Good days and bad days in speaking Spanish.
Well yesterday was a day of extremes in my Spanish speaking world. It all began with a four hour contractors meeting, I have known these men for many years, and they know I am studying Spanish, but in the course of the meeting, I just " fell all over myself" in Spanish and generally did a very poor job of it. and the worst part is technical matters are not particularly difficult for me.
However, Just a short while later, I went for a haircut, and was chatting freely and easily with Jesús, the stylist.
After a short chat on Skype With Heidi and friends,I was smoothing out again.
Later in the evening we went to the house of a good friend and made Lasagna ( Mexican, Italian style) and I was my usual self being a chatterbox full of silly errors, but enjoying the chat anyway ( all in Spanish of course)
So then, How is it we learners can do so well in some cases,and have such " dumb attacks" in others, and in my case I was with people I know in each situation.
8 Answers
It's a mystery! I can only tell you that if I care a lot about the impression I'm making, it makes my internal "monitor" work TOO feverishly to avoid errors, and that usually backfires. Was there any reason to feel less at ease with the contractors yesterday? Well, we could come up with lots of theories: your circadian rhythms (not a morning person?), your blood sugar (No breakfast? Too much/too little caffeine?), the alignment of the planets..... Oh well, focus on the times when you have fun and feel at ease. It sounds like you have far more of those than you do of "dumb attacks!" Thanks for a post we learners can all relate to, Paco.
Because that is just how humans (and our brains) are - Irrational, unpredictable, unexplainable!
I feel for you. If time and proficiency in spanish were a linear relationship, the language learning process would be a constant, straight line always heading upwards. In reality, the graph representing it looks more like many mountains next to each other. Sometimes goes up, sometimes goes down, sometimes flattens out (when you don't seem to make any progress). The good thing is that when you're going through one of the downward phases, if you've improved enough, you'll realize that even in your downward phases, you're still better off than your upward phases a couple of months ago.
-Charlius-
Can I ever relate to this! In fact, I had a similar discussion on Skype with Heidita about a similar situation. I was involved in a group conversation and sentences would just fall out - good stuff - and I was feeling really good about myself. "Finally", I thought to myself, "I getting the hang of this".
Then suddenly it stopped. I couldn't buy a good sentence if I tried. Like when the airport guard in Mexico City that finally got into my face and said (in Spanish) "Do you know anything about Spanish (at all, as understood from the context)?"
Or at a party when I tried to tell a retired telephone worker from Guatemala that my father had also retired from the telephone company in the United States. It was as if I took the sentence, lined it up against the wall, and fired a rifle repeatedly at it. The man turned to another Spanish speaking person and said he thought I could speak Spanish better than that.
My Spanish is much worse now than before my time in Mexico. But, on occasion, something seems to work out right and I say something that makes sense to someone other than myself.
I'm hoping those times will become more frequent. I'm not ready to give up yet.
It happens to me all the time. It's the same thing with any skill - playing guitar, putting, writing software. Some days it's easy, other days it's not. I think it's a Zen thing. The more you think about it the harder it gets.
I don't think there is ever much rhyme or reason to the eloquence of our speech or lack thereof. I think that in any situation when we are over thinking things or trying to be "perfect", we are bound to make more mistakes.
But then again, most of us have encountered that and are aware of that. So as mentioned, there are many factors from time of day, energy level, hunger level, etc. that play into our conversations. Sometimes we are totally relaxed. At other times we might have something on our minds, preventing us from focusing 100% on the conversation at hand. I'm sure we have all experienced days when we are tripping over the simplest of sentences in our native tongues...usually speaking with friends or family members. It just doesn't seem to make sense. Other times, we can come out with a brilliant point, using an amazing string of vocabulary, even shocking ourselves. 
I guess the take away from this is that it is an experience that we all share within our native tongues. Add to that the fact that you are using a second language and the mystery is more easily explained. 
I personally believe a work setting is different than a setting with friends. The stress of setting a good example and not making mistakes is there even if we don´t feel we are stressed. On the other hand, friends are going to help us relax even if they don´t realize they are doing it.
As a student of Spanish and as somebody who works and talks with native speakers nearly everyday, I can totally relate. Some days I can talk to people that speak no English that I have never talked to before and have great and meaningful conversations. Other days I can barely respond to simple things that I should be able to do in my sleep. I also see the same thing happen with people who are trying to learn English. Some of my friends have been learning for years and I would consider their English to be much better than my Spanish, but they still occasionally have problems. I guess that just goes to show how difficult it is to truly become fluent in another language.
Why aren't you on Nicole's Encouragement Island?
