Learning Spanish

When I came to live in Honduras, I hoped that my Spanish would improve. I took high school Spanish and a couple semesters at U of M, but in general my Spanish really wasn't very good. I found when I moved here that language learning was far more difficult than I anticipated it to be. I often hear people say, "Oh, I can understand [insert language here] but I can't really speak it." I don't know if I'm just really terrible at language, but that has never been the case for me at all. It was incredibly difficult for me to begin to understand what people were saying. I heard today that Hondurans speak the fastest Spanish of any Central American country, and I believe it.

In any case, I grew frustrated that I hadn't just immediately attained fluency. I live with two girls who are completely fluent, and they make me want to be able to speak Spanish so badly! But slowly, slowly, I'm beginning to feel like I have some grasp on the language. In general, I can have conversations with pretty much anyone (exception: our neighbor, Don Luis... when I can understand his Spanish I know I'll be in good shape). I am able to communicate with the parents when they come in for meetings, I know what the principal is saying to me when he talks to me, I can speak to mototaxi drivers on the phone to get them to drive us up the mountain, and I was able to talk to the internet guy about installing a router in our house.

But tonight something really fun happened for me. I was in church, and one of the people who was speaking wanted his story told in both English and Spanish, and asked if someone would be willing to translate. Neither of my bilingual friends were there, and he really wanted someone to translate his story, so I volunteered to do it for him. I figured, 'What's to lose? If it turns out that I can't understand him, I'll just apologize and sit down.' But I was totally able to translate his story to the church community! It really made me feel good, because it made me feel like I could contribute to the service and be helpful. The man was so grateful and I felt really proud of myself for translating. It's a really little thing, but for me, those tiny moments mean a great deal because I feel like language is such a struggle!

It's wonderful to have little validating moments that let me know that I'm going somewhere with my ambitions to speak Spanish properly. I feel really proud that I've accomplished something for myself during my time in Honduras... and I'm only halfway through! I can only hope that I will keep improving, and comprehension will get even easier as time passes.