Interview with a Spanish Language Student

Name: Jack
Studying: French, Spanish and Portuguese
Mother Tongue: French and English
Strongest Language: French
Future Plans: Teaching, Travel, Writing Novels and Short Stories

1. Why do you want to learn languages? Languages make travel and communication easier and they provide insight into different cultures and societies. Language opens the door to the world. They are also an AMAZING skill to have, favoured by all employers and often just very impressive.

2. Why these particular languages? I’m already bilingual, speaking English, French and Creole (An Island Dialect), so Spanish was a no-brainer for me. Being one of the most widely spoken languages it has obvious strategic appeal. It I love Hispanic culture, particularly Latin American. I love the music and grew up listening to Gloria Estefan, Silvio Rodriguez and have always been fascinated with that part of the world without having the opportunity to travel there. Portuguese followed on from there, for its usefulness in Brazil and lusophone Africa as well a Europe.

3. What kinds of resources helped you in your University Language learning? I’m not a conventional language learner as a Dyslexic/Dyspraxic I find Grammar rules and linguistics quite complicated and hard to grasp, and learning things off by heart does not work for me! I like to use more authentic resources such as music, films, native speakers on the news, in interviews or in person, books etc. I believe you learn language best when immersed in it, so I try to surround myself with Spanish: playing music or movies, having words of songs or poems up on my walls, writing texts in it and speaking it to whoever will listen (and occasionally to myself!). Anything can be a resource really, I put my email accounts, mobile phone, computer, facebook account, camera etc into Spanish or Portuguese and you wouldn't believe how much that helps with undertstanding and confidence!

4. How do you improve your Reading? Writing? Speaking? Listening? I improve my reading by simply: Reading. Practice makes perfect. I use a technique of highlighting everything in a text that I DO understand, and speculating on what I DON’T, before looking it up or asking someone.
I improve my writing by again, simply: Writing, I practice writing all kinds of genres of Texts. I write summaries to practice vocabulary; commentaries and essays to practise structure and register; leaflets, stories and articles to practice fluency, and email exchanges with penpals or texting friends to build up competency and learn colloquial usage.
I try to speak as much as possible in Spanish to native and non-native fellow students like myself. I also have little debates in my head sometimes of a particular theme, and speak aloud to myself when hovering or doing the dishes alone. I also learn the words to songs and sing them to practice pronunciation, intonation and cadence, and I find this REALLY helps.
I don’t really practice listening as it comes to be as a byproduct of all the other skills. I listen to music, movies, news reports and my friends speaking Spanish and absorb it quite subconsciously I guess…

5. What are your Strengths and Weaknesses in learning Spanish? I’m a self-starter and that really helps. I also connect language with the context, it isn’t just a set of rules for me, its relevant to what I see on the news, what I hear in Shakira’s latest song, what I read in the Newspapers everyday.
My weakness is that I often overlook the details of language learning as they frustrate me, and this is detrimental to the progress of my formal and academic Spanish. I should spend more time on my writing and formal register.

6. What is the hardest part of learning Spanish? The Grammar and the subjunctive. As someone with learning difficulties, learning finicky little details like gender or complex and rare conjugations goes completely over my head, and I struggle to retain rules and irregularities. I also don’t respond well to many formal language learning resources such as text books and even some teachers as they adopt a linguistic point of view using lots of linguistic Jargon that always means very little to me. I may not know what the subordinate, colocative clause of the third person in a cognate is, but I do know how to use it!