Language learning is a long process – and rightly so!

Yesterday a facebook memory taunted me – it was a picture from some years ago of some new Italian study books I had bought.  This was the start of me really focussing on Italian – I was going to be fluent! Fast forward….I’m not fluent and feel like I still have a long way to go until my Italian becomes as good as my Spanish. Seeing the photo and realising the time that had passed since then I suddenly felt disheartened – what had I been doing for the last few years?!  The short answer is that life happened, as it does! 

It’s really easy to forget how long ago I started learning Spanish though, and how long it took me to speak it somewhat naturally and fluently. I think it was 2008 or so when I picked up a teach yourself Spanish book for 50p that the local library was about to throw out.  I started my first class in 2010, changed classes a couple of times, in the end settling for a long time with evening classes at International House. It was eventually 2017 when I passed the DELE C1 exam, having done the A2, B1, B2 before that.  So almost ten years from zero to C1.  

On reflection though, making something a habit, a consistent part of your everyday life for 10 years is much more difficult, and much more rewarding than learning it in a few months.  I’m also pleased that I took time to enjoy the experience of learning and have some fun with it – if I hadn’t spent ten years learning Spanish would I have met so many varied people, learned some of my favourite colloquial phrases, have such a vivid memory of the first time I understood a joke in Spanish? Probably not. But that’s what learning a language should be – it should be a part of your life, your identity, it should influence the people you meet, the trips you take, and shape the experiences you have. 

One of my favourite things about languages is that you never stop learning, and learning over such a long period of time has changed me positively in ways that I could never have imagined. So embrace the long journey, enjoy and have some fun with your learning, take the trips, meet the people, make the memories!