Day 56: What Language Barrier?
Just dive in.
As we creep up on the 2-month mark I’m finding myself getting a tiny bit bolder with language. While I still rely heavily on DeepL (our translation app of choice) and tend to speak in nouns or verbs rather than complete sentences beyond the ones I have down rote, I am starting to put myself in more challenging situations.
One of the things I’d said I wanted to do once we were “settled” was to take classes in things I understand (painting, dance, yoga) that were led in Spanish. My theory: the combination of familiar and unfamiliar will help me put the puzzle pieces of the language into place. I will ultimately find a weekly class in something so I can gradually go from floundering to fluent, but yesterday I jumped into the deep end and went to a “Active Meditation Workshop with Woven Mandalas”.
I messaged (with the help of DeepL) first to see if I would be welcome with my rudimentary Spanish knowledge.
“Hola — Estoy interesada en la clase de mandala. Soy nueva en Valencia y estoy aprendiendo español, por lo que necesitaría seguir sus acciones más que sus palabras. ¿Seré bienvenida en la clase?
(Usé DeepL para escribir esto así que por favor perdona cualquier error)
Malik”
They replied, en español, that I’d be welcome. The teacher also sent me a note, in English, via the shop and said that she’d be able to help me along. I breathed a sigh of relief. I signed up, and got a couple friends to sign up with me.
I forgot about small-talk.
Through a comedy of errors fueled by my late night on Friday, I got to the class a full 30-minutes early and got to do my best to wade through small talk with the other early birds. Everyone was very kind and patient with me, and I honestly was able to follow along with the gist of the conversations happening at warp speed around me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief when Lee and Phil showed up! There were 12 students, the teacher, and the shop owner and the three of us were the only Native English speakers. The teacher spoke English, and a couple of the other students had “some English.” (So far, every Spanish person who’s told us they speak “some English” is FAR better at our language than we are at theirs. Humbling isn’t a strong enough word.)
The class started with an explanation of the indigenous people of Mexico who created these mandalas, about what they mean to them, and how they’re made. She taught us about the importance of the number 5 and how the mandalas are seen as a source of protection for new babies. At least that’s what I was able to glean from the presentation.
She led us through a meditation that worked through the chakra points from crown to root. She explained the plan for the meditation in English but the meditation itself was done in Spanish. I was surprised at how well I was able to drop into the meditation despite the language difference! I found a color when directed (unexpectedly landing on orange — not typically one of my colors) and gleaned when it was time to emerge back into the room.
The making was easy enough to follow regardless of language, and we all settled into the task at hand. The process was the perfect blend of mind-clearing repetitive motion and brain activating focus. And we got to leave with our pretties!
The afternoon continued a pace — navigating public transit with a side of small talk when I ran into some of my classmates on the metro platform and using the Spanish menu at a restaurant and maintaining the use of español even when going “off-book”. It helped that our lunch dates were just as committed to sticking to español with the waiters as we were.
The rest of Day 56 was spent quietly at home, with a long siesta and dinner on the terrace. Another wonderful weekend day and proof positive that Spain in general and Valencia in particular is where I’m meant to be.
