You might be wondering how my language skills are coming along after over two months in Spain. Sometimes I wonder the same thing. It’s hard to see significant growth on a daily basis, but over time I’m definitely seeing progress. Here are seven signs my Spanish is improving:
1. My host mom doesn’t correct me nearly as much as she used to.
2. I can follow almost every single conversation I overhear.
3. I can understand what’s on the radio.
4. I don’t have to think as much anymore about conjugating verbs correctly – I just say what SOUNDS right.
5. Unfortunately, I’m now able to understand dirty humor as well as Spanish rap music. (I’m not sure I’m proud of this one…)
6. I used to HATE talking on the phone in Spanish – it felt awful and awkward, especially because I couldn’t see the other person’s face or body language. However, yesterday I had a phone conversation with a Spanish friend that lasted FOUR MINUTES (that’s a long time for me!). And I only had to ask, “What??” once.
7. My host mom’s daughter was visiting us from out of town this week, and when I went to tell her goodbye before she left, she told me something along the lines of, ” I hope you have a great rest of your time in Burgos. And I was going to tell you that I hope your Spanish keeps improving and that you keep learning a lot, but I’m not going to say that because you speak it so well already!”
It’s little things like these seven reasons that show me I’m actually making progress and that this study abroad experience, if only for my language skills, has already been SO worth it.
- photo credit: Google Images
