Speaking the Language, by Sarah Newhall

Upon coming to Spain, I was very excited to develop my Spanish speaking skills by talking to the locals but it didn’t go quite as planned. More times than I can count, I have made an effort to speak in Spanish to the locals and they don’t understand me no matter how hard I try so I resort to speaking English which they end up understanding more than they did my Spanish. In a way, this has turned into learned helplessness and taught me that sometimes, it’s better to just speak in English instead of making the effort. Initially, I thought this was because I was saying the wrong words or pronouncing them in a strange way but when I would go home and look it up, everything I said was right. Something else that happens a lot is when I speak Spanish to people, they understand me but respond in English. When this happens, we both end up talking in our nonnative languages and the conversations stay more surface level. I’m assuming that people’s responses to my Spanish speaking are an attempt to help me or make it easier but because of it, I worry that I am not learning as much. Despite this, I have still been trying to learn a lot and have had many successful conversations with Spanish speaking people and I hope to continue to learn more Spanish.