Anybody who knows me is aware that I’ve been attempting to learn Spanish. I need two semesters for my degree, and I am now in Spanish 105, or second semester. I have come to the conclusion that for me, learning a foreign language is akin to juggling water balloons without the balloons. Some water will keep getting tossed in the air, but for the most part, it is going everywhere. My Spanish is the same way. Some of it is sticking, but for the most part, it is going everywhere but my memory. I keep trying to learn new words, correct grammar usage, correct verb conjugations, and at some point how to put a sentence together. I keep coming back to and hearing that English has the same types of problems for new learners too, and I understand the analogy, but honestly, I’ve had YEARS to perfect my English (which, is it ever really perfected?) and one semester and one week to get what a child would learn in several years of Spanish. Now, as an adult, I am capable of learning on a faster level than a child (I hope), but the balance to that is that as an adult it is not as easy for me to learn a new language. I’m not making excuses. But the conclusion I have come to is this: How one learns a new skill is not always the same way one learns other skills.
For instance: I can teach myself almost any pattern for beading, chain maille, and quilting without having to take a class. I still do take classes because sometimes it is nice to be with other like-minded folks and for expertise pointers and tips that may take more time for me to learn. Still, if pressed, I can read directions with the best of them. But how do you learn a skill when you can’t read or understand the directions? This is what my problem is with Spanish. Both semesters are taught, and have been taught, using an immersion method and while I understand why immersion is used, I have a hearing deficiency that is becoming a prominent problem for me with this class. Again, I’m not making excuses, but the fall back method of learning a language, which is listening, isn’t the best for me. In a crowded room of students, I have a hard time understanding what is being said to me, and never mind that it’s in Spanish. It’s all gibberish. So, I rely on pointing to the written word as to what the other student has hopefully said to me. This increases my reading skills, but does nothing for my oral comprehension. Still, it is not learning in the traditional manner of reading something and then applying that knowledge.
The next problem I have is that I still need a considerable amount of time to decipher and re-translate what I want to say. I still need to think in English, try to come up with an answer in the pitiful amount of Spanish I do know, and then try to speak it in such a way that I’m not telling the person I have a foot growing out of my ear. All of my stand-by methods of learning do not work. I wonder if as adults we lock ourselves into methods of learning that we can’t easily break out of until challenged with having to learn something that isn’t our norm? Is that the secret that children have in learning? Because they have limited experience in the world, are they able to construct a method based on negative and positive reinforcement that allows them to learn more in a more effective manner? Granted, my grade in Spanish is going to be a positive or negative reinforcement, but that’s not the same as a child learning a new skill. The child doesn’t really understand that they might have other options. As an adult, I know I have options, but I also understand that if I want to finish what I have started, I need to get through the next 15 weeks with a passing grade and hopefully, some dignity by the time this is all over.
I think my Spanish professor told us in class that we have to memorize and that there is no other way to really learn certain things. This would be the horrible verb portion of the blog. Now, I can remember snippets of grammar classes growing up, and I hated verbs then too. And those were English verbs. I have since come to understand that I don’t hate language, and that I really enjoy being able to communicate the exact, precise word I want to use. This has also led me to a path of an almost OCD-like compulsion to understand EVERY word I come across. I have taken to carrying a dictionary or being able to have close proximity to a dictionary because when I do find a word I don’t know, I look it up. My mother was very fond of saying, “look it up, don’t ask me”. Now, I don’t know if she really didn’t know the definition or if she was trying to teach me some skill in being self-reliant, but what she did instill in me was a compulsion to know ALL the words.
While my family did not have much money when I was a child, and we didn’t have many books in my household, we did have a dictionary. And, of course, I would look up not only the word I didn’t know, but was also good for at least another half hour of reading words that I never knew existed. Hm, maybe mom was on to something there? When I started going to school I discovered the library, and WOW they would let you take out books without paying for them!!! I went to Jackson Elementary School and that was my first experience with a library. I would spend as much time as I could in there and that is where I discovered I loved reading, the written word, and the power of knowledge. I was not an athletic child, and was poor. Not a good combination for cliques of friends. I was picked last for teams and was never popular. When I was in 5th grade our school had a trivia contest. Each class had to send a student to compete with other students, and as predictable as the sun rising, I was picked last for our small groups within our own class. But, I won the first round, the second round and by the third round suddenly I was picked first and eventually won the right to represent my class in the school competition. And the final question that I won with? What color is a Palomino’s skin?
I knew this answer because I had read the encyclopedia on horses and because we had a Palomino and my dad showed me how looks can be deceiving. It took me awhile to fully realize the lesson he was trying to teach me that day and from that point on I knew that although I would never “fit in” with the sports or popular crowd, I could always rely on my ability to learn a deeper lesson if I would just pay attention and think about what is being presented to me. I know too, that somewhere, is my ability to learn Spanish without the hysterics and drama and that making excuses will not help me. Like a child, I need to find that path of learning so that I can get on with the business of learning.
