I have been trying to teach myself Spanish. As an aspiring social worker on Long Island, I have belatedly come to realize that knowing some Spanish would be a good idea. Of course, I have unreasonable expectations of myself. I expect to be fluent (by, say, next Fall), to the point where I won’t need a translator to help me understand a client who speaks no English, and I will be able to catch every nuance of the different variations of Spanish spoken by Mexicans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, and maybe I’ll pick up some Portuguese while I’m at it. The fact that I can barely say Hello and How are you, at this point, is irrelevant.
I’ve been using a basic Spanish language learning program through my local library, online, and I learn a few new words each day. Ayuda (Help!) looks like it will come in handy. The thing is, I love languages. I’m still trying to work on my French and Hebrew (since childhood) without much success, but with endless effort and enthusiasm. I am currently reading the Harry Potter books in French, and have a Hebrew copy en route.
There’s something wonderful about learning a new language. It gives you an automatic sympathy for the people who speak it that you may not have had any other way. There’s been great joy in discovering that I can pronounce a lot of Spanish words exactly as they are spelled (as opposed to French, where letters drop out without warning). I was thrilled, until Y’s and double L’s started to sound like G’s out of nowhere.
I have tried to practice my Spanish on the dogs, but they are not interested in learning a new language at this point. Cricket is used to some French (un, deux, trois, Jump!) and Butterfly doesn’t mind a few questions in broken Hebrew (Aypho ha kibble? Where is the kibble?) But there’s a limit to their tolerance for my insistence on learning every language but theirs. How have I not learned to woof, bark, arf, yip correctly after all this time? It’s obscene!
Un, deux, trois…
“Yum!”
Certain words seem to impress them more than others, though, like empanada, tres leches, and el queso. I think I must say the food words with a particular tone to my voice that marks them out as special. We are a family that is very food motivated.
“Mmm, stairs taste good!”
“Is it worth it?”
As I try to build my Spanish vocabulary, some phrases seem especially important, like: No Hablo Espanol (I do not speak Spanish), and No Comprendo (I don’t understand); and Lo siento (I am sorry) will also come in handy.
I was interested to see that To Write, in Spanish, is escribir. I guess it’s the same root as Scribe, but it makes me think of scribble. I love the idea of being a scribbler. It makes being a writer seem less stuffy and more playful. Then there’s una pregunta (a question), which makes me think of a pregnant woman, as if every question is filled with a sense of possibility and new birth, which it is, isn’t it?
Eventually, I will have to learn more grammar and sentence structure, but for now I’m satisfied with certain phrases that I can make use of right away: Como esta usted? (How are you?), Me llamo Rachel (My name is Rachel), tengo dos perros (I have two dogs), and Gracias (Thank you).
“A bientot! Oops, wait that’s French.”
rachelmankowitz 
I love that you are trying to learn new languages. Me, I’m not even sure I am fluent in English. LOL I think you will wind up being like my French teacher in college. She was Russian, lived in Germany much of her life, and then moved to America, where she taught French. I’m not sure what her French Connection was. Anyway, when she would get excited, you never knew what language was going to come out of her mouth.
Ha!
My daughter worked at restaurants to put herself through school. One Thanksgiving she brought home several kitchen workers, all Spanish speakers. She tried to translate for us. Her best error came when she said, ” your mother is a great turkey!” Once she realized her verb error, she translated back for them and we all laughed until we cried. It is now our favorite Thanksgiving line.
I’m expecting to have many, many humiliating translation errors in my lifetime.
That is so funny!
Oui, oui! Sounds Bueno to me, Rachel. Wouldn’t that be impressive for Cricket and Butterfly to be bilingual?! Good luck!
They are much smarter than I am, so I would not be surprised.
I can help you with Spanish!
Gracias!
Good for you! Tres bien! I think it’s wonderful. Keep practicing on the dogs, you’ll be fluent in no time. 🙂
Except that the dogs never tell me when I switch languages or use the wrong word. they give me their confused and suspicious looks no matter what I say.
Haha 🙂 Can’t trust a hound.
Loved this. I (generally) speak Spanish, & (30 years ago) had russian and french conversational fluency. Even had one experience speaking arabic – from a travel book. Great for a Sailor chatting with girls during ports o’ call. Best advice: train your mind to ONLY use that particular language w/o translating native to foreign.
