¡GOL!

Spanish media: 1
Lindsey: 1

I officially book ended my language acquisition today with a nice question-and-answer session for another heavily made up, microphone-wielding woman. This time I was walking back from the shopping area, and this time I saw the woman with her microphone and camera man before they cornered me, so I was prepared. There’s a big book fair going on this week, so her questions were about books, and fortunately I’m well-versed in words and in Spanish literature. Unlike last time, my Spanish came out fairly clearly and normally, and I only had to ask her to repeat her question once.
(roughly translated from Spanish)
What’s the last book you read?
El cuatro de atrás by Carmen Martín Gaite.
What’s it about?
It’s a weird story about the autobiography of the author with some elements of mystery, like a man dressed in black.
Where are you from?
The United States.
Do you think people in Spain or in the U.S. read more?
I think people here read more.
(turns to the camera, which I was avoiding by looking at her): Did you hear that listeners!? She thinks you read more than people in the United States do! (turns to me): Do you have something to say to the Spanish public about how they should read more?Well, reading is very important. Read more!
The women and her entourage giggled a little, smiled at me, said thank you, very good and moved on.
As much as I deserve a point for that performance, I hope that it doesn’t appear on television.

I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve been thinking lately that I’m getting more comfortable with Spanish. I have learned quite a few new words, colloquial sayings, and “um” noises to fill the spaces in my sentences, and though my accent is far from perfect, it’s passable, and though I talk painfully slow, it’s ok, because normally people don’t have to squish up their faces in order to understand me. I think it depends on my confidence level, but today already I’ve had several exchanges in Spanish that weren’t premeditated and they all went just fine. I think my shame is pretty much gone when it comes to talking by now because I live here, I feel like I’ve been studying Spanish for a million years, I can read whole novels in Spanish, and my command really is good enough that I shouldn’t be intimidated to talk when I want to. I’m still a foreigner, but if I hold my head up high and accept that, then I can get along just fine. And though I’m looking forward to returning to a land where I know the cultural norms and the language 100%, I’m definitely going to miss the adventure and excitement that comes with doing mostly everything in Spanish.