Comments on: French, my frenemy. http://blog.efdanehy.com/2009/04/29/french-my-frenemy/ wherein she discusses such things as writing, fantasy literature & criticism, & nerdy popular culture (using much parenthetical commentary & tangential ramblings). Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:35:21 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kristan http://blog.efdanehy.com/2009/04/29/french-my-frenemy/comment-page-1/#comment-277 Kristan Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:45:10 +0000 http://blog.efdanehy.com/?p=741#comment-277 I feel similarly about Spanish as you do about French. I'm probably rusty, but living in Spain for a summer really boosted my confidence - which is actually probably more important than fluency! I mean, like you said, it's one thing to read a menu and know what it says, but it's a whole different bird to actually ORDER. The first time I went to Spain, I was only there for 2 weeks, and I was with a friend who is most definitely fluent - she sounds native, in fact - so basically I was "the mute American friend." That sucked. It took me the first week to be able to understand the Spaniards (who speak ridiculously fast), and then the second week to even attempt saying anything, and usually messing up just because I was scared. So the second time I went to Spain, when I actually lived and studied there, I decided I would NOT be the mute American friend. Living with a señora who spoke no English helped lol. But seriously, I remember getting there, and there were several other students who KNEW as much Spanish as I did, but only a small handful who would really SPEAK it. So we the handful were considered fluent, while the rest were not. (I only wish I had this problem with my mom's native tongue, Mandarin. I really need to get some audiotapes from the library or something... -_-) I feel similarly about Spanish as you do about French. I’m probably rusty, but living in Spain for a summer really boosted my confidence – which is actually probably more important than fluency! I mean, like you said, it’s one thing to read a menu and know what it says, but it’s a whole different bird to actually ORDER.

The first time I went to Spain, I was only there for 2 weeks, and I was with a friend who is most definitely fluent – she sounds native, in fact – so basically I was “the mute American friend.” That sucked. It took me the first week to be able to understand the Spaniards (who speak ridiculously fast), and then the second week to even attempt saying anything, and usually messing up just because I was scared.

So the second time I went to Spain, when I actually lived and studied there, I decided I would NOT be the mute American friend. Living with a señora who spoke no English helped lol. But seriously, I remember getting there, and there were several other students who KNEW as much Spanish as I did, but only a small handful who would really SPEAK it. So we the handful were considered fluent, while the rest were not.

(I only wish I had this problem with my mom’s native tongue, Mandarin. I really need to get some audiotapes from the library or something… -_-)

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