My brain is not very good at being trained, but I’ll work on it. Thank you!
Oh. One drawback. You might end up talking to yourself in one language & answering yourself in another. C’est la vie!
I think I already do that!
I wish you a wondrous journey as you venture out into uncharted territory. I think you’re well on your way to having 3 more languages under your belt. 😊
At least three or four words in each, anyway. Thank you!
You’re most welcome.
Funny! I love how you associate “pregunta” with pregnant. But how about this? The word for “pregnant” is “embarazada”, which I always associate with “embarrassed”!! Buena suerte!
Oh no!
I like the three words empanada, tres leches, and el queso. Yum! I’m not bilingual but should be.(Oh wait, I do speak “dog.”) I once had a roommate who spoke German, French, Dutch, & English, all like a native. What I found most interesting was when she spoke English to me, she had an American accent, but when she spoke English to her mother from England, suddenly her pronunciation and slang were British. It happened automatically.
Accents are catching, that’s why my French sounds like it comes from Long Island instead of France.
As a parrot, I have no problem with another language. I just don’t know what I’m saying.
Have fun learning. Duolingo is a great app that you can download to your phone. It covers many languages,
That sounds really good!
Hola! You will be pleased to know that the public schools in Texas were teaching Spanish as electives in la escuela alta in the 1960s, and I took two years of it. My teacher was the football coach whose only qualification was that his wife was of Mexican descent. Great on conversational…weak on conjugating…verbs.
I would wish you the same success I had which was to learn The Lord’s Prayer in Spanish but that would be an unusual aspiration for a Jewish student – and quite a waste of time since no one is ever interested in hearing someone recite that prayer in Spanish. Brings any cocktail party conversation to a screeching halt.
Hasta la vista, chica!
Gracias!
Very admirable expectation.
One day I met a very sweet Mexican lady at Walmart. We started talking and she wanted to learn English and I wanted to practice my Spanish. The best way to learn is conversation with a native speaker. We started meeting once a week at the Walmart McDonald’s and became good friends. Buena suerte.
What a great idea!
I’m getting my first Spanish lesson from this post. Thank you!
Thank you!
I’m with tonianddrukaitis….conversation is a great way to learn. However, No hablo espanol is pretty much a useless phrase as you are saying it in Spanish, “How can you not speak Spanish when you are using this phrase?” No comprende or I don’t understand works better…I found this out in Nicaragua. I simply got a look like I was crazy if I answered No hablo espanol…perhaps un poquito(spelling highly questionable) works better too…good luck with your languages and tell Butterfly and Cricket their pitches are much harder to understand.
Thank you! I’ll let the girls know that they’re language is clearly superior to any of the human versions!
Good luck with the Spanish – an easier one to learn than Portuguese, I’d say! Enjoy! Pip and the boys
Thank you!
I tried to learn a few words of wherever we were going on holiday, and as it was frequently Spain, I eventually bought a Linguaphone course of tapes. It was excellent. I even bought the advanced course but only got halfway through because a) I got complacent and b) Partner threw away the walkman saying it wasn’t working properly!
Do try watching the news in Spanish, they speak nice and clearly. We have an advantage in that most Spaniards we know don’t speak Englsh, so it’s sink or speak Spanish. (Andalucían Spanish so similar accent to Latin America.) I find it easier than French now.
I do uno, dos, tres with Snowy for throwing the ball. He loves it. We do mix the languages with the (spanish) dogs.
El año que viene, hablaras con mucha confianza 🙂
When I try to watch Spanish language TV in the U.S. they speak so fast! I’ll have to look for a news show and see how that goes. Thank you!
Subtitles. That’s the trick to starting off 🙂
Ah!
Great post Rachel. Keep studying and one day you’ll be fluently speaking Spanish.
Thank you!
This is cool – it is never easy to learn a new language so kuddos to you! Recently I have become active in ministry that has a mission in the Dominican Republic and think maybe it is time I learn Spanish. Keep in mind…for 55 yrs I have had no big desire to learn a new language even German, although I know how to order off a menu if I ever go back – very important if I want to eat!! lol Good luck to you – I know you will learn quickly.
The need to eat well is the best motivator!
Good luck, if you need help with your Spanish or Portuguese just drop me a line. Hasta luego.
Gracias!
Don’t forget the most important phrase: donde esta el bano? (I don’t seem to be able to make accent marks, but that is: Where is the bathroom? Muy importante!)
