Español

What does “fluent” mean? Does it mean I can send Spanish text messages with ease? Am I fluent if I can bargain at the market? How about if I can share my ideas on health care, the economy, earthquakes, my father, and gay marriage with my Spanish teacher? Does it matter that my verbs aren’t always correctly conjugated? When will I be able to completely follow a Spanish film?

Amongst the Spanish-language students in Antigua, there seems to be little conversation about how we learn language, which is why I’d like to share with you how I got to where I am on the fluency scale.

When I was 10, I was asked if I wanted to take Spanish or French in Middle School. I didn’t know of a monument I’d like to see in Mexico, but I did know the Eiffel Tower meant baguettes and berets. French it was.

I came to regret my 5th grade decision daily in Spanish 1 at UC Berkeley. The summer after Spanish 1, I went to Honduras. For 3 weeks, I took Spanish classes, but was by no means fully immersed in the language, as I spoke English with my language-school friends, and could also do so with my Honduran host family. Thank goodness I continued studying Spanish my last year of college, it has proven to be invaluable in my first weeks here.

My Skype conversations with Mickey and my mom, and my time emailing, are the only moments I speak English. If I need to say something here, I can always express it. It might take me 10 minutes, because I don’t know every word. And I guarantee my verb conjugations are off, but I do know that by the time I stop talking my counterpart has some idea of what the heck I’m saying.

Yesterday, I asked my Spanish teacher (pic of us below) if she thought I could ever be fluent. She responded “Ya eres casi fluente, casi.” Gracias a Dios, I’m close! I think because we have pretty good conversations and because she doesn’t have to teach me the verb “to go,” my teacher Brenda thinks I’m close to being fluent. Some days I agree. But other days, I feel like I’ve got everything wrong.


On Wednesday I had a Spanish exam so I could move on to the second book at my Spanish school. I passed, but going over my mistakes the next day (guess I don’t know how to spell my numbers), made me feel like I need more than a lifetime to ever speak more than one language.

With my first two weeks behind me, I wonder how much more time I’ll need to become an oh-so-cool “fluent Spanish speaker.” I also wonder how others become fluent, and why our experience with language often goes un-talked about.

And I’ve been thinking that no matter how fluent I get, English will always be the language of my family, the language I cry in, and the language I share my love in. And I know I’m lucky to have one of the most important languages in the world, as my first.

I am so in awe of bi/multi-lingual people, and I want to know their stories. I also want to know if I can ever be fluent. Oh, and how bad is my accent? Vamos a ver (we will see).