For those of you who have never had the need to communicate well in another language, let me offer a friendly word of discouragement: it’s harder than you think.
When I first arrived in Nicaragua, I had more or less mastered what I considered “Level 1 Spanish.” In other words, on a scale of 1 to 10, with fluency being 10, I considered myself about a 3. Roughly 20,000 hours later (counting a few hundred of intensive language study, time spent sleeping, time spent in the States, time spent complaining about things, etc.), my Spanish is probably 50 times better than it was, yet I would consider myself about a 5. Turns out, when I arrived, I was more of a 0.1.
Fluency is like the time you had the bright idea to walk to a destination several miles away that you’ve driven to a hundred times. You begin your journey with three thoughts:
- This is saving gas and giving me great exercise!
- I could really see myself doing this all the time. Everyone should!
- The drive takes about 15 minutes, so walking should take about an hour, right?
