Transcription
I've lived in Mexico for 4 years now, and I still mess up basic Spanish every single day. Not complex sentences, not advanced vocabulary, but basic vowel sounds. And the weirdest part is, nobody really talks about this. Everyone says, "Oh, just immerse yourself. You'll pick it up." But that hasn't been my experience at all.
And when I moved to Mexico, I had this idea in my head. You know, give it a year, maybe two, I'll be fluent. You hear that all the time. Immersion is the fastest way to learn a language. And to be fair, you know, you do improve. You know, and I can handle basic daily life stuff. You know, I can order food most of the time. Unless they don't understand my pronunciation. You know, I can talk to people with really basic, rudimentary sentences, and I can deal with, you know, some basic situations. But there's a huge gap between functioning [snorts] and actually expressing yourself. And that gap is way bigger than I want, and way bigger than I expected it to be when I first thought about moving to Mexico.
You know, and the truth is, at some point, you hit a wall. And you know, it's not obvious at first because technically, you're doing fine. You're surviving, you're communicating. But you stop improving at the same pace, and your Spanish kind of levels off. You start avoiding, you know, more complex or difficult conversations rather than, you know, how to get things done in a store or how to order food. So you simplify what you're trying to say because you don't have the vocabulary, or the sentence structure, or the pronunciation. And it's not because you don't have the thoughts, it's because you don't have the language to match them. And after a while, that can be pretty frustrating and could lead you to not try to speak Spanish as much in the future.
Now, for me, one of the biggest struggles has absolutely been, without a doubt, pronunciation. And I'm not talking about rolling your Rs. You know, that's pretty obvious because most people, most foreigners, do a really bad job of it. You know, that's an obvious one. I'm talking about vowels. A, E, I, O, U. Except they're not the same as they are in English. And if you get one vowel slightly wrong, you can sound completely off. Like, I can say a full sentence correctly, but one sound is off, and then the whole thing just feels wrong. Or the person you're talking to is so focused on the word that you mispronounced that they really don't even understand the gist of the sentence or the conversation. They're focusing on that one word. They have no idea what the hell you just said. Because, and it does mess with your confidence. There's no doubt about it, because you know what you're trying to say, but it's not coming out the way it sounds in your head. You know, it's in here, right? But it comes out here wrong.
And this is something I don't hear people talk enough about, and that's, I have a learning disability. You know, I am somewhere on the autistic spectrum. So for me, language pronunciation doesn't come as naturally as it might for other people. You know, repetition helps, but it's a slower learning process. Certain sounds don't lock in the way you would expect after years of exposure. So people say, "Just practice more." Or, "I can't believe that you've lived here for 3 years and you can't pronounce Querétaro correctly." Yeah, I am. It just doesn't click the same way.
Now, another thing that has really surprised me is that not everything in Mexico is actually Spanish. A lot of the words, and not so much in basic language, but certainly a lot of the towns and cities, they come from pre-Hispanic languages. Like, let me see if I pronounce this right. Nahuatl? I'm probably pronouncing it wrong. So you learn Spanish, what you think is Spanish, but it's actually an entirely different language. And then you hear a word that doesn't follow any of the patterns that you've been practicing. And I can tell you, when I spend time in the state of Michoacán, there are so many cities and towns that are not Spanish. And I've had people tell me 30, 40, 50 times, "This is how you pronounce it." And I hear it, but it won't come out of my mouth the same way. My tongue just doesn't work. So now, when you're used to dealing with Spanish, you're dealing with different sounds and different structures, and it adds an entirely different layer to the complexity of learning this language and being able to communicate. You know, things with, you know, names of food, places, everyday things. So it's not just, "Oh, learn some Spanish and you're good." It's frankly quite more complex than that.
Now, the hardest part isn't even the mechanics. It's the psychological side. You don't realize how much of your personality is tied to language until you try to express yourself and you can't. In English, I have lots of ideas, I can tell stories, I can be sarcastic, I can be funny, I can be precise. Yeah, not so much in Spanish. It usually gets a response of, "What are you trying to say?" And then I have to tell them in English, and then they tell me in Spanish. And then I repeat it, and they're like, "No, that's not quite right." And back and forth, back and forth. And so that's really a disconnect between who you are and what you can convey in a language that's not your own as you're learning it. And it's a disconnect, and it can wear on you, and it's definitely has worn on me. Um, because the people that you're dealing with aren't interacting with the real you. They're interacting with the limited version of you.
And then, and this is really kind of been a sore point for me, you've got this whole other layer. Other expats, other gringos who just love to sit up on their high horse and judge. Like, if you're not fluent, you're not trying hard enough, and they're so much better than you because they can speak Spanish. Allegedly. 'Cause I've never seen any of these people that actually speak Spanish. They sure can leave comments and make fun of me. But can they really speak Spanish? Hmm. Sometimes I doubt it. Or you're doing something wrong, and it's like, you don't know my situation. You don't know how I learn. You don't know what I've put into this to learn. Everyone's experience with language is different. Some pick it up really fast. Some don't. And that's the reality.
And to me, it comes down to effort. And to be honest with you, I've had very few Mexicans criticize my pronunciation. Most of them are trying to figure out what the hell I just said. But they're also very supportive because I am trying to communicate in Spanish, and I'm not insisting that they communicate with me in English, because that's kind of silly. And I don't live in an area where a lot of people speak English. So yeah, after 4 years in Mexico, I'm still trying to figure it out. And I'm better than when I started, but I'm sure not where I thought I'd be. And maybe that's the real takeaway. Immersion helps, but it's not magic. And for some of us, it just takes a lot longer than people like to admit.
So if you're struggling with learning Spanish, drop a comment down below. Or if you figured out some better ways to speed up the process, leave a comment, too, because I would love to learn an easier way, or a better way, or some way I haven't tried. And if you found some value in this video, please share it with somebody else, and I will see you in the next video. Silver Fox in Mexico. Peace. I'm out.