Why Learn Spanish?

There are lots of reasons why someone might want to learn Spanish. Perhaps you're planning a holiday or business trip to a Spanish speaking country - or maybe you are thinking of moving to one. You might live in an area with lots of Spanish speakers, and know that the ability to converse in another language could help you in your job. It might even be that you don't really 'need' to speak Spanish at all - but you want to be able to say that you can. The ability to communicate in another language certainly gives you a great sense of achievement.

My reasons for learning Spanish were clear. I had always been drawn to the language, and living in Florida had picked up a bit here and there. Although I had wanted to learn Spanish for a long time, the main reason I finally decided to do something about it was because I was planning a move to Peru. I had met a Peruvian man while I was on vacation in Caribbean, and well... long story short, I was moving to Peru to marry him. :) Well that was a back in 2002, when we first met, and I've been living in Peru since 2004. Since that time, the Spanish language has literally taken me over. I wouldn’t have believed it then but now Spanish is a part of my every day life. I can speak, read and understand Spanish to the point where I rarely have to think about it anymore.

When people ask me if I can speak Spanish fluently, I am always a little hesitant to say yes. The truth is that even though I can communicate well in Spanish, I still don’t feel that I know enough. I am not really sure if I ever will! There are always new words and phrases to learn - and apart from 'regular' Spanish, there's all the delicious slang!

I think one of the biggest tests for me is being able to sit in front of the TV movie in Spanish with my family and completely understand everything that is going on. After all, if I can do that in English why shouldn’t I be able to do the same in Spanish? Well, I have to admit that although I'm not quite there yet, I DO understand enough that I no longer need to use those distracting subtitles.

So, how did I go from just knowing a few simple phrases in Spanish to being able to read a Spanish book, speak to a Spanish-speaking friend or watch a Spanish movie? Well the answer to that is what I intend to write about in this blog. The truth is that learning a new language takes time and requires a great deal of patience and commitment. However, what I really want to convey at this point is that anybody can do it easily if they really want to. I was over 40 years old when I started seriously learning Spanish - If I could do it, ANYONE can!