But first, get up and immerse in it!
It was a fresh summer morning in June on Hermosa beach and a lady walked up to me and said “Buenos Dias! ¿Cómo estás?”. Though I knew what that meant in Spanish (and it is a very common expression in Spanish), I replied “no hablo Español”(which is also a common expression). She apologized and started telling me about her product in English and eventually departed.
Multilingual Indians.
Being born and bred in India, you know, you already are a bilingual, or even a tri-lingual with 100% fluency. We have Hindi as a widely spoken language, a language of instruction in schools and academic institutions i.e English and our respective mother-tongues (with me it is Marathi). To add on, I learnt Sanskrit, the mother of all the languages, as an elective in the 8th Grade.
German was prescribed to me by mother when it was one of my elective in the 12th Grade and I ended up getting a diploma in it, but Spanish was something I was always enthralled about. Meanwhile, I fell in love with German and I still have a lot of affection for its stark foundation, I found myself getting bee-lined right across the Atlantic westward towards the Latin-American Spanish culture.(a geographic pun intended!)
The Diversity of Spanish Language
Spanish has always thrilled me due to its plethora of diversity and assortment of everything right from culture, food, beliefs, music, to the accents, dialects and also pronunciations dependent on which Spanish speaking country you are referring to. Spanish in Europe is only spoken in Spain. But majority of the South American countries, southern parts of North America and the Caribbean Islands speak Spanish. This includes — Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, Panama, Honduras, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru and Puerto Rico. (that’s the assortment I am talking about)
The propinquity to a culture.
More the nearness to a country’s border, greater is the influence of the neighboring country resulting in a great blend of the two cultures. This was something I noticed and had a first hand experience in Los Angeles (los itself is the Spanish article “the” in English for a masculine plural). The spirited assimilation of both the cultures (adding the best of California weather) is beautifully exhibited here in Los Angeles. I have found my turf and it makes me feel full of beans (pun intended, again).
The Words.
After having learnt the basics of Spanish in the first three days, the pre- existing words started to make more sense and how I love to break down words for a clearer understanding!
For example — In Las Vegas las also means “the” as in Los Angeles. The “san” in San Francisco, San Ysidro, San Bernardino, San Bruno and San Diego means “Saint”. The car “El Camino”, camino means “way” or “road”.
Many apartments in California have names like “Monte Vista”, “Isla Vista” or “Mar Vista” which when broken down mean “Mountain View”, “Island View” and “Sea View”.
Jumping to my favorite topic, food, my local Mex restaurant near the beach is named “Las Brisas” which means “The Breeze”. “Tiempo de Salsa” literally means “Salsa Time”. The famous food chain “El Pollo Loco” means “The crazy chicken”. “Frijoles Picantes” which means “Hot Spicy Beans”(recall my earlier pun?)
Internet is an asset.
Shut your Textbooks and Dictionaries after a while and consider an attempt to resourcefully use the media. I started binge-watching Narcos(again) but this time, with Spanish Subtitles. Other Netflix Series being Money Heist or simply just switch the subtitles of your favorite series to Spanish. YouTube and Netflix are assets when it comes to learning popular languages.
There is a sea of YouTubers out there providing their subscribers with helpful tips and practices for language immersion. To name a few, for beginners, there is Butterfly Spanish, Gringo Español and for intermediate learners there’s NachoTime and Spanish with Sam.
Consider listening to Spanish Songs by Shakira, Enrique, Sean Paul (the ones we regularly jam to) with the lyrics to get better at pronunciation. The day I actually understood a verse from the song “Bailando” I knew that learning tools can be fun. Enrique says “estar contigo, vivir contigo, bailar contigo” he meant “I want to be with you, live with you, dance with you”.
Listening to Podcasts while on a morning walk figuratively kills two birds in one shot and Duolingo podcasts have the audio as well as the online transcripts which can be referred to later.
To target a language.
Learning a language surely takes time and consistent effort but you should start somewhere. Find the most enjoyable route to harness the language. Most importantly, it requires you to delve deeper in that culture in the grander scheme of things.
If you want to immerse yourself in your target language, there’s no point in swimming in shallow waters, dive deep and explore!
As Charlemagne says “To have another language is to possess a second soul.”
Get up and learn your most desired and sought after language, por favor!
