After 20 hours of studying Spanish over the past month and a half, it took me 35 minutes and a lot of brain time to write the below paragraph. This would usually would take me 35 seconds in English.
‘Mi llamo
Aanchal. Soy de India y vivo en Dubai. Yo trabajo en la publicidad. Mi familia
es pequeña - madre, padre, un hermano y un sobrino.
Yo soy bajita,
delgada y muy bonita. :) Mi pelo es castaño, largo y liso. Tengo la piel es
clara y mi ojos es castaño.
Yo soy
optimista, simpática y algunas veces comunicativa.
Mi hobby es -
escuchar música, para mirar películas de comedia, escribir mi blog, yoga,
viajar a países exóticos y leer libros.
Mi gusta el
vino tinto, comer en restaurantes y pasar tiempo con los amigos.
Estudio español
porque algún día me quiero retirar en España.’
When I was in the sixth
standard, Sanskrit was introduced as a compulsory subject. For some odd reason the
government insisted we cramped up a dead language for three precious years of our life. Unfortunately, I didn’t have
the best Sanskrit teacher. We both had a subtle hatred towards each other. I could
not stand the smell of her coconut oil laden hair and the permanent frown lines
that adorned her forehead and she clearly didn’t like me because my mum allowed
me to speak with the ‘boys’.
Uninterested in teaching and
certainly oblivious to us, she asked us to blindly learn the lessons without
explanation or logic. I hated it. In the eighth standard final exam, I just
about managed to scrape through after days of cramming up. My teacher attested
it with a B minus and as I collected my report card, I knew that I was hopeless
when it came to languages.
Over the years that followed,
despite moving to different Indian states and visiting countries where English was not
the first language, I continued to let myself to believe that along with driving
(there will be another blog post on this one!) there was one thing I would
NEVER achieve – learn/speak another
language.
Then something changed when I
visited Spain for the first time in 2012. Perhaps it was the welcoming sunshine
after a week in freezing Paris, the sangria or as I really like to believe a
past life connection with the country….
When locals in Barcelona spoke
to me in Spanish, I couldn’t help but blush. Even at the speed in which they were spoken, the words stirred something in me. 'Was I actually making an effort to understand?' I tried to brush the thought away as the after effects of sangria and flirty smiles from
tanned waiters.
The second time I visited
Spain in 2014, it happened again. I felt I was drowning in words. I tried to
read, I tried to listen and suddenly I wanted to swim in this enormous sea
of sounds that was all around me.
However, every time I tried
to say the few phrases I knew in Spanish, something slapped me on the inside –
“You can’t do this! You will make a fool of yourself! Language is not your
thing.”
I listened to the voice and
shut up.
Months later as the year drew
to a close and I listed my resolutions for 2015 (here), I knew in order to get some
magic in my life I had to surprise myself before the universe did. So I mustered up the courage, told the voice inside me to
calm down and enrolled in a Spanish language class.
When one learns basic forms
of communication as an adult, it just doesn’t open up a whole new world but also
transforms them inherently. This is what sitting in a classroom and feeling
like a two-year-old child trying to pronounce and understand words has done to
me.
I have learned to unlearn in
order to learn.
The adjective comes after the
noun. I still don’t get it. I have had to change the way I think and
communicate. I have shed layers of my preconceived notions and beliefs to let
my mind stand naked in order to adorn new thoughts.
I have learned to follow
rules.
Spanish has rules and then it
has exceptions to the rules. What I love about it is that it keeps me in check.
For a change I am coloring inside the lines and yet there is so much to
discover.
I have learned to be humble.
Before I started class, the
geek in me wanted to stand out so I learned the alphabet and I practiced the
greetings. When I reached class – I couldn’t utter a word. Other students knew
more than me and when I tried to converse with my teacher – I was the
foreigner. I had to take a step back and respect the language. I had to
literally eat my words and pride so that I could let the language rule me.
I have learned to be patient
with myself.
One of the perils of being an
adult in this day an age is to want everything instantly - including learning
an entire language! Initially I would get angry with myself for not remembering
words or on forming wrong sentences. The voice in my head would come back
mocking at these little failures. It has been a long process but I have
learned to be calmer and way more understanding with myself.
I have learned to be a child
again.
When was the last time you
looked at something with child like wonder? Or marveled in silence at the
beauty of something only you understood the importance of?
I have learned to do this
everyday since I started class. Everything amazes and amuses me and I just
can’t get enough of it. I can stare at a word for hours tracking it back to its
uses, its origin and the stories it might have told. I can’t get enough of
pronouncing the A’s and the J’s… each time I read/speak in Spanish its
playtime.
My ultimate goal with Spanish
(other than to live in Spain one day) is to read ‘Love in the time of cholera’
in its purest form – just as Marquez wrote it. As a fellow Spanish student said
to me the other day, “Marquez has the best translator in the world so just
imagine reading him in Spanish.”
I know it’s not happening
anytime soon because I am still trying to get the hang of articles, the
different forms of verbs and figuring out whether I need to use SER, ESTAR OR
TENER in a sentence. But soon.....
As it happens, the voice in
my head is very dim and hardly wakes up anymore. When it does, I just have to
hush it and gently tell her…. “Yes, you will fall several times but at least you are finally on the road and now, there is no looking back.”
And until this blog has its
Spanish version …. Hasta luego amigos!
