Spanish & English

As a Spanish minor, here at college, my brain becomes confused at times, trying to differentiate between these two languages, English and Spanish. For instance, for some reason in both of my Spanish classes today, my brain just could not function. I kept trying to translate every single Spanish word or phrase into the English equivalent, making it impossible to keep up with the discussion swirling around me.

You know, there was a time, back during my summer in Connecticut visiting the UN and other such fancy places, that I seriously considered becoming a translator. It seemed so glamorous, like such a great step into international politics. Now, as I become more and more entrenched in the Spanish language and culture, I realize just how difficult that life would be: constantly living in an ambiguous state, having to make your mind focus on the language at hand, constantly being stuck in the middle of noise. It is truly mind boggling to sit down and attempt to translate from one language to the other without your brain hurting.

But, think about all of the other countries in the world that require their students to know English as well as their native language! How behind we Americans are! It is sad and almost ridiculous that, at some point in our education, we are not required to learn another language to the point of being fluent. Now, this could definitely lead into a discussion about "minorities" in the United States and the growing problem we have with illegal immigration and the like, but let's stay focused upon the task at hand: being bilingual, or even better yet, a polyglot. There is a girl in my class, extremely bright and one of the nicest girls, that is from the Comoros Islands, off of the coast of Africa. She speaks and writes, fluently, English, Spanish, French (her native language), and German. She is currently learning Italian. She has a real gift for languages. Me, on the other hand...I struggle with having to speak English at an intelligent level most days. As for the Spanish side of my brain, speaking it is one of the most difficult tasks. Writing and thinking it has become no problem, but when I have to actually speak the words and ideas in my head, my tongue becomes twisted and tied in knots. I truly wish I could get past this hindrance - practice has not seemed to help. We'll just have to see what next semester brings.