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learning a third language

I have always loved to be able to converse in a third language, may it be Spanish (undubbed telenovelas), Mandarin (the new business language), or Italian (yummy food). My recent trips to the uni have exposed me to French (as I stayed in a French couple's terrace house and there were many French students in the lab). Plus, I always am amazed at how smoothly my academic supervisor can talk with me in English, answer the phone in Italian, leave a message in German, and talk in French to a BSc Hons student… all in the span of five minutes!

I figured, since Filipino has lots of Spanish influence, I might as well start learning it. My main reference is a Lonely Planet language book (which covers most of Europe’s major languages). Plus, I bought another book on learning Spanish.

That was a luck move, because this week, I got to meet numerous people from South America, where Spanish is the official language. Despite all the preparations I had, my Spanish vocabulary was still in a horrible state, but they didn’t seem to mind.

It all started at the workshop of the International Network for Quality Rice (INQR). I approached Mr. Cuba because I heard him speaking in Spanish and I wanted to practice all the Spanish words from all that exposure to books, CDs, and telenovelas.

Early today, as I was walking into the lecture hall, he was greeting me in rapid fire Spanish. When I blankly stared at him, hablo espanol muy pocito, he told me to go to practice so that when I go to Havana, I could talk with them fluently.

Then there’s Ms. Uruguay and Ms. Colombia who called me Paula the whole time! Mi llamo Rochie.

During the field tour, they could not understand some of the English words of the guide. So I had to dig deep through the mishmash of Spanish words I know. No rattas, no aves. Agua embotellada? Fotografia. Ritratto de quadrado.

Hence, I have now decided that I would learn how to speak in Spanish.
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