Consider this: You’re itching to go to Spain — images of a country brimming with endless sights and culture playing through your mind. But, instead of speaking the language with fluency and a natural accent that has your Spanish teacher handing you an ‘A’ faster than you bat an eye at the hot Spaniard in a Barcelona nightclub, you butcher the language. Your ‘hola’ sounds more like ‘holler’ than ‘ola.’ What’s a linguistically-challenged collegiette™ to do?
She’s definitely not to toss aside all hopes and dreams of a time abroad — that’s for certain. Whether or not you will have a course geared toward mastering the language within your study abroad curriculum, your immersion in the country and daily interactions with its people will have you picking up bits and pieces of the native tongue in no time. Still, if you’re worried of majorly sticking your foot in your mouth, fear not. Let us provide you with some help.
Do some prep work; remember the first week back to language class every year? It always consisted of some big-time catch-up in order to ready you for a new year chock full of new information. Well, ladies, it’s time for you to do just that: review and catch-up as much as you possibly can. We’ve all always been secretly envious of the multilingual people in the Rosetta Stone commercials and with your pending time abroad you now have a legitimate excuse to buy the product! Whatever your style — flash cards, websites, CDs — put in some effort to get control of the language before your departure.
Make mistakes (and be ok with it!). You will quickly come to accept that your speech will not be perfect, probably not even close, at least for a while. Falling back on speaking English will not help that though. Locals will be tickled, honored even, by your feeble attempts to speak their language. Think about it the way my grandmother put it when this exact fear was running through my mind. (Don’t laugh: if mom knows best, grandma knows better.) Have you ever been annoyed when someone from a foreign country approached you with a question, attempting — but not succeeding — to speak flawless English? No! So, when the situation is reversed, you shouldn’t expect anything different.
Practice often. Once you get over the difficult hump of actually opening your mouth to speak with locals on occasion, keep at it. If your program sets up a language exchange with college students from your host country, take advantage of it. Even if they don’t, look for one on your own through your home or host university. When I was in Spain, my program set up what they called “intercambios” where we met every so often with college-age Spaniards simply to chat. They practiced their English as we practiced our Spanish so embarrassment was not even an issue. It’s likely that I learned more ins and outs of the language during those few short meetings than I did in my classes. Moral of the story: Pounce on any chance you have to interact and speak with locals. You’ll be a pro in no time!
HC Love,
Sarah, Your HC Travel Expert