Hi my name is Steve. I am a 34 year old Australian and like most Australians I can barely speak English. In January I accepted a job in Colombia
to teach high school students English for a 9 months. The job did not require
me to know any Spanish. In contrast my new employer had specifically requested
that all foreign teachers must teach the Colombian students in English.
Apparently the immersion method is considered to be the most fruitful in
current theories of pedagogy. However before I started work I had five weeks up my sleeve to prepare for the real Colombia so I enrolled myself in a Spanish school to learn this evasive language. Here I am an Australian in Colombia I was about to learn Spanish in Spanish.Strap me in and lets go!
Out of literally dozens of places in Latin America to learn Spanish I chose to learn in Medellin Colombia for a few simple reasons. The city is beautiful, Medellin has been constructed on the base of a mountainous range which has spectacular 360 degree views. The city is always beautiful to look and and the presence of these deep blue jagged mountains make you feel somewhat surreal. Secondly the weather here is amazing - always warm, never to hot and never cold - apparently there is no winter or summer being so close to the equator. Thirdly I have read that in the times of Pablo Escobar (1980's to early 1990's) this city was one of the most dangerous places in the world and basically considered a 'no go' zone. There is two positives that spawn from this negativity. The first being obviously the place has incredible and very violent history that is fascinating for foreigners to experience and explore. A history that the locals are not to keen to talk about and that of course must be respected. The 'history' as I might call it is still very fresh and a lot of families have lost people to the 'dark time' of this era. Almost everyone knows someone that was killed in the conflict from the narcos and the Colombian government and from what I have been told and read the violence was prolific and horrific. Although from the point of view from a westerner exploring the history is undoubtedly interesting to understand, read about and visit. I think culturally travelers need to be aware of the deep scar tissue that the country carries. I really feel that this issue should be explored with caution. I would suggest that if you were a traveler here be careful and aware about who you talk to about this issues as they can easily cause discomfort. There is a museum called the Museum of Violence which does explore these issues here in Medellin however a few of the locals would be much happier if the whole Pablo Escobar thing was soon forgotten and buried forever.
Due to the recent fierce violence and political turmoil within Medellin's history this city has been untouched by the outside world and until the last 10 years. The result has created a city remaining raw and extremely authentic and only really recently has been tainted by globalisation from the western world. English is spoken by less than 5% of the population which forces the learner of Spanish (like me) to be constantly engaged with real people that speak no English - hence more practice and Spanish learning.
Out of literally dozens of places in Latin America to learn Spanish I chose to learn in Medellin Colombia for a few simple reasons. The city is beautiful, Medellin has been constructed on the base of a mountainous range which has spectacular 360 degree views. The city is always beautiful to look and and the presence of these deep blue jagged mountains make you feel somewhat surreal. Secondly the weather here is amazing - always warm, never to hot and never cold - apparently there is no winter or summer being so close to the equator. Thirdly I have read that in the times of Pablo Escobar (1980's to early 1990's) this city was one of the most dangerous places in the world and basically considered a 'no go' zone. There is two positives that spawn from this negativity. The first being obviously the place has incredible and very violent history that is fascinating for foreigners to experience and explore. A history that the locals are not to keen to talk about and that of course must be respected. The 'history' as I might call it is still very fresh and a lot of families have lost people to the 'dark time' of this era. Almost everyone knows someone that was killed in the conflict from the narcos and the Colombian government and from what I have been told and read the violence was prolific and horrific. Although from the point of view from a westerner exploring the history is undoubtedly interesting to understand, read about and visit. I think culturally travelers need to be aware of the deep scar tissue that the country carries. I really feel that this issue should be explored with caution. I would suggest that if you were a traveler here be careful and aware about who you talk to about this issues as they can easily cause discomfort. There is a museum called the Museum of Violence which does explore these issues here in Medellin however a few of the locals would be much happier if the whole Pablo Escobar thing was soon forgotten and buried forever.
