If I have to look up the verb dejar (to leave or let) in any of it's charming tenses one more time, I'm going to lose it.
A few pages later.
'Dejéis'? Oh what's this?
Flip to well-worn page in my dictionary.... Discover it is the present subjunctive of dejar.......
Damn it.
(Just something pretty to look at for this post - this is from a lookout over Granada.)
If you've never played Taboo before, it's a lot of fun. The basic principle of the game is that you draw a card with a noun and a list of other words normally used to describe that noun, written on it. You must convey to your partner or team members the noun written on your card without using any of the forbidden words, as quickly as possible. It requires perseverance and creativity; the game is surprisingly challenging, even for the most dedicated logophile.
I've found that trying to communicate in a language immersion environment is a lot like playing Taboo.... except not only are you missing nouns (vocabulary is invaluable, kids), you are missing verbs, adjectives - entire tenses and many an irregular conjugation. Let me tell you, it's hard to tell a story or explain anything entirely in the present tense, and with knowledge of less than half of the words you would otherwise use.
At the beginning of last semester, I was practically deaf and mute. I felt one dimensional and stupid - I spoke like a caveman and could barely express an opinion. It is shocking to realize how much you take language for granted, when you arrive in a foreign country and don't know how to ask for ketchup at a restaurant or get directions if you are wandering around lost - the effect is surreal. How you communicate yourself to, and receive information from, the world is dependent upon our ability to use language. Forget what all the communication experts tell you about 93% of communication being non-verbal. Sure, I've learned to utilize my gesticulations and facial expressions all the more since coming here, but sometimes playing charades, the extended version is just flailing around scaring the person you are trying to communicate with.
I think that the greatest misconception about study abroad is the idea that by going abroad for a semester or 8 months, you'll come home speaking like a native. Obviously mastery of the language before leaving the United States is a huge factor, but if we're just talking about your average monolingual student, there is no magical transformation to speak of. Speaking and understanding French in France is not like eating baguettes and Nutella in French class in high school. Nor is learning classroom vocabulary (lápiz.... bolígrafo), or the difference between por and para much help when you're on the phone speaking in Spanish with a potential landlord, apartment hunting in Spain.
Not to undermine the amazing opportunity to learn that language immersion will provide you with. You will learn a language exponentially faster and more completely through language immersion in a foreign country. No number of classes at CSU or Rosetta Stone CDs can compare with living and studying within the language, there is no doubt about that. Just remember that human beings are not Pokemon. If you arrive with a beginner or intermediate level, though you are not going to spontaneously evolve into fluency, you will undoubtedly improve enormously in leaps and bounds.
You can learn the language quickly because you will be constantly affronted with the opportunity to learn and practice - not because language immersion is some sort of magic potion. It takes a lot of effort, concentration, and embarrassing conversations to learn a language. Don't assume that you can go to a foreign country, surround yourself with American friends from your study abroad program, waste your time watching your favorite American TV shows on Hulu, Google translate all your homework assignments, and still learn the language.
To learn the most in what time you have, I recommend constantly forcing yourself to speak the language and avoiding English whenever possible. Meeting and making native friends is also a huge part of not only language, but cultural immersion. As English speakers our widely spread culture and dominant "international language" can be found almost anywhere in the world. For this reason, it takes an enormous will power not to digress into the soft cushion of English language and American culture you could undoubtedly surround yourself in. Don't build yourself a mini-United States in your host country. I know students in my program who Skype their boy/girlfriends every night and always go to the same, English speaking pub with the same group of American and Canadian friends every night. There is nothing wrong with staying in touch with home or making long lasting American friends. Just remember to live in the here and now - you are studying abroad, and this is a once in a lifetime kind of experience. Challenge yourself, break out of your comfort zone, set reasonable goals, and laugh at yourself, even if it is the 17th time you've had to look up that word in your dictionary.
It is a slow, often frustrating, but always rewarding process. Most importantly it is just that. A process, not a miraculous transformation, but something you must work at. 'Poco a poco' all of my Spanish friends tell me. Little by little, I am learning.
