native tongues

For the longest time the only thing I knew how to say in Spanish was "la primera palabra est 'duuude'". All thanks to a catchy ad on MTV for a long-forgotten season of Road Rules. Sure, I knew a few words here and there, most of them situated on the Chipotle menu board, but for the major part I was as clueless to the hispanic language as conquistadors were to nice manners. Going to a good friend's wedding in Spain last summer (his wife is from there) I realized two things:

- Spaniards spoke much better English than I though they would

- I spoke 2 languages, none of which I had learned in the scholastic sense

Those two facts might present a mixed case for taking up Spanish, but I chose to view them as the expression of my over-reliance on comfort, which is something I often struggle with. So, this past January I started taking classes at Rice University, at a 3hr/week clip. After 6 months I can safely say this has been a success so far. I won't be fluent anytime soon, but I could foresee being on a conversational level by the end of the year, which was really the goal all along (btw, goals are much easier if you define them after the fact). We've just entered the phase where I just can't wing it and show up without having practiced/read the book, which means the actual work starts now, but I'm confident about the little I know to not feel lost when I have to write more than 1 sentence. And of course knowing French makes a universe of a difference, as they have tons in common. Oftentimes if I don't know a word I can just "hispanicize" the French one and it will work a good 72% of the time.

And this is just the start.

If I manage to get through the year in decent shape I am thinking of stopping Spanish classes and trying another language next year. Possibly one that doesnt have common roots with "latin languages", which would've sounded daunting 6 months ago, but which surprisingly is fairly appealing now. I'm still years away from being able to declare I speak more than 2 languages, but at least I'm trying. And now I know that "barbacoa" isn't just a type of meat you can get in your Chipotle taco, but also means barbecue. Increible.