I certainly did!
I am living in Barcelona, Spain at the moment. Here, they speak Spanish and I found out on arriving here that they also speak Catalan.
I am learning Spanish and I thought that, living here, would bring me a lot of opportunities to hear, absorb and practice my spanish.
However, I was confused that the language on most menus, the conversations I overheard in bars and the calls from the service companies checking my payment plan was, most of them, in Catalan.
Yes, they all speak Spanish also but, it was clear most of them wanted to speak in Catalan. One time, even one renting company hung up the phone on us for not speaking Catalan.
I started noticing that I barely heard Spanish spoken around me and, after some time, I became frustrated.
I had came here to learn Spanish and I felt like I didn’t have the head space to learn another language at the same time.
Over sometime, my attitude started to subconsciously tune out the Catalan language.
I was improving in Spanish but I had no understanding of Catalan. It was as if I couldn’t even hear it.
In fact, I wasn’t really listening. It was all around me but I wasn’t paying it conscious attention.
I felt left out of conversations with my friends and my mind would drift off into my own thoughts at parties and social events when they spoke in Catalan.
I wanted to be present, to laugh at the jokes and share in the stories but I was stuck.
However, a crucial moment came when I realised that I was in control of this lack of progress. My frustration was an indication that I needed to make a change.
Specifically, I made these three changes:
1. Unconscious Focus – Take off the earphones
When I was on the train, in the car or sitting in the coffee shop, instead of listening to music or my Spanish podcasts, I choose to listen to the locals communicating around me.
I let the language wash over me like a new song I was hearing.
2. Conscious Focus – I consciously decided to focus.
Any opportunity I got to pay attention to Catalan, I took it.
When I got around my friends and they begin to speak in Catalan, I decided not to disengage from the story but rather concentrate on the sounds they were making, in order to begin the process of absorbing as much of the language as possible.
3. My Attitude – My negative perspective
I choose to see this opportunity to learn two languages as a privilege rather than a chore.
I got to learn rather than had to learn it.
Yes, my Spanish progress was going too slow but, the joy of being able to speak to my friends in their language, would be well worth it in the end.
As I changed this mentality and took these steps, my experiences began to change.
I realised I had wasted the first few months of exposure to the new language, all because I hadn’t let my focus and attention pick up naturally the sounds of the new language.
I had been blocking my own progress in the language and it cost me, potentially, thousands of new words and, maybe, I could even have shaved off months from my learning curve. I could have been much more advanced than I was.
However, I identified the problem, took the responsibility and fixed it. Just today, I had an entire phone call from the insurance company and understood the entire call in Catalan.
To be able to understand this new world around me, makes my life, here in this bilingual culture, more rich, fun and much less stressful.
If you are blocking yourself from picking up new words in English, follow these three steps and tune in!
Coach Faby
englishwithfaby.com