By the time I arrived by taxicab to my host family's apartment in Granada, Spain, I was jet-lagged and exhausted. They immediately made me feel welcome and their warmth and friendliness lifted my spirits and gave me energy. I did struggle to understand much of what they said to me. In fact, one of the first things my host mother said to me (in Spanish) was, "You don't speak a lot of Spanish?" to which I admitted reluctantly no, I don't.
After a delicious lunch and long walk around the city with my host family, I went to take shower. Just as I am finishing rinsing my hair of shampoo, I take a step to turn around and slip on the bathtub floor as the bathmat slips out from under my feet. As I fall, I catch the shower curtain and the whole contraption comes falling down with me. It was loud. The type of loud where you know they heard you. And sure enough from the other room I hear, "Monica?" called in a way that, in addition to having a Spanish accent, seems to include multiple question marks after my name. I am able to answer that I am ok, but I panic as I try to figure out how to tell complete strangers that on my first day in their house, I have broken something this big and in Spanish no less!
After trying to fix the metal rods that hold up the curtain and failing miserably, I am able to dress and open the door. They are crowded around it as I am forced to show them what happened. As soon as they ascertain that I am ok, they can't seem to stop laughing. I am relieved that they are not angry but I have never been more mortified in my life. My host mother could tell and she grabbed my head and kissed it, before helping me wash the rest of the shampoo out of my hair in the sink.
As I tried to reason through my immense embarrassment, I realized the silver lining to this situation: it can't get more embarrassing than that! I had experienced the embarrassing event, my family was more nice about it than I could ever hope for, and life moved on.
New experiences are just like riding horses, (which I have done for years). You need to practice riding the horse but you also need to practice falling off, otherwise, you spend your whole ride worrying about falling off just because you don't know what it's like. I had fallen, literally in the shower, but figuratively off the horse, and it wasn't that bad; I survived. In fact, it is still a bit of a joke in my house here in Granada, and now I am able to laugh about it with my host family. We ended up actually bonding over a situation that at first seemed only negative.
The same idea applies to learning a new language. Because I can be a bit of a perfectionist, for me it has been important to accept the fact that I am going to make mistakes when trying to communicate in Spanish. I’m sure that I have butchered many syntax, gender, grammar, and other Spanish language rules, when I have spoken in class, with my host family, or at restaurants and stores. However practicing the language and making those mistakes is preferable to not trying to use the language at all for fear of making them. And I have noticed that my Spanish is improving, I am making those mistakes less often. I am making new ones. I am learning more and more and I am becoming more effective at communicating in Spanish. So to mistakes, all I have to say is, gracias.
After a delicious lunch and long walk around the city with my host family, I went to take shower. Just as I am finishing rinsing my hair of shampoo, I take a step to turn around and slip on the bathtub floor as the bathmat slips out from under my feet. As I fall, I catch the shower curtain and the whole contraption comes falling down with me. It was loud. The type of loud where you know they heard you. And sure enough from the other room I hear, "Monica?" called in a way that, in addition to having a Spanish accent, seems to include multiple question marks after my name. I am able to answer that I am ok, but I panic as I try to figure out how to tell complete strangers that on my first day in their house, I have broken something this big and in Spanish no less!
After trying to fix the metal rods that hold up the curtain and failing miserably, I am able to dress and open the door. They are crowded around it as I am forced to show them what happened. As soon as they ascertain that I am ok, they can't seem to stop laughing. I am relieved that they are not angry but I have never been more mortified in my life. My host mother could tell and she grabbed my head and kissed it, before helping me wash the rest of the shampoo out of my hair in the sink.
As I tried to reason through my immense embarrassment, I realized the silver lining to this situation: it can't get more embarrassing than that! I had experienced the embarrassing event, my family was more nice about it than I could ever hope for, and life moved on.
New experiences are just like riding horses, (which I have done for years). You need to practice riding the horse but you also need to practice falling off, otherwise, you spend your whole ride worrying about falling off just because you don't know what it's like. I had fallen, literally in the shower, but figuratively off the horse, and it wasn't that bad; I survived. In fact, it is still a bit of a joke in my house here in Granada, and now I am able to laugh about it with my host family. We ended up actually bonding over a situation that at first seemed only negative.
The same idea applies to learning a new language. Because I can be a bit of a perfectionist, for me it has been important to accept the fact that I am going to make mistakes when trying to communicate in Spanish. I’m sure that I have butchered many syntax, gender, grammar, and other Spanish language rules, when I have spoken in class, with my host family, or at restaurants and stores. However practicing the language and making those mistakes is preferable to not trying to use the language at all for fear of making them. And I have noticed that my Spanish is improving, I am making those mistakes less often. I am making new ones. I am learning more and more and I am becoming more effective at communicating in Spanish. So to mistakes, all I have to say is, gracias.
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