I have been learning Spanish for a long time now. I took three years in high school, as well as classes in college. However, I have so much room for growth/improvement. My Spanish level is low-intermediate, at least that’s how I would classify it. I think I would be high intermediate by now if I was willing to make mistakes.
Unfortunately, my desire to not make mistakes has prevented me from trying/gaining confidence in my current skills and from growing. For example, I do not like to write sentences in Spanish or say a sentence out loud if I am not 100% sure it’s accurate. I can be 80-90% sure and still look up the sentence on Spanish Dictionary to make sure I was right. I think this hinders because it trains my brain to distrust my own capabilities when it comes to speaking in Spanish. I’m not saying checking to confirm is bad, I think it’s actually really helpful when used appropriately. However, I personally have been using it more as a crutch.
The second way I limit my growth is by not having conversations in Spanish. I can’t even bring myself to order my food in Spanish. Overall, I think I’m worried that the conversation will become too complex, and I won’t understand what is being said. I also feel like my already imperfect accent will get worse under pressure. Of course I need to face my fears because growth is on the other side. I will make mistakes and I will feel embarrassed about it, but that’s okay because at least I will be making progress.
With all that being said, I want to start a weekly “diary” entry in Spanish to help me become less perfectionistic. My goal is to write whatever I want about my life, whether it’s about my day, week, or just thoughts, without using Spanish Dictionary to confirm each sentence is correct before officially writing it dow. However, once I complete the entry, I will then allow myself to use the translator to see if I was right. The first entry will be the unedited version, and the second will be the edited version — that way, I can still learn from my mistakes, and I will be less likely to make them in the future.
I’m hoping if you are reading this, you are in the process of learning Spanish as well. Please feel free to write your own “diary” entry in the comments below! I would love to get to know you! Your comment will also help me improve and/or solidify my Spanish reading comprehension.
Primero Entry Diario (I don’t know the word for entry.),
Es muy difícil a escribir en español sin un translator. No recuerdo como escribir en el past tense. Aunque, cuando recuerdo, yo will escribir mejor. Disfortudamente, no sé que a hablar sobre.
Un poquito sobre yo: me llamo Elaina Luna. Soy una tutor de inglés. Yo tutor en línea. Qué más… Soy Católico. Me gusta ir a Misa con Robert en Domingo. Chocolate es mi desierto favorito. Comí chocolate almost cada día. Me gusta leer libros por niños en español. Leo un libro en español cada día. Aunque, los libros son facíl a leer porque son por bebés/niños.
Claromente, necesito a practicar mi español porque oblividó mucho. 🙁
Primera Entrada del Diario
Es muy difícil escribir en español sin un traductor. No recuerdo cómo escribir en tiempo pasado. Sin embargo, cuando me acuerde, escribiré mejor. Desafortunadamente, no sé de qué hablar.
Un poco sobre mí: My nombre es Elaina Luna. Soy un tutor de inglés. Tutor en línea. Qué más… Soy católico. Me gusta ir a misma con Robert el domingo. Ek chocolate es mi postre favorito. Como chocolate casi todos los días. Me gusta leer libros para niños en español. Leo un libro en español todos los días. Sin embargo, los libros son fáciles de leer porque son para bebés/niños.
Claramente, necesito practicar mi español porque olvidé mucho.
Thoughts:
Welp, this was definitely embarrassing! I can’t believe I forgot how to write in past tense. I can definitely read in past tense! I think it’s because I haven’t practiced writing sentences in Spanish in past tense in a long time. Even now when I do speak Spanish out loud it tends to be in present progressive tense. Anyway, I really grateful I did this exercise because now I can brush up on conjugating verbs in past tense. Hopefully I just need a quick review.
Also, some of the things I got wrong, I almost spelled correctly, but then I changed it to the wrong spelling at the last minute. *Sigh*.
Don’t forget to post your Spanish “diary” entry below! I would love to hear from you. 🙂