What Majoring in Spanish Won’t Teach You About Language
My first semester of college, I had to take Spanish as a general education course. That semester, I fell in love with the language because of the new “immersive” environment that I was learning in–where professors spoke in Spanish the whole time–regardless of whether or not we understood. It was an exciting type of sink or swim situation. Contrary, high school classes had focused on passing a state examination at the end of the year with little speaking, listening or culture involved. Like many students, I found a passion in learning about other cultures in college and believed that taking Spanish courses would make me fluent.
“A college Spanish program focusing on literature will not teach you how to truly speak Spanish.”
I added a second major with the vague title of “Spanish”, quickly realizing that title referred to mostly Spanish literature course–Latin American literature, nineteenth century Spanish literature and even courses about zombies, in Spanish. What most students don’t realize is that Spanish literature courses are essentially high school English classes, but all in Spanish–similes, metaphors, you name it. You are expected to make arguments, think about abstract topics and themes, and compare and contrast different works in a second language. This would be drastically helpful if as a student you came into college with almost native-level fluency, but most of us start these courses with Spanish skills similar to a native third-grader’s Spanish.
“There was a developmental stage in our Spanish learning that was missing–we had gone from the basics to the highest form of the language too quickly.”
Unfortunately, most of my peers and I would miss whatever complex argument our professor had to say because we were busy either looking up the vocabulary of the text or struggling to connect the Spanish we heard with meaning in our brains. There was a developmental stage in our Spanish learning that was missing–we had gone from the basics to the highest form of the language too quickly. The only way to keep up, for most students, was through complete translation, a cycle that left many of us not learning Spanish at all.
“Through full-immersion, I learned how to communicate imperfectly but effectively.”
It is easy to find the flaws in an educational program; one program does not work for everyone. As an extroverted person, I wasn’t always excited to sit down to read for my classes. The best part about a Spanish program; however, is the chance to improve your language skills through studying abroad, which is how I learned the majority of my Spanish today. Through full-immersion in Spain, I learned how to communicate imperfectly but effectively. Cashiers, bartenders and new friends didn’t care if I conjugated a verb wrong mid-sentence–they knew what I meant and were patient enough to work through my difficulties with me. In the classroom, we focused on speaking the entire time and professors would gently correct us only if it was necessary.
“While a noble pursuit, Spanish natives and I didn’t discuss eighteenth century Hispanic literature while hanging out at the beach. It was pop culture that connected us.”
For the first time, I was learning how to be confident while speaking Spanish rather than perfect. I heard music at bars and from friends’ recommendations and began looking up the lyrics to every song to perfect my listening. Popular Spanish shows on Netflix helped me as well, and I now had talking points with new Spanish friends. While a noble pursuit, Spanish natives and I didn’t discuss eighteenth century Hispanic literature while hanging out at the beach–it was pop culture that connected us. Pop-culture media helped me learn about slang, what written words actually sound like and what Spanish people really valued. It was my most effective way of studying.
If you’re thinking about majoring in Spanish, that’s great. My Spanish literature and culture classes gave me critical thinking skills that I use outside of the language and taught me more about important issues such as imperialism, racism and immigration. Just be sure to supplement your education anyway you can, whether that’s through travel, meet-ups with natives, internship programs or just watching Spanish television shows or live sportscasts with Spanish announcers. Sometimes the most creative solutions are the most exciting.
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