Kate: The Translator

My family recently got three new volunteers from France. I thought it would be fairly easy to talk to them because Spanish and French are both romance languages, and I took four years of French in high school, plus two years of Latin in middle school. I guess as I learned more and more Spanish, my French left my brain. I could barely get a word out when I tried to speak with them in french! Brother David and Miss. Emmanuel would be so disappointed in me. I was so good at French in high school! My spanish speaking skills have way surpassed my french speaking skills. As I try to talk with them more and more, I am remembering stuff, but I feel so clueless! They do also speak a little english, which is nice.

I knew it was going to be difficult for me to speak with them, however, I did not realize how difficult it was going to be for my host family to speak to them! So basically, I am forced to translate. I’ll listen in either french or english, and then do my best to translate to spanish. Muy dificil! (or tres difficile, depending on whom you’re talking to).

Even though I’m still bad at Spanish, I actually realized that I am not as terrible as I thought I was. I have learned an incredible amount of Spanish since January. The other students in my program are actually amazed that I’ve almost caught up to the intermediate class! I think that this had to do with my confidence in speaking. From the moment I stepped off the plane in Quito, if I needed something or wanted to share something, I said it. No matter how bad I sounded, or even if I was completely wrong, I was always able to somehow convey what I wanted to say. Charades helped a lot in the beginning, and now I can usually just speak. I do have to say things in a roundabout way sometimes though, just because my vocabulary is pretty limited. If there was one piece of advice I would give a student coming here, it would be to just really put yourself out there when speaking in spanish. Your family will correct you when you’re wrong, and you’ll learn a lot! When I talk to the locals, a lot of them say that they can only speak English if they've had a drink or two! Speaking in a new language makes you so vulnerable, but I think you really just have to go for it. Even if you make mistakes, they’ll be really funny. (See my Kate vs. Spanish post). I have decided to sign up for a spanish class in the fall, so I can keep learning. Being abroad in a spanish speaking country has helped me decide that I definitely would like to be fluent in spanish.