Speaking Spanish
If you tried talking to me in the language before this trip you wouldn't be able to tell, but I did some Spanish classes way back in 2010 in Sydney. After 18 months, my crowning achievement was having a full 30 minute conversation with a Colombian workmate, during work beers in the pub, without even realising it.
Seven years of no practice had meant this had deteriorated to the basic stuff, but there's no better place to pick it back up than in a whole continent that speaks the language. Call it western arrogance, but I did not expect to have to use my Spanish as much as I have done so far on this trip. My travelling frame of reference comes from my previous big trip through Asia, where in most of the countries I visited, you can get by just fine with English.
This has not been the case in many of the places I've visited so far in South America. Even in the "tourist" areas, I've had to dip into my shallow reservoir of Spanish vocabulary more often than I expected. It actually feels good to do this - all the hard work I put in to learning the language is paying off years later.
Besides being useful for everyday things, it's also allowed me to have basic conversations with the local people I meet. This makes a huge difference. A taxi journey where you compare your countries best football players and laugh at how bad your teams are is very different to a taxi journey in silence, where you feel like a rich asshole who's too good to talk to his chauffeur.
At the end of my first week, just after the Ciudad Perdida trek, I was on the local bus sat next to a local middle-aged woman. She just strikes up a conversation in Spanish, the first time this had happened, and despite my initial insistence that I couldn't really speak, she persisted. She complained about the rain, I complained about Irish rain. We compared Christmas in Colombia and Ireland. We came to the conclusion (the same one I often come to with Latin American people) that Colombians and Irish are similar (Catholics who like to party). Having a conversation like this is what I dreamed about all those years ago, when I was daydreaming of travelling to South America whilst doing my Spanish homework. I loved it. She even helped me get off at the right stop.
It would be another couple of weeks before my usage went beyond the basics of directing a driver, paying for things or getting a room. I went on a day trip from Medellín to Santa Fé, an old colonial town an hour north. The main square, the main attraction, was polluted by construction. Wandering to another square, I struck up a conversation with one of the few other travellers that was wandering about. It didn't take long for us to work out that I didn't speak much French, and Charline, being from France, didn't speak much English. The only common language we shared was our basic grasps of Spanish.
We could have left it at that, but I think both of us, without discussing it, wanted to embrace this rare opportunity to practice our Spanish without being laughed at. We ended up hanging out for the rest of the day. It was naturally awkward at first, but eventually, with a lot of dictionary lookups, we found our Spanish conversation groove. Having to speak so much Spanish was intense, but extremely rewarding. It's amazing, for me, to know a person only through a language other than English, and I'm pretty sure my Spanish bumped up a couple of notches in six short (but long) hours.
Our paths crossed again on the day trip to Zipaquirá. This time however, the challenge was double, as I was suffering from an Irish-pub induced hangover. By the evening, when we were battling through Bogotá's terrible traffic on a loud packed bus (and I was in a rush to get to the airport), I was done with it. "Estoy demasiado cansado para hablar español" (I'm too tired to speak Spanish) was all I could muster. I think that's when I know my Spanish has reached the next level - when I can understand and and speak it with a hangover.
If you're thinking of visiting this continent, consider doing some classes before you leave (or even while you're here). It really does pay off, and your experience will be that bit richer for it.
Seven years of no practice had meant this had deteriorated to the basic stuff, but there's no better place to pick it back up than in a whole continent that speaks the language. Call it western arrogance, but I did not expect to have to use my Spanish as much as I have done so far on this trip. My travelling frame of reference comes from my previous big trip through Asia, where in most of the countries I visited, you can get by just fine with English.
This has not been the case in many of the places I've visited so far in South America. Even in the "tourist" areas, I've had to dip into my shallow reservoir of Spanish vocabulary more often than I expected. It actually feels good to do this - all the hard work I put in to learning the language is paying off years later.
Besides being useful for everyday things, it's also allowed me to have basic conversations with the local people I meet. This makes a huge difference. A taxi journey where you compare your countries best football players and laugh at how bad your teams are is very different to a taxi journey in silence, where you feel like a rich asshole who's too good to talk to his chauffeur.
At the end of my first week, just after the Ciudad Perdida trek, I was on the local bus sat next to a local middle-aged woman. She just strikes up a conversation in Spanish, the first time this had happened, and despite my initial insistence that I couldn't really speak, she persisted. She complained about the rain, I complained about Irish rain. We compared Christmas in Colombia and Ireland. We came to the conclusion (the same one I often come to with Latin American people) that Colombians and Irish are similar (Catholics who like to party). Having a conversation like this is what I dreamed about all those years ago, when I was daydreaming of travelling to South America whilst doing my Spanish homework. I loved it. She even helped me get off at the right stop.
It would be another couple of weeks before my usage went beyond the basics of directing a driver, paying for things or getting a room. I went on a day trip from Medellín to Santa Fé, an old colonial town an hour north. The main square, the main attraction, was polluted by construction. Wandering to another square, I struck up a conversation with one of the few other travellers that was wandering about. It didn't take long for us to work out that I didn't speak much French, and Charline, being from France, didn't speak much English. The only common language we shared was our basic grasps of Spanish.
We could have left it at that, but I think both of us, without discussing it, wanted to embrace this rare opportunity to practice our Spanish without being laughed at. We ended up hanging out for the rest of the day. It was naturally awkward at first, but eventually, with a lot of dictionary lookups, we found our Spanish conversation groove. Having to speak so much Spanish was intense, but extremely rewarding. It's amazing, for me, to know a person only through a language other than English, and I'm pretty sure my Spanish bumped up a couple of notches in six short (but long) hours.
Our paths crossed again on the day trip to Zipaquirá. This time however, the challenge was double, as I was suffering from an Irish-pub induced hangover. By the evening, when we were battling through Bogotá's terrible traffic on a loud packed bus (and I was in a rush to get to the airport), I was done with it. "Estoy demasiado cansado para hablar español" (I'm too tired to speak Spanish) was all I could muster. I think that's when I know my Spanish has reached the next level - when I can understand and and speak it with a hangover.
If you're thinking of visiting this continent, consider doing some classes before you leave (or even while you're here). It really does pay off, and your experience will be that bit richer for it.
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