At my work, a lot of the people I see speak Spanish and only
Spanish, so it’s frustrating to not be able to effectively communicate how and
what I want. It’s equally frustrating to
have an interpreter in the room and not know what the client and interpreter
are truly saying. It’s as if it’s a
secret code but you can’t decipher it or like someone is talking behind your
back but they’re actually right in front of you! It’s also really frustrating to hunt someone down
who has the time to translate for an interview.
Having to deal with all of that has made me highly motivated
to learn Spanish. I mean, I always
wanted to learn another language.
Granted, I thought it would be French because I think it’s so beautiful
and because a dream of mine was to open a boulangerie. I could bake and speak French all day and be so
happy living in Paris, mais oui.
I did end up going to Paris with my brother and spoke French
with the natives. I had just finished my
third semester of it in college. It came
in handy to get around, buy things, order food, and such. Not gonna lie, I was pretty proud of myself
for speaking French, and for that reason and many, many others, that trip is
one of my most favorite trips. I fell
for with France and speaking French. I
can’t remember much French now, but I most definitely want to go back to France
and see the countryside, at the very least.
Back to that wish of opening a boulangerie… Well, I went to one in the States and decided
I love to bake but I don’t want to get up at the crack of dawn to do it! So, that’s out.
Anyway, I unfortunately didn’t take any more language
classes in college and absolutely none in graduate school, but thank goodness I
had taken a language way back when because it is helping me now as I teach
myself Spanish. (Any hints or tips would
be appreciated!) It’s funny, though,
that French words pop into my head when I’m searching for the Spanish words. For instance, whenever I want to say yes, I
almost always blurt out “oui” instead of “si”!
The ladies at work laugh in a kind way and help me, mainly
with pronunciation. They’re really nice and
patient with me, which is necessary since I speak like a toddler, at best. I test phrases on them that I’ve translated
through an on-line dictionary (scary, I know) and have started to
memorize. It’s nice to have something in
common, something to work on together as I get to know them and them me. They all say I’ll be speaking Spanish in no
time.
Like I said, I’ve always wanted to speak another
language. I just didn’t think it would
be Spanish. I’ll try my best to learn it,
though, to be able to communicate, to not be frustrated, and to connect with
people.
No comments:
Post a Comment