Learning language forever......and ever....

Many people have asked me if I'm fluent in Spanish yet, in short, no. I do expand on this and if your interested, continue on.

I want to start first by saying, if you have learned a second language (well and with fluidity) you will know how much work it is and that the term 'learn' relating to language learning is defined quite differently with every person I meet. 

If I review my last month, I spent a lot of time in Spanish. I spoke with people from the brief 2 minute conversation in the grocery store to visiting official government offices and paper work, to spending 5 hours one on one with a spaniard. I can not only survive in this culture with my Spanish, I am slowly (and I do mean slow) making friends and am helping little by little in the work of the church. 

To most people, this could be seen as fluent. What you may not know, is I still can get lost in a sermon, I still ask people to repeat themselves, I mix my conjugations to no end, manage to butcher a simple story in the past tense, freeze up if speaking in front of more then a few people and much more. So.... yes, I am communicating for sure, people even understand me... normally, but I have not arrived. 

All this to say, people judge fluency on different levels. Some want to be able to order bread, others pay their bills, tell a joke or maybe even preach a sermon. To me fluency is sharing about things deeper in my life and about the God I have come to know. I want to be able to chit chat in Spanish but my dream is to be able to talk about the miracles God has done in my life. I have not arrived there though I sometimes feel I am brushing the surface even while I make a complete mess at the same time.

I have talked to many people who have learned a language and most when honest say it really can take up to four years. I do know others who are gifted in language learning and can do it faster. Neither Angela or I am one of those (ask my Hebrew prof in college!). I was talking to a friend who has lived here for around 12 years. He has probably one of the best handles on this language that I know and he still uses a tutor once a week to brush up on his own Spanish. This is a long journey and to honest I am tired of speaking like a child. But for anyone who has achieved or mastered anything in life knows that it is not done in one or too years. I am doing this not just for me but for Spain and ultimately God, and for Him we are called to give and do our best.