one long back-and-forth, no english
module: putting it together
okay. twenty-three lessons in. wait, no — this is lesson twenty-two of "putting it together," so somewhere between twenty and twenty-three overall depending how you count. i've lost track a little. that's fine. what matters is where we are: you've got a greeting, you've got questions, you can ask someone to slow down or bail out of a conversation without it being weird. tonight we put all of it in one basket and don't take english out, not once.
that's the whole assignment. one conversation, start to finish, no english safety net.
why no english matters
here's the thing about the safety net. it's not really there to catch you. it's there so you don't have to try the hard part. the second something gets uncomfortable, you reach for english, and your brain learns "i don't have to push through this, i can just quit." every single time you do that, the quitting gets easier and the pushing-through gets harder.
so tonight, no net. you get stuck, you use what we already covered — "más despacio, por favor," "no entiendo," "¿cómo se dice?" those are your net now. they're spanish. they still count.
the shape of the conversation
nothing fancy. this is the same shape we've been building toward all module:
- greeting — buenos días, buenas tardes, whatever fits the clock
- how are you, and you
- something real — where you're from, what you're doing today, do you have kids, do you like tacos, whatever
- a question back and forth, at least two rounds of it
- a way out — nice talking to you, i have to go, see you later
- goodbye
that's it. six beats. you've done every single one of these separately already. tonight's just gluing them together without a seam where english used to be.
practical steps to do this at home
- pick a partner or become your own two people. i know that sounds silly, but talking to yourself out loud in the mirror works. your brain doesn't fully know the difference between "practicing with someone" and "practicing convincingly with an empty kitchen."
- write nothing down first. don't script it. scripts feel great and then real conversations never follow the script and you panic. talk first, write after if you want to remember something you did well.
- when you get stuck, stop and use the rescue phrase instead of switching to english. say "no entiendo" out loud, actually say it, don't just think it. then keep going.
- time yourself, loosely. two minutes is a real conversation. thirty seconds is a greeting. you're aiming for two.
- do it three times this week, not once. the first time will feel clunky. that's supposed to happen. don't judge the whole exercise off attempt one.
the taco place story
i've told you all a version of this before but not the whole thing. a while back i went to a taco place in provo just to force myself to order entirely in spanish. no pointing at the menu, no "can i get the — " in english halfway through. all spanish, all the way through.
i asked for pollo. chicken. simple word, i'd said it a hundred times at home over the sink practicing.
guy at the counter heard something else. i don't fully know what happened between my mouth and his ears, but what showed up at my table was lengua. tongue. beef tongue.
now here's the thing — i almost switched to english right there. almost said "oh sorry, i meant chicken." but i'd committed to the bit, and honestly i was too proud to backtrack in front of the guy, so i just said okay and ate the tongue.
it was good. genuinely, i'd order it again. but that's not really the point of the story. the point is i got the wrong word and the world didn't end. i didn't die of embarrassment. i ate a slightly different lunch than i planned and lived to tell it in a spanish class years later. that's what a mistake actually costs you most of the time. not much.
my opinion on this, stated plainly
being wrong out loud beats being right in your head, every time. i'll say this to your face and mean it kindly — the people in my classes who hang back because they're scared of messing up are always the slowest ones to actually learn to talk. the folks who just say the wrong word and keep moving, they're talking real spanish to real people within a few weeks. the tongue instead of chicken thing didn't set me back. it moved me forward, because i kept going instead of clamming up.
a caution, since we're doing full conversations now
if you're practicing this with a real spanish speaker out somewhere — the grocery line, a jobsite, wherever — read the room a little. some folks love when you try. some are in a hurry and don't have time to help you find a word tonight. that's not about your spanish, that's just people having a day. don't take it personal, try the next person.
before next time
pick your two minutes. do it three times this week, out loud, no english, mistakes and all. next class we're doing it live, in pairs, in the room — so get the clunkiness out at home first. ✨