Buenos Dias from Buenos Aires: The path to fluency

¡Hola, muchachos! This week I’d like to talk about speaking Spanish. I bet you didn’t see that coming with my being in a Spanish-speaking country and all. Right now, I’m taking a month-long class of intensive Spanish, in which I sit in a classroom for five hours and speak nothing but Spanish (our professor yells at us if we try to speak in English).

Learning Spanish requires a lot of constant effort. It’s like being thrown into a pool when you don’t know how to swim and trying to stay afloat. If you zone out of a conversation or go a couple hours without using Spanish, you start to sink and it’s hard to understand what people are saying.

Each day I am able to have longer conversations with my host mother. So far, we have had almost hour-long discussions about religion, politics, healthcare, places we’ve traveled and our loved ones. At times, I don’t understand her. I pretend I do and hypothesize what I think she is saying based on context clues. It’s probably not the best method, I admit, especially since at times I’ve completely messed up on things, even though I’m pretty sure she told me what to do. On my first day in Buenos Aires, she told me I had a meeting with my study abroad company, but I had no idea what she was saying and completely missed the meeting. That was slightly embarrassing.

Of course, I’ve made other mistakes due to the language barrier. A few days ago, I ordered dulce de leche ice cream at a popular ice cream chain in Argentina called Freddo. I wanted a small cone, but somehow I ended up getting the biggest bowl of ice cream they offered. That was not a big deal since too much ice cream is not a real problem. I wish I could say that was the only time I’ve made a mistake ordering, but, unfortunately, that would be a lie.

Although I continue to occasionally blunder my Spanish, I am improving. I had my first exam in my Spanish class, and I did well. The grading system in Argentina is different from the United States, so all I can say is that I received an above-average grade.

I can see myself becoming fluent by the end of my five months here and I cannot wait to show off my Argentinian-Spanish to my friends. But in order to get there, I need to submerge myself in the language, even though it can be frustrating and embarrassing at times. By the time you talk with me in the U.S., I hopefully will be bilingual! Until then, I’m going to go conjugate Spanish verbs and try to order the right size ice cream. ¡Hasta luego!

Jessica Hill is a sophomore studying journalism and global studies. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Are you bilingual? Contact Jessica at jh240314@ohio.edu or tweet her @jess_hillyeah.