Hablas Español

Growing up as a multi-generation Mexican-American family (the first record of my ancestors being in the US was in the 1840s) everyone I knew spoke little to no real Spanish. Occasionally, my grandmother would use Spanish to say things to other adults she didn’t want us to understand but mostly, she stuck to English.

I didn’t realize I was missing anything important until I was in high school and had an F in Spanish. It was embarrassing and I wondered if my Mexican status should be revoked. I complained to my mother but she was of no help. To her, there was no need for us to learn a language we would not use. We didn’t have any family living in Mexico.

To pass my class, I asked my nephew’s babysitter to teach me. She was struggling to learn English so it was a win-win situation. That was the ironic part of the story, we had a person working in our home every day who only spoke Spanish, and my family still didn’t think we needed to be fluent.

Fast forward to today, I try hard to listen to music, watch tv and movies exclusively in Spanish to become more fluent. I can understand most of it most of the time. I occasionally have to look up a word or two. I can even muddle through conversations with people in Spanish, although my pronunciation and tongue rolling are trash.

Still, there’s so much I want to learn. In my dreams, I have a native speaker somewhere in my brain waiting to emerge como una mariposa saliendo de su capullo.

Are you fluent in any languages? Tell me all about your bilingual dreams or journey below.