiring as easily. Once you have the fundamentals down, it gets easier, and somewhat quickly. But that first week is indeed tough. Your struggle is real! Now imagine all of those who came to the US without studying online for three years prior....
My father said the trick is allowing your brain to process the word without translating it. We tend to slow everything down in that millisecond it takes for our brains to shift from casa to house. He was fortunate to live in Mexico, with quite a few family members that did not speak English.
When I was 19, I interned for a company in Germany. Most of the people I worked with spoke English, so that wasn't very helpful for learning. But, once I left that work environment, it was total emersion, solo—negotiating the train system, defending my position at the grocery store, wine-soaked conversations with my non-English speaking landlord.
Amazingly after three months, I could hold a conversation. Enough so, a cab driver thought I was German. One unexpected benefit was the language gave me a kind of shield, a new persona. I could say things to people in German that I would demure away in English. I finally stood up to the women weaponizing their purses to knock me back a spot at the cheese counter.
I've been learning Spanish on Duo for 1051 days, and I can't hold a conversation or think of something meaningful to say to the folks who managed the vegetables at my favorite store. A few months in Mexico off the beaten path like you do is probably all it would take to crest the hill of fluency. The switch from thinking the language to speaking is a profound transition. But fantastic when it happens. A few more weeks or hitch-hiking, and I bet you'd be fluent.
Whoa! long comment, sorry - great topic that resonates with so many people.
Excellent essay, Hank. Thank you for it. For what it's worth, I have spent about three years cumulatively in places where Spanish is the primary language, and would rank Mexico as having one of the more difficult versions to speak and follow because there are so many words and expressions unique to the country, and so many unique to individual regions of Mexico. Puerto Rican Spanish was harder to follow, but in San Juan, where I was based, most people speak English better than we gringos do (in keeping with what you say about how the rest of the world values bilingualism), and there is so much Spanglish there, so there is some "balance" in regards to difficulty. You might find parts of Central and South America to be easier on your brain, but ultimately, language involves muscle memory that requires sustained practice no matter what. I consider myself fluent, but had definitely reached a point of speaking Spanish more effortlessly years ago than I do now.
I put the car radio on the local norteno station for a year before we went to Argentina. Every errand, commute, it was just background noise until the patterns started breaking through. Nothing prepared me for that Argentine accent though…