Also: una mas cervaza! (One more beer!) To follow a long day of studying Spanish!
Muy importante! Gracias!
Hola! Mama is trying the Rosetta Stone for Spanish. She’s stuck on lesson 3 but still hanging in there! Ole! Woof! Good luck you can do it!!!!
Thank you! I dream of having a collection of Rosetta Stone language programs too large to fit into my apartment!
Hola! 😀
Hola!
When I was learning Spanish, “Mas despacio, por favor” was a phrase I used a lot. Good luck. I am still working away on my Pollish language and when I can’t think of a word in Polish, often the Spanish word comes to mind.
There are a lot of Polish speakers on Long Island as well. I may have to try that one next!
I grew up in Canada in the French province of Quebec and I had to take French in school. What I once resented I now appreciate. Kind of like vegetables. What was once a chore I now love. To me learning a new language grows new circuits in the brain too. A good thing as I age 😊.
Language learning is supposed to be one of the best anti-aging tools for the brain!
I’d like to learn Spanish too, but my husband is close to fluent and he is always looking for perfection…which makes me not want to learn it. I’d try a different language but Spanish makes the most sense in the U.S.
I say, send him out of the room and look for a fun language learning program that encourages you to try, no matter how many mistakes you might make.
I was hopeless at languages at school, speaking French with such a broad Dorset accent, they wouldn’t let me take it at O level even if I’d wanted to! In my adult life though, I am surprised how much I can remember, and although I am miles away from being fluent, I can understand a fair bit of the basic stuff. As for talking dog language, with Maggie it’s all in the body movement…….. turning off the PC means walkies, getting up to the sink means the biscuits are in the cupboard underneath, and walking up the Hgh Street, she knows where the pet shop is for free samples!
They have incredible memories for the important stuff!
Don’t they just!
That was great! I tried to learn German last year (I was inspired by a German Chocolate cake I made–the cake turned out better than my studies–oh well–you are off to a much better start than me). Que Dios la bendiga! 🙂
Thank you!
Here are a couple of phrases that will come in handy. Quero Vino Por favor. And una mad cerveza. 😉 That’s the extent of my Spanish but those phrases have served me well. Good luck with your studies. I love the sound of spanish. Sometimes a single sentence can sound like music…
I’m going to have to find out how to say chocolate cake in Spanish.
Very funny post, Rachel. I’m impressed that you already know French and Hebrew enough to read Harry Potter in them!
I’m doing better with French, so far. I’m used to reading Hebrew with vowel sounds underneath, and I forgot that Hebrew is often printed without the vowels. I see a headache coming on.
I use my iPhone and pull up google. There is a language translator which is very helpful. I show them my English word or phrase, and the Spanish equivalent. Wonderful to see the light bulb moment when we understand each other a bit more.
This is why I need to give in and buy an iPhone.
Or just use your computer. Baby steps.
After 4 years of high school French and later dating a Frenchman for 4 years I went to France only to be told by an older Frenchwoman, “Speak English slowly, I can understand that better than your French.” eh bien.
Oh no!
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, Sarah! Briliantly written, funny, sparky and so very true.
Sorry, Rachel! I really don’t know why I called you Sarah, and there’s no way to edit the comment.
Thank you so much!
Great post. I took a Spanish for Social Workers class in my graduate school eons ago. I got an A+. But I was too shy to try to speak it where I was working which was a shame because my supervisor was from Chile and many of my co-workers were Puerto Rican and one was Mexican. I took French in high school and college but could read it better than speak it. Now, not so much. When I had a commute longer than the ten minutes I have now I would listen to French languages on tape. It’s on my bucket list. But without actual practice…
Good luck with your lessons.
I would love to have a Spanish for Social workers class! There are so many words that I would need on a daily basis that would never show up in a regular beginner class.
Muy bien Rachel! It is great that you are learning Spanish. That is my native language and for me, learning English was harder with casual conversations than with formal language. Then I learned that English has 15 different sounds for the vowels and it was hard! But once I started thinking in English I knew that I learned enough to communicate. Now my brain tricks me because I think in both languages some times! : ) Be patience, you will learn more and more until it feels natural. Felicidades! y besos y abrazos para tus perros : )
Gracias! English is well known for stealing from other languages, so I think you can safely add more and more Spanish words into your English vocabulary without anyone minding.
