A Struggling Spanish Learner

Ever since I was a young girl, I have always wanted to learn Spanish. In this post I would like to describe my difficulties in acquiring this third language as a student at university. 

In my first year at the Hebrew University, I enrolled at the Latin and Spanish Department.  As a first year student, I had to take an annual course in Spanish. I took Spanish for beginners with a professor who could barely speak Hebrew, or explain the material in a language other than Spanish. Since most of the students had backpacked in Central and South America, they were able to understand what the teacher said in class. I felt that the professor only paid attention to the students whose Spanish was intermediate while intentionally ignoring the ones who could not understand Spanish whatsoever.

 I am certain that the intermediate students did not feel as lost as I did in these classes. I remember sitting in that classroom, and feeling stupid because I could neither understand what the teacher was saying, nor the topic she was teaching.

Throughout that year, I worked at home for many hours in order to cover the material studied in class. I remember doing grammar exercises and trying to memorize all the irregular verbs in Spanish. All in all, I cannot say that this hard work actually paid off.

 For me, one of the most difficult issues was to study a grammar topic which does not have an equivalent in neither Hebrew nor English. For Example: Spanish has a past tense called the imperfecto. It is a mixture of the present perfect, past progressive and more components. It is also used for telling time and stating one's age. Understanding the imperfecto was very challenging for me.

 How do you grasp the concept of something that you have never heard of and which does not exist in the languages that you speak?

I feel that for me the imperfecto was the last straw. At the end of the semester, feeling extremely frustrated, I left the Spanish and Latin Studies Department and dropped Spanish all together .

 I am certain that if I'd  had a better teacher, I would not have quit my Spanish studies.

If you  asked me today what I learned during that year in Spanish class at university, it would be difficult for me to answer.

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I did not acquire Spanish that year. Instead, it happened when I was in Guatemala.  This will be the topic of my next blog entry, so stay tuned! 

Until next time adios amigos!!!