Raja Afrika of the Afrika 8
Friday, March 29, 2024
 
Back to Raja's Blog

Raja's Blog
Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Raja Afrika Learns Spanish
Posted: Monday, September 7, 2009

So, I´m in the Canary Islands on the Island of La Palma and thinking very seriously about living here. It is in very many respects, a paradise. Being a typical American, I´m been uni-lingual most of my life, even though I studied 2 years of French in the 7th and 8th grades and 4 years of Spanish in High School. turns out, no matter how much you study, if you don´t have anyone to speak to in those languages, it doesn´t do you any good to study them.


 


I had the experience a few times on annual visits to Montreal, quebec (I REALLY like it there in the Summer-time) that my grade-school French would come back to me. I´d hoped the same thing would happen here in Spain. Turns out it has (well, sorta). One week in and I am able to communicate at a VERY rudimentary level. For example, I could not say that last sentence in Spanish :-) Atleast not yet.


 


What really facinates me about the entire experience is the subtle disconnect between our ability to speak and our ability to comprehend. Sometimes I find myself respnding reflexivly (and correctly I might add) to something asked of me and then realizing that I have no idea what I just said. Almost as if the neural pathways for Speech are not directly connected to those for understanding.


 


Mostly what I find facinating is my attachment to the idea of being Uni-lingual. I think that as Americans we´ve been conditioned to believe that if we haven´t learned a second language by the time we are adults that it is too late for us. I can tell you first hand that this beliefe is false. I believe anyone with a sincere desire to learn a language and the courage to immerse themselves in a differnt culture and the paitence to plod through frequent mis-understandings can and will learn a differnt language. :-) We can be bi-lingual... Stepping down off of my pedestal, here is my really horrible Spanish with some of my new friends on the island.