Due to the recent fierce violence and political turmoil within Medellin's history this city has been untouched by the outside world and until the last 10 years. The result has created a city remaining raw and extremely authentic and only really recently has been tainted by globalisation from the western world. English is spoken by less than 5% of the population which forces the learner of Spanish (like me) to be constantly engaged with real people that speak no English - hence more practice and Spanish learning.
So, I had five weeks up my sleeve to lean Spanish before my new employer placed me in a relatively small region called Fusagasuga where it was pretty obvious absolutely simply no one was going to speak English. The lessons were extensive four hours a day of small group classes also taught in Spanish and although I was not
expecting to be fluent I was hoping to have mastered the basics of survival
Spanish to take me from Gringo traveler to veteran traveler status. My observations in the class room are as follows:
So week 1; The teacher was a lovely Colombian girl
with a red rinse through her hair and a lovely full, engaging smile. Although
she can understand all English she does not speak a word of it to us. She is a true
hippy of the earth, energetic, filed with passion and she is both nurturing and
sweet in the classroom. I really like her energy and her teaching style. She
uses a lot of positive reinforcement and she does not slow down her speech for
us. With her keen eye and her nurturing, that week we master some basic
phrases, learn how to conjugate verbs in the present tense and learn some very basic
grammar. We also learn to ask questions, we pronounce the alphabet and I learn
the Spanish word for homework. Fuck homework what a drab. Vocab, grammar,
speaking, listening, it all blurs together like ride on a Ferris wheel but you
sit back and enjoy the colours.
Week one is over and we have a new teacher and unlike our first teacher she can explain difficult grammar in clear, articulate English. The pattern repeats day after day. The teaching and
lesson plans are well thought out and is engaging. This teacher uses a variety
of activities, my high school teachers would be proud of how teaching has
evolved from the blackboard to a full array of technology and interactive
games. She still uses the white board as her primary weapon although she skilfully incorporates YouTube, card games and role playing activities. All the lesson elicits
Spanish dribbles to be uttered out of our feeble little lips but I am starting to
observe the painful truth. One factor is king. Memory. Now some people have a
fantastic memory, they can link things subconsciously, they have a sharp clear
mind and they absorb it without even trying. How I despise those people. My
memory is pretty ordinary. If I want to remember something I usually have to
work for it.
Anyways the process is pretty straight forward. Week 3 I
have my first mental breakdown. The teacher is explaining some concepts in Spanish. I do
not understand a word of it. Basically I lose my patience and I want to flip a
table. Thinking about it hindsight later I realise there was a few contributing
factors to this and I will outline a few basic tips that now I know that would
have helped me progress somewhat. As they say, hindsight is 20 / 20 and it is
part of the process but here is what I would have told myself before I started to give me the upper hand to go in prepared. 2) Lower your expectations: Lower what you expect to get out of Spanish lessons but simultaneously put as much effort in as possible. So I am not saying do not try or do not have clear goals but lower your need to get a certain outcome at a certain date. It will come when it comes, implement your strategies, study your ass off but there is only so much the brain can learn and when it clicks it clicks. Once you get a hold of all the things that you can change accept the parts that you cannot. Learning a language is not something that you can control, it is different for everyone and we all learn at differently paces and we all learn differently. Do not consider suicide because you are not able to describe the process of spiritual enlightenment to your teacher in week 2. Do not throw away your goals but accept your individual rate of learning and be aware of the process keeping in mind that your mind will do it's best.
3) Experience both group and private lessons: I really found this to be the best method to learning Spanish. It has helped me progress a great deal as for my first few weeks I had group lessons and for my last couple of weeks I changed to private lessons. Obviously there are some advantages in both bu the private teacher can speed the lesson up for you, slow down and really focus and get gritty when necessary. The private teacher can hone in on your weak spots so that you can get superior quality, individualised learning. Also the teacher will be able to discover your learning style and use activities that best suit your way of absorbing information and ensure a better learning experience. This is in contrast to group lessons which you can mentally check out from, the class is taught to groups of 3- 10 and has to accommodate multiple students and the lesson plan may cover content that is either to easy or too difficult for you.
