It really is Okay to Suck

Lessons from Learning a Foreign Language as an Adult

Let yourself learn a new skill and don’t add pressure to yourself. When was the last time that you allowed yourself to suck? When have you decided to finally jump in the pool — full in plunge — with no fear?

Here’s my experience — I had always wanted to travel to a foreign country, learn the language by immersion, and live there as a native born resident.

When I was in high school in rural Ohio, I elected to learn French with the hopes of traveling to France. I studied very hard, learned the language to the best of my ability and achieved a fairly decent level of fluency. So far so good, right? Unfortunately, my family’s financial resources did not allow for this dream to be pursued any further.

Fast forward twenty (or so) years into the future. I found myself in a stronger financial position and ready to resume my dream. Until a new problem surfaced. My husband had no desire to travel to France. Instead, we agreed to head south of the border. This was not what I had in mind, but seemed to be a reasonable compromise.

Unexpectedly, I have fallen in love with the Latino culture, values and way of life. We are all good, then. Right?

Well kind of, with the exception of the whole language thing. At my ‘mature’ age I was faced with learning a foreign language. While Spanish is similar to French, I am here to tell you it is definitely not the same. As a result, I found that I had to jump into…