Anyone who has decided to pick up a new language usually also has a good story behind the reason why beginning such a seemingly daunting endeavour. My motivation came from me having met the love of my life who is from Argentina, and my language to tackle is, of course, Spanish. For over two and a half years I was trying to learn the language on my own through self study, with the help of various online resources and books. However, the progress I have made was absolutely minimal compared to that of which I have made during my time studying at a language school in Buenos Aires over the past two months.
This, I feel, is mainly down to the fact that on my own, I was unable to overcome the confidence barrier. To actually start speaking and putting to use the knowledge I had acquired in a real-life situation was harder than it seemed.
In my head I understood all the conjugations, I had a decent vocabulary and a good understanding of ‘ser’ and ‘estar’. But as soon as somebody asked me a question where I was expected to respond, I would freeze up and none of that would translate into words coming out of my mouth.
I expect that there are many people who have found themselves in the same situation, who want to learn the entire language before they begin to speak. I learned the slow and frustrating way that no matter how long you study, you will never start speaking a language until you actually start speaking the language.
How do you overcome the confidence barrier?
Being confident enough with your knowledge and being able to start using it, is the difference between learning a language and acquiring one. Confidence comes from not always being right, but from not fearing to be wrong. So try not to make a self-fulfilling prophecy, making you fail from the get-go!
Embrace the fact that, in the beginning, you are going to sound like a tongue-tied youngster and you are going to make mistakes. Don’t set your sights too high and once you are confident enough to make mistakes and laugh about them, you can then start to think about putting them right.There are only so many times you will want to say that you are hot (“Tengo calor!”) and accidentally tell someone how horny you are (“Estoy caliente.”) before you learn the difference!
It is always tempting to have the perfect sentence lined up in your head before you even start to speak, only to be caught off guard by the response of the person you are talking to. I found it much more productive to try and dictate the pace of the conversation from the get go, not being afraid to work through a sentence piece by piece without fully knowing which direction it would take. This really helped me get to grips with forming tricky conjugations on the fly.
Don’t be afraid to take your time.
Many times after giving myself an internal prep talk to say something in Spanish, I was just met with a blank face on the person I was speaking to. It wasn’t that what I said was necessarily wrong. Maybe my accent was a little thick, making it hard for them to understand without paying closer attention. Or, maybe it just took the recipient off guard that an English person actually spoke Spanish. If this happens, don’t doubt yourself and immediately panic revert back to English! Try to persevere with confidence.
You will be surprised how patient and helpful people will be with you because they appreciate
the fact that you are making the effort to speak their language. Many people already gave up just thinking about may be picking up something new. If you are at the point of trying to speak one, definitely pad yourself on the back that you have already come a long way!
Practice in a comfort zone but make sure to get out it too.
It can be hard to sit around a table of natives feeling like you lost your personality because you can’t express yourself how you really want to.This is where being part of a small group class with people at your own level (like my class at Vamos Spanish Academy), telling stories and having a natural flowing conversation really helps you lower the barriers, as everyone is in the same situation as yourself. Being in a comfortable environment with other learners of your level really makes a lot of difference.
On the other hand, you should also get out of your comfort zone and put yourself in environments where you don’t have a choice. For me, it worked to start with easy exchanges in my daily life, like charging money to my subway card or ordering lunch, and eventually building up to chit chatting with my mother-in-law (when brave enough). Every situation can be a chance to practice what you learn in class in a casual way if you allow it.
As you can see, learning a language is not only about memorizing grammar and vocabulary, it is about expressing yourself in a different environment. People tend to focus much more on the grammar side of the process than the more introversive skill of confidence. A good teacher can help to inspire you and bring out your confidence to speak; but, ultimately, a simple change in mindset inside yourself can bring about a lot of progress, where you didn’t see it was possible before.
Gregory Weinzel is an expat currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina with his wife, and studying at Vamos Spanish Academy vamospanish.com located in Avenida Coronel Díaz 1736, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
