Starting this journey to a foreign land, I expected a couple of things: bugs, humidity, and good food. I'm realizing that there are many more items on my list to take in. My principle goal behind this trip was to improve my Spanish fluency. After 6 years of studying the language, I definitely do not feel that I am where I should be as far as speaking is concerned. I can read and interpret meaning behind discussions, but when it is my turn to respond, I am sometimes at a standstill. A sense of nervousness and anxiety continually mount and create a very insecure and critical version of my normally confident self. This is mainly because I have not be forced to speak the language for extended periods of time and to the point where I was required to speak over a variety of topics. Therefore, I find myself being debilitated to the point of speaking in the realms of what a young child could produce. Honestly I am hard on myself.It's not as if I am incapable of producing clear Spanish, but let's just say I'm not where I would hope to be. I understand the impact that Spanish will have on communications with my future students, their parents, and my own children. My critical period is in the past and I sometimes feel like it is a now or never type of situation if I ever want to make this a part of my life.
However, through this process of our homestay,
I am learning that the bulk of language does not rest solely in what a person can say from their mouth. Language involves components like body language, gestures, and other things that can't be verbalized. Like the Chapter 5 from Globalization as well as other texts we have read alude to, language cannot be taught in isolation of other components such. Culture and the meaning behind the words are also an imperative aspect of understanding. When mi Mama Damaris tells me something, I notice that I am not only listening to her words, but taking note of her eyes and gestures in order to fully grasp the meaning as well as the context of the situation. These are things that I do when speaking to someone in English, but it is definitely such a commonplace in my life, that I do not notice at this point. In essence, I'm realizing that I shouldn't focus as much on the lack of vocabulary that I know but the ways in which I can covey my feelings to other people. Besides, mis padres ticos dicen que yo hablo español muy bien. (Besides, my Costa Rican parents say that I speak spanish very well).
No comments:
Post a Comment