Impostora
Trying to master a foreign language
Language perks
Learning a language involves a great deal of work, from memorizing lists of words, to conjugating verbs and practicing your pronunciation. But there is a very major upside as well. Learning a language actually requires that you travel. There is no substitute for immersion. For those of us who have always dreamt of exploring the world, it’s an ideal excuse. When a friend asks “What are you doing this summer?”, I can answer, truthfully, “I’m going to Spain to work on my Spanish.” The fact that I also plan to spend a lot of time on the beach and/or by the pool is purely coincidental, of course.
Right now, I’m writing this blog entry from Buenos Aires. I signed up for an interpreter training course here in BA, where it’s summer. Meanwhile, in Paris, where I live, it’s cold and wet.
This is my fourth trip to Argentina, where they speak a very specific type of Spanish, which can be hard to understand if you’re not used to it.
I love Argentina, and BA is one of my favorite cities. I never get tired of it. BA is vibrant, cosmopolitan, trendy, messy, chaotic and very much alive. According to Wikipedia, it’s the second-largest metropolitan area in South America (the biggest is Sao Paolo in Brazil).
In the morning, I have classes, in the afternoon, I do homework, rest and visit. When the course is over, I will have a couple of weeks of leave to devote to traveling. This is the life I dreamt of as a child.
La verdad es que tengo mucha suerte.
Impostora
This blog is about my life in Spanish. I am not a native Spanish speaker. Spanish is a language I learned late in life, after my mother died. That was 10 years ago. She was 62–far too young. I was 38, and I suddenly realized that I was not going to live forever, and that whatever I wanted to do, I had better do now. There were two things I had always wanted to do: learn Spanish and play the cello.
This blog is mainly about Spanish, which I will never speak as well as I speak my native languages, French and English. In Spanish, I will always be something of an impostor. I will never really understand it or truly know it from the inside. It will never trip off my tongue effortlessly.
Learning a language is a hopeless, futile quest, but all the better. As Cyrano de Bergerac (an impostor himself) would have it, “c’est bien plus beau lorsque c’est inutile.” I know, I know, that’s French. A reference to Quijote would undoubtedly be more appropriate. Desafortunadamente (my favorite word in Spanish–impossible not to get it wrong), I have yet to read that great classic: another item on my seemingly endless list of “Things To Do in Spanish”.
In the process of discussing Spanish, I may also touch on other topics that matter to me: work, music (I did learn the cello, by the way), books, relationships, exercise, cooking, children, friends, family–what are blogs for if not to share all sorts of personal details with the universe–is someone out there?
Dear Reader, should you turn out to exist, your input and comments are highly valued and eagerly awaited.
Impostora 