I naively thought everyone would be bilingual in Colombia. I only had one year of required high school Spanish so I knew basically nothing. I remember landing in Bogotá and being shocked by the fact that almost no one spoke English.
I remember failing to tell my bank that I was in Colombia and they assumed that I was a scammer so they blocked my access to all of my debit and credit cards. Luckily, a nice store owner took pity on me and after I explained my situation, he let me use his phone for free to call the one person whom I knew at the time who spoke English. He was nice enough to come pick me up and let me stay with him.
I also remember for about the first six months of living in Colombia, it seemed like everyone spoke 1000 miles per hour. It took me about six months to get used to it. I remember once having to buy packing tape for a move. I went to the local shop and I asked for "cinta" (tape) and I said it about fifteen different times, in fifteen different ways before the lady understood what I was saying.
I have always had an accent when speaking Spanish. I think that I always will. However, I consider a foreign accent as a badge of honor. It means that you can speak a language which is not your native language. Now that I have been affected by facial paralysis, it is harder to understand me sometimes. However, I am very lucky that throughout all of my brain surgeries I have not lost my ability to understand Spanish.
I learned Spanish at first, only to survive and not starve. This was well before I started to really enjoy being bilingual. I remember being recently arrived to Colombia. I went to the local grocery store and I bought what I assumed was chicken. However, it was super cheap. I was excited to get such a discount. I went home and cooked it in a stew. I spit it out immediately and didn't finish it. I found out only later that what I had bought was the gizzards or innards of the chicken.
Even after all of these years of speaking Spanish, I still struggle with some things. For example por vs para (the two forms of the word for) and ser vs estar (the two forms of the verb to be). Ser being a permanent action and estar being a temporary action. I also struggle with the imperative, which is how you give commands in Spanish. Another thing that I struggle with is era vs estaba. Both words mean "was" but in different context.
Every word in Spanish has a gender, male or female. The general rule is that if the word ends in A it is female. So, you use la and if it ends in O then it is male. So, you use el. However, there are many, many exceptions. For example, you would say, el mapa (the map) not la mapa. As far as I know, the only way to learn these exceptions is to memorize them.
There is a governing body for the Spanish language. They have established all of the rules for the spelling, pronunciation and grammar of the language. In general if you can say it, you can spell it. In this way it is much easier than English. If you have a doubt about something, you can look it up officially. There are not a ton of unwritten rules and customs like in English.
I also like the fact that you can combine some words in Spanish. For example, contigo (with you) and conmigo (with me). I also think that supuestamente is easier to say and spell than using the English equivalent of supposedly.
I have heard various reports that people are being targeted for deportation only for speaking Spanish. This is racist and illegal. It is un-American and it makes me sad. Many immigrants don't teach their children their native language because they want them to be more "American". I think that is a big mistake.
Jenny and I are raising our daughter Eliana Valentina to be bilingual and proud of it. I speak to her exclusively in English and Jenny exclusively in Spanish. I remember when Eliana Valentina was about 2.5 years old she went through a phase where she was constantly saying cacas (poop). She got a rise out of Jenny and I so she kept saying it. Even after we informed her that it was not polite to do so. I remember telling my parents about it on a video call in English since they don't speak Spanish. I figured that Eliana Valentina was too young to understand what I was saying, or that she was not listening.
However, she came up to me with her hands on her hips and she defiantly said to me in perfect Spanish, daddy I will never stop saying cacas (poop). It was then that I knew instantly and without a shred of a doubt that my daughter Eliana Valentina was fully bilingual and English was no longer my secret language. Luckily, she has had a much easier time learning English than I did learning Spanish. I don't think that being bilingual has harmed or slowed her development in any way. In fact, I think it has benefitted her. I know that it will benefit her going into the future. I wish more people would become bilingual.
I will end this by saying that just as in English, every different country has their own version of Spanish. Learning Spanish in Colombia is like learning American English and learning Spanish in Spain is like learning British English. So, now I can speak both flavors of Spanish. Interesting cultural note, in Colombia everyone says me regalas (give it to me as a gift) even when they fully intend to pay for the item. However, in Spain if you say me regalas then you are literally asking to get something for free. So, that was the first thing that I had to unlearn when I moved to Spain.
I am still learning even after speaking Spanish for 14 years. I don't consider myself fully bilingual and I expect to be learning something new about Spanish my whole life. However, after 14 years I am fairly fluent and I can get what I need. It is pretty rare that I am unable to get my point across.
Til next time, Tyler
