But none of it has really seemed to stick long-term, which is why this year I decided to commit to learning Spanish with Rosetta Stone, a program that’s been in the language game for 27 years and is widely regarded as one of the best - if not the best - system for learning a language in the world. Since then, I’ve only been back to Spanish speaking countries intermittently and attempted to keep up my Spanish by trying different apps and even took a couple weeks of classes during my time in Buenos Aires. My Journey to Learning a New Foreign Language with Rosetta Stone By reading signs and menus and listening to friends speak Spanish with locals in their slower accents, I began to pick up on words that were previously so foreign to me. Slowly over the course of those four months, I started to be able to get down the basics of things like introductions, asking essential questions (❽ónde está el baño?) and ordering off a menu. I even briefly dated someone during that time who was originally from Chile and although he was a fantastic English speaker, I started to listen to conversations he was having in Spanish with friends. Then I spent a four month stretch in Spanish speaking countries: I started in Mexico and then made my way to Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru. I emphasize “get by” because communicating with someone from another culture in English is much different than communicating with them in their native language.ĭuring those first few months abroad, I traveled to Bali, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and India, hopping through a spectrum of cultures whose native languages were intimidating beyond belief. As Americans, we’re spoiled because even though it’s not ideal, you can get away with speaking English in most places and get by. When I first left my corporate fashion marketing job in 2016 to embark on a year-long solo adventure, I was feeling pretty inadequate with little foreign language skills under my belt. Fast forward about 12 years and I decided to become a travel blogger. I made it through my foreign language credit and then promptly discontinued all language learning from there on out. Instead, I made the decision to start fresh with Spanish 1o1 to fulfill my credit. At the time, I was about 5 years deep into learning French, but my idiotic fresh-to-college-mindset at the time convinced me that being placed into an intermediate or advanced French class would be too hard. I’ll never forget my first semester of college at Syracuse University where it was required for my degree to take a minimum of one semester of a foreign language. One of the biggest regrets I have in my adult life is that I didn’t take foreign language learning more seriously when I was growing up - and I’m willing to bet a lot of you can relate.
0 kommentar(er)
