The Story about Language Part 1

I had never really thought about language before I moved to Spain. It was a dream of mine to speak another language, but it definitely wasn't something that crossed my mind daily. I had absolutely no concept of the true difficulty involved in learning another language. I remember speaking to my roomate's French friends while I lived in Pacific Grove. I would babble on and on, endlessly, like usual, and then look at them to reply. They'd usually look at me with those typical lost faces that foriegners and tourists make when a cashier in a grocery store asks them a question. gulp! "HELP"One of them finally said to me, "Sarah, you are so hard to understand. You speak so fast." Huh? Me? Really? I hadn't thought about that before. Was it really that hard to comprehend what I was saying. Um... YES.

Now I understand that. I'm so glad I don't have to speak to my past self in another language. It would probably be like speaking to the girl that works in our bar. I have no idea what she does, but I maybe understand her half of the time I talk to her. It's completely frustrating, and now it's me with one of those dumb faces. (Pssst... I'm secretly a pro at pretending I understand everything. It's something you learn pretty quickly when you get tired of looking lost all of the time).

So, now I think of language every day. I don't usually have to think so much to understand, unless I'm speaking about a subject in which I'm lacking serious vocabulary - the names of trees and plants, for example, or specific anatomy or bodily processes... the things you don't speak about on a day to day basis. Constructing sentences isn't difficult either, unless I worry about speaking completely grammatically correct. Speaking grammatically correctly is a bitch.
I obviosuly have to think about language when I teach English. Did you know that when I came to Spain I really learned TWO new languages? I did. English and Spanish.I new how to speak English before, but I knew nothing about it. How many verb tenses do we have in English? I answered that question when I first arrived - "three - present past and future" WRONG. There are three simple tenses, but altogether, English has more like 18. Of course I had to learn all of them and the rules behind them. When do we use 'do' and when do we use 'make'? Care to try to answer that?

• Do your homework. Make your bed. I made a cake. I'm making progres. He's made a mistake.

Not so easy to explain, is it? Especially when the word 'hacer' in Spanish is used for both of them.

Oh language, you little devil!

Being married to a man whose native language is different than mine... that's weird sometimes. Even though Alex speaks fluent English, we still sometimes have our difficulties. I've learned to speak much more clearly than when I lived in Pacific Grove, but I still mumble now and then. We also get into heated arguments about speaking Spanish. I want him to speak in Spanish more often. He says it's too difficult to remember since he's used to speaking in English with me. I say, "make an effort". Then he worries about losing some of his English. We finally agree to speak Spanish three days a week. Our first few sentences of the day start in Spanish, but somewhere along the line, one of us slips back into English, and then it's all over. No more Spanish. DEFEATED.

(This is already a long post, so I'm going to leave it with this status: To be CONTINUED)