4) Have fun with it: This one is pretty
straight forward but is really important. Studies have shown that students have
a higher rate of learning in a positive learning environment and simply can
learn more when they are relaxed and happy. Furthermore, the classroom should
be a fun and engaging experience for the teacher and for the students. Linking
positive experiences in the classroom with not only associate positive emotions
and superior quality learning but it will also ensure that you will continue to
enjoy the discovery process of the language and continually engage, contribute
and participate. This seems to be the recipe to really immerse yourself in the content
and continue the process of learning both in and out of the classroom. 5) Study when and as much you can outside of the classroom: Obviously the more that you study out of the classroom using an abundance of resources than the more you can get out of your learning. I try and use literally anything, podcasts, YouTube, websites, textbooks, streaming the radio, voice recordings. If you can think of it, then it is probably worth trying to implement. Furthermore, the more variety you can implement the better as you can create your own additional diverse learning experiences that will enhance your learning and allow the content of today’s lesson to gel in your mind.
6) Lastly TALK to native speakers as much as possible: on the street, at bars, in restaurants, I don't care just talk. Let your fears and inhibitions go, and just go for it. It is the time that you get to put your Spanish to the test and allow you to even practice using the language on the spot. It also allows you to hear more native speakers talk at the pace that they talk which is really important Bro tip: sometimes if I do not understand what locals are saying although instead of halting the conversation I just throw a response back at them. It really is hit and miss but it is better (in my opinion) to keep talking instead of halting the conversation and letting it dry up with 'no entiendo'. You get what you get out of it and for me its great to run with it. Remember that I am providing a strategy for beginner Spanish learners. For advanced learners it is totally different as you can explain what you want to ask specifically and the native speaker can provide an answer in Spanish and you will get it explained in Spanish. I am not good enough to do that so this tip is to start using the language as much as possible and let go of the fear! Failure is part of the process. You are going to fail so much in the process of learning a language that it will teach you to be humble and let your ego go. Then you can just push, persevere and persist which I really think it is the key to success in my opinion with anything.
Anyways I wrote this just to clear some stuff in my own
mind. Learning Spanish in the classroom has been a really challenging
experience and I write these thoughts in my little blog to reflect on my own experiences of what it was like to spend 5 weeks in a Spanish school learning English. So you might ask did I achieve my goal? Well in truth I am far from being amazing. I have learned a lot of words, some really important concepts and grammar and I now have the building blocks to continue to keep learning and better my Spanish. Can I hold fluent conversations? Considering that they put me in almost the beginning week no I can not. But I can ask for a bunch of stuff, I can get my point across about a range of different things and I a great deal of Spanish is slowly sinking in. I really think that I made more progress in 5 weeks here than I would have made in 6months if I was doing this at home solo.
For anyone that is thinking of learning another language I really feel that it is the key to being able to experience a country and culture at a deeper level. The more of the language that you learn the more you can verbally engage with people of the land, understand their individual experiences and hear their stories their pains and their triumphs. It creates a connection to another human without barriers as with words we can understand the hearts and mind of our fellow human beings. This connection allows the bonds of our humanity to grow and give us an understanding of a culture and how they view and experience the world. It almost feels like a secret door way into another universe. A must for any traveler that really wants to be connected with the land, people and culture. Good luck to any fellow travelers that are learning another language. The tools are out there!
For anyone that is thinking of learning another language I really feel that it is the key to being able to experience a country and culture at a deeper level. The more of the language that you learn the more you can verbally engage with people of the land, understand their individual experiences and hear their stories their pains and their triumphs. It creates a connection to another human without barriers as with words we can understand the hearts and mind of our fellow human beings. This connection allows the bonds of our humanity to grow and give us an understanding of a culture and how they view and experience the world. It almost feels like a secret door way into another universe. A must for any traveler that really wants to be connected with the land, people and culture. Good luck to any fellow travelers that are learning another language. The tools are out there!
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