There’s something special about being immersed in a place where everyone speaks the language you’re learning. When I first arrived in Spain, it felt a bit surreal to hear all the locals on the street talking in Spanish. Maybe it was just my disoriented, jet-lagged brain… but I almost had to pinch myself to realize that I was truly here, in Spain, where everyone speaks Spanish.
The top reason I chose to come to Granada, Spain, was to improve my Spanish. Because I have taken classes in this language for years, studying it abroad has meant that I can dig into the details and focus on increasing clarity and fluidity in my communication. And the best part about learning Spanish in Spain is that it happens both in and outside of the classroom. Here are a couple of examples of the fun ways in which my vocabulary has diversified in my first several weeks here.
The most obvious way in which I’ve learned new vocabulary is through my month-long intensive Spanish course. In my four-hour class each day, we spend lots of time practicing grammar, but also learning plenty of vocab words. Because of the class’s length, we often have time to get a little off-topic, sidetracked by random—but useful—tangents. Though professors back home might try to limit such interruptions in order to maximize class time, such discussions here often come about quite organically and prove to be useful as we navigate life in a Spanish-speaking country. For example, I now know the word for a layover between flights (escala) and the difference between a gorro (knit beanie) and a gorra (baseball cap). Though it may seem like I will never need some of the words we’ve learned, you really never know what might come up in a Spanish conversation in the future!
Living with a Spanish-speaking host family has also been particularly meaningful in this regard, as I am constantly learning new words from them. For example, from the terrace of my host family’s apartment, I am often entertained by a crane, called a grúa, which is being used to construct a new building nearby. My food vocabulary has also expanded through my host mom’s cooking to include words like salchicha (sausage) for dinner or melocóton (peach) for dessert. When I walk to school every day, I cruzo (cross) the street using the paseo de peatones (crosswalk) and see many pigeons (palomas) on the way. I can even complain in Spanish now when I get picaduras (bites) from mosquitoes!
The grúa (crane) outside my host family’s apartment, along with a beautiful Granada sunset.
Overall, I’ve appreciated the way that studying here in Granada (whose name means pomegranate, by the way) has given me so many opportunities for real-life application of the language I’m learning. Whether it’s ordering churros at a restaurant or chatting with a local through a language exchange event, I’m constantly encountering new ways to put my Spanish into practice. Though it is often challenging to get outside my comfort zone and risk making mistakes in these conversations, I’ve found that I’ve already grown a lot through just putting myself out there and doing my best to communicate. It turns out I often know more than I think!