my Spanish journey – The Fitnessista

I share more about how I have worked on Spanish over the past few years and what has helped me the most. Spoiler: Duolingo did NADA for me.

Hello friends! how are you? I hope you have a lovely morning. Yesterday we had a water park and theme park, so I feel like we’ll be a little more reserved today.

As we are heading into the fourth week in Spain, I thought I’d be updating a little about my journey in Spain and some of the things that helped me the most. As an adult, I think it’s very important to be *beginner* in things. Challenge your brain in new ways and try out the hobbies and activities you’ve always wanted to do, even if you’re not good at first. I know that many of my friends there have goals to learn a new language, so I hope this post is helpful! I would also like to hear about the strategies that worked for you.

My Spanish Journey

A little background:

– Growing up, my mother’s family side often spoke Spanish. Because of this, I was able to understand it all the time, but never spoke it. I do where my family asks me something in Spanish and I respond in English. When people spoke Spanish around me, I knew what was going on, but didn’t contribute to the conversation.

– I took Spanish classes at elementary and junior high schools (super basics) and was adopted in Spanish at university.. I thought it was a chance to feel completely confident and fluent Spanish. I wrote essays, read novels, analyzed poetry, and may have spent 5% in my university class actually speaking university Spanish. So once again, it solidified my understanding and gave me the ability to write and read in Spanish, but I didn’t achieve my goal of speaking with confidence.

– A few years ago, I decided to start practicing again and really get the excitement of things. We love traveling. I love being able to interact with people from different places, so that has really become important to me. Some of our closest friends are Colombians and they have Spanish-speaking friends, so I wanted to contribute and feel more comfortable talking. I would also like to work with my IHP client in Spanish from the beginning of next year.

I have tried a few different things to refresh my skills and feel more confident speaking.

This is what made a huge difference. And this is absolutely nothing I did.

Learn Spanish as an adult

App:

I haven’t found an app that will help you with the real situation. I tried both Duolingo and Babbel and wasn’t impressed with both. I feel it’s a lot of matching and vocabulary, but I have little understanding of the grammatical rules. And most of the time, you don’t even remember what you were doing. Using the app a little bit did not learn anything new.

Virtual and face-to-face instruction:

This is my biggest game changer. I did a lot of research and came across it And that was my request for Spanish individual instruction. I receive personalized instruction at least once a week, but I do homework throughout the week, reading, writing, encyclopedia, speaking and listening. It took a little while, but I found a tutor who pushed me (he’s actually like hahah) but is taking me from my comfort zone to the next level. (If you want his info, please LMK and I’m happy to hand it over!)

Practice Spanish in Spain:

Last year, when we came to Spain for about two weeks, I said, “I’m going here. This is my chance!” It was a bit of a confidence booster that made me feel like I could do that. We were able to order food from the restaurant, ask questions and answer questions, and order a taxi. It was really NBD. Last year I felt surprised that locals spoke English to us and that the people in Seville spoke English. This time it feels like the opposite experience due to my resolve to speak only Spanish while we were here. I was surprised at how easy and natural it felt, and only grew up in English a few times. 😉

Also, while we were here, I had the opportunity to work with a lovely Spanish tutor twice a week!

Most of my conversations around the world are store-restaurant interactions at the store level. My deepest conversation is with a taxi driver! In Barcelona, ​​we chatted a lot. The economy, the quality of life in the US, how much it costs school and groceries… I loved it. While we are here, we are excited to continue practicing, go home and finally speak Spanish with many Spanish-speaking friends. 😉

So tell me, Friend: Are you a beginner these days?

Are you working on learning new instruments and languages? I’d like to hear it!

xoxo

Gina