When I left the UK to work in a Mexican school located off the tourist route, I naively assumed that I would be fluent in 6 months. Armed to the teeth with books, dictionaries, verb lists, audio tracks, apps and a whole list of internet sites, I was more than prepared for the challenge. I have wanted to learn a language for a long time; listening to my European friends skit from one language to another was so impressive. Even trying to imagine talking fluently in one language whilst simultaneously thinking about what you were saying in another hurt my head. I still remember sitting my German Speaking exam in year 11; Mr Bates asking me a whole load of questions that I couldn’t understand in the slightest, and created my own Englisn* responses. I can’t fully blame the English education system; yes, we only had two hours a week, but I simply was not interested in the subject as a teenager (or anything else without boobs or a melody for that matter.)

Working in Oaxaca taught me more about the English language than the Spanish. I had to relearn all my verb tenses and grammar vocabulary again. You begin to notice all the crazy ways we pronounce words; without any accents for the poor buggers learning our tongue. At least Spanish has accents to show stress, and pretty much the same pronunciation for each letter, regardless of what comes before or after – let me present this present as an example! Crazy English.

Even now, a good 14 months after setting off, I am a complete beginner. I can say most of the niceties, and understand maybe one or two words in each replied sentence, but the verbs are killing me. We have four words key to learning a verb in English (speak, spoke, spoken, speaking) whereas Spanish has about 37 different endings depending on whom you are speaking to and whether it is future, past or present. I’m also having trouble listening to responses. By now, I have repeated certain sentences that often that they sound like I have a good grasp of the language to a listener, but as soon as they respond, I’m left in a sweaty state of confusion. Trying to break down each word in a sentence, rather than just hearing one long noise without any gaps, is proving troublesome. There are only so many times you can ask ‘puede repetir mas despacio por favor.’ until you take the gamble of the answer ‘si’ or ‘no’!

I will stick at this Spanish malarkey as I know how rewarding it will be to be able to actually hold a conversation with the local people I meet, and not just be able to greet them, ask how they are, then leave. Also, I have always wanted to be able to say something rude to the brother and parents and for them not to understand! Just you wait padres!! 😉

Big love!x

(* not a typo* – 6/7th English, 1/7th German!)