Never give up, never surrender =) I wish I were multilingual everyday!
It is fun to learn another language. I have been to Tokyo 8 times in the past 9 years and can still only manage hello, thankyou, good/morning, day/evening, excuse me and two coffees please. Each visit I say I am going to learnt properly but get distracted by life. Next year!
You may be able to speak the language as well as you want to, but you probably understand a ton of what you hear around you!
Good luc with your studies. I have found Spanish very useful.
Keep it up Rachel. I used to live in California and Texas and my Spanish was decent because i got to practice a lot. Now not so much but one thing I’ve noticed is that the Spanish speaking people I’ve met are very tolerant and appreciative when you try out your Spanish with them and willing to teach you new vocabulary.
I will have to rely heavily on the kindness of strangers.
No quiero dar consejos, pero permitame recomendar dos sitios web…
Si Ud. quiere encontrar “compañeros de idioma o lenguaje” puede ir a italki.com–allí yo encontré muchos amigos con quien practicar el ruso y el japonés.
Ahora yo sigo practicando el Ruso con Duolingo.com. Me gusta porque es como un juego y las lecciones son breves y ademas lo mas importante: GRATIS. ¡JA JA JA!
Buena suerte, ¡me encanta su blog! Ciao….
Buena suerta and gracias!
I know what you mean about speaking the language of a country you are in or going to. I spent four years learning French at Uni and never really used it, though I love the language. So two years Go I determined to
Sorry don’t know how that happened, so I went to France for the first time last year and started to speak it again. I was lucky to make friends there and for the past year we have skyped on a weekly basis. My French has dramatically improved and I can have those deeper conversations we all want. Keep at it Rachel!
A lofty goal to learn another language. It will open doors to other cultures as well. I can relate to your impatience and unrealistic goals. The first day I learned to read in elementary school I came home and expected that I was able to read the newspaper from A to Z. I was a bit disappointed that I could not but never lost my enthusiasm for it.
Wow! Congratulations on your quest to learn new languages. I haven’t tried to learn a new one since high school Spanish and I was quite terrible at it. Though, I think I probably put little effort into it. I always thought that it was too hard, but strangely, after reading this, I might give it another try.
Even when I don’t improve, I still like the lessons.
Well done. Learning a different language is very tough. It’s about year nine of me part time learning Mandarin. But I love it. I just love your furry babies too.
Thank you!
English, of course, is far worse than French for spelling and pronunciation being out of kilter. George Bernard Shaw claimed GHOTI was pronounced FISH: GH is pronounced F as in ROUGH; O is pronounced I as in WOMEN; TI is pronounced SH as in ACTION. His solution, to make spelling precisely follow pronunciation, is silly for various reasons: you lose clues to what the word means; pronunciation varies from place to place (in Britain, for example, we do NOT pronounced MISSILE as MISSAL) and also changes considerably over time.
The French for “write” is of course very close to the Spanish: ECRIRE. Both from Latin SCRIBERE.
The fact that you’ll be using your newly acquired vocabulary in direct contact with native speakers is a great advantage. I’m sure you’ll manage just fine as time progresses. 🙂 I love “picking up” bits and pieces of Hebrew by listening to modern Israeli vocal pop music. The phrases and words in the lyrics remain imprinted on my memory and sort of echo back every time I hear them in a new context.
My best friend in Junior high was Israeli and brought lots of Israeli pop music to the friendship. For a few moments there, I was almost fluent.
I took Spanish in high school but I didn’t like it. Mostly because my older sister “helped” by hitting me on the head with the book every time I got something wrong. I think that’s the reason I often get lost walking through my own house and why I drool occasionally. Good luck and stay away from my sister!
Ouch!
I was learning to speak Russian when my old lab was a puppy, so, when we were at the dog park surrounded by so many other people saying “Come!” and “Sit!” I used Russian (and a little Ukrainian) to speak to her. Now, 14 years later, I don’t even realize when I’m using it anymore, which has earned me some curious looks. (The really funny thing is that I’m still talking to her even though she’s gone deaf). My dog Russian is pretty much the only Russian I remember anymore!
Good luck with the Spanish!
I had a dog who knew Yiddish!
I’m quite sure that knowing multiple languages is good for dogs’ brains, too.
I envy people who can speak multiple languages and wish I had a knack for it.
Me too.