Hola chic@s,
Espero que estén bien.
One of the things I’ve been trying to refine whilst writing these newsletters is what really is ‘Spanish for living, not just learning’.
I think it’s really about making one key identity shift:
Student → Participant
And this shift is broken down into a few smaller shifts that have revealed themselves throughout my attempt to live this philosophy in real time.
I want to focus on the first shift today.
Shift #1 - People Before Perfection
You’ve heard of my Honduran friend Daniel before 🇭🇳
The one I used to chat with at the co-working space in London every Wednesday afternoon.
The truth is, it took us a while to develop our friendship because I didn’t really speak a lot of Spanish to him for the first few months.
I was so out of practice and in my head that I felt blocked when it came to chatting Spanish with any native speaker.
Would I be saying it correctly?
What would they think of me?
This eventually changed.
How?
By asking Daniel a question.
I had looked up a Honduran slang word.
‘Catracho’ = Someone from Honduras.
And in my rusty Spanish, I asked Daniel what it really meant.
Boom.
The door had swung wide open.
From that moment on I brought more questions to him about Honduras, his family, the culture and the conversation flowed from there.
It was really a subtle shift of attention on my part: rather than focusing on myself and how I was coming across, I shifted my attention onto the other person.
To not see a native speaker as an opportunity to practise my Spanish, but rather to see Spanish as a vehicle to connect with and get to know someone else.
I think too many of us are still thinking like students.
Whenever someone discovers that I speak Spanish, they always ask ‘Are you fluent?’ or ‘What level are you?’
They’re perfectly reasonable questions. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to become fluent. Grammar, vocabulary, textbooks and lessons all give us the foundations to communicate more deeply.
The problem isn’t fluency. It’s that for many of us, fluency becomes our idea of perfection - the imaginary point at which we’ll finally feel ‘good enough’ to participate.
We treat fluency as the price of admission to participation.
At the beginning, I wasn’t really talking to Daniel. I was performing Spanish in front of him.
Until I changed the focus of my attention.
That’s the shift from a student to a participant.
The student asks → How well am I speaking?
Attention on myself.
The participant asks → How well are we connecting?
Attention on the other person.
So, the next time you feel blocked talking to people in Spanish or you feel a little out of practice, ask yourself:
What would a participant do?
They’d remember what all this learning is ultimately for.
People.
Keep getting out there chic@s.
Un abrazo,
Harrison
Spanish for living, not just learning
P.S - This idea of ‘People Before Perfection’ is part of something bigger I’m working on, so I’d genuinely love feedback on this. Did it resonate? Does it make sense? Have you experienced this in your own Spanish-speaking journey? Hit reply and tell me what happened. I read every response 😘
