On the contrary, you will rarely experience something like this in Spain. But, why is it that we are so bad when it comes to foreign languages when we all start to study them in our early years at school and we continue later at high school as well? I might have got to know with the answer: the context.

In Spain, besides the academic context it is very unlikely to keep on experience a different language as for instance, English. With the exceptions of our dialects (Valenciano, Catalán Gallego, etc), Spanish will be the only language that you will read or listen around, if you have ever been there, you already know that, especially if you were trying to enjoy a film at the cinema. We do not have a lot of chances to practice what we are being taught at schools and not only cinema movies but also TV programs and films are synchronized, which, apart from the fact that is really awkward watching American or English actors speaking perfectly Spanish and seeing their mouths moving when nothing can be heard, is a big mistake and it could be the main cause of our strong Spanish accent. As we are very familiar with the written language but not use to listen the language itself, we tend to speak English as we read it, using the Spanish sounds, for example, adding the vowel E if there is S at the beginning of the word, like Spain.

Even if we like it or not, TV can be a useful tool when it comes to learn languages because few people have the chance to meet a native speaker to practice with, but everybody have TV at home. I was pleasantly surprised the first time I could listening to 8 year old children speaking English at school in Kranj, their accent was really good! Obviously, children are spending a big amount of time watching cartoons that are not only Slovene but come from America or England, so they are learning the pronunciation before they can even write. And this is a big step because the learning process comes just naturally. They understand the meaning from the context and then they repeat exactly what they are listening to. And this works for everyone, as I could see when my friend’s grandmother got to know that I come from Spain, so she shocked me saying: “María, estás embarazada”, which means, Maria, you are pregnant. As a lot of Slovene people, she is learning these »useful« expressions from soap operas, but the Spanish that you learn from it is Latin-American so there are a lot of different expressions. Communication takes always the shortest way and the practical one. We learn what is going to be useful for us in order to understand each other. I remember that after the basics of Slovene language (dobro jutro, dober dan and so on) one of the first sentences that I learnt when I was Erasmus student was “pusti me pri miru”, very important if you go clubbing. But a language is not only about the meaning.

All in all, a language, as life itself, is about something else; feelings. My willing to learn Slovenian language is so strong that even when it is a difficult language, I simply love it! I like the sound so much, that I could spend all day long just listening to it understanding just few words. In fact, I already have my Slovene favorite singers, I like Siddarta, Slon and Sadez, BFM and I am a huge fan of Vlado Kreslin. I got to know about him in 2008 and it was the first concert for me in Slovenia, an unforgettable night, on my birthday. He shared the stage with Adi Smolar, which I really like too. Since then I have seen him 4 times, last one at Bob Dylan’s project and I will do it again next Monday! I wish I could sing his songs better but kako se reče po slovensko soon?

MARIA ANGELES SANCHEZ

In kdo je Maria Angeles Sanchez oziroma Angie? Preberite si tudi njeno prvo kolumno From the desert to the Alps.