I have spent the last 9 months living and working as an au pair in Málaga, Spain. In this time, I’ve seen a dramatic increase in my Spanish ability (roughly C1 level at this point, if I had to guess).
I have no problems understanding people in conversations, and I can converse about pretty much anything without much difficulty. I can watch youtube videos in Spanish without subtitle and understand them, and I’ve been working on watching TV shows/movies without subtitle (although I still rely on subtitles occasionally, as TV shows tend to be more difficult).
However, this all changes when I am in a group of my friends. It’s as if I have gone back to being a beginning speaker every time I find myself in a group of native speakers. Things are just moving too fast, too many conversations are happening, and it feels like my brain just can’t process it all fast enough!
I assume this is normal, but every time I find myself in these situations, I worry that I may be overvaluing myself as a Spanish speaker. Unfortunately, today marks my last day in Spain, and I will be returning to the US tomorrow. I will definitely be back to Spain in the near future. (At this point, I don’t think I could live with myself if I never achieve native speaker fluency!)
Does anyone relate to this, or have any advice? I’d love to hear from you all!
[link] [comments]
from B’a’ntulena | Languagelearning http://bit.ly/2QBooYE
via Learn Online English Speaking
Comments
Post a Comment