From "No comprendo" to "I get it"

There were days at my first job in the USA when I was afraid of stepping out of my cubicle, fearing I would not understand and communicate with people, and that I would fail at work.

There were times I was made fun of because of my accent.

My goal .. to speak and understand English.?

This is a tale of my road to learning English as an adult.

Born and raised in Mexico, my English lessons at school were basic, maybe some of you can relate. Numbers, months, words, verbs. In high school the method was TOEFL, which was very heavy in grammar. As a good student, I did well in all my courses, and I thought I knew enough to get around.

Started my professional career in a USA origin company in Mexico City. The GM was from the USA, and spoke multiple languages, including Spanish. We would have visitors from the USA and meetings with them and I would understand maybe 25% of what they were saying, I relied on the slides and charts to keep up with what was being talked about. That company offered English classes before the start of the work day, and I attended them.

The opportunity to move to the USA came up and my company transferred me from Mexico to Houston. I was lucky the Houston plant manager at the time was a native Spanish speaker, so the interview went well and I got transferred.?

During my first three months working in Houston, I took intensive English lessons, every day from 6:00 to 9:00 PM, in a 15-people group setting, all immigrants from different countries.

At the plant, there was a good percentage of Hispanic employees, many of them spoke Spanish (yes, not all Hispanics know Spanish) and helped me navigate through my days, speaking “Spanglish”.?

The projects and responsibilities I had required me to interact with shop associates all the time; so, I decided to get a personal tutor to keep learning and improve my chances of communicating better.

I remember I would have a detailed plan on my tasks, who I was going to meet with, what I was going to say, etc. Everything written down. I would ask my tutor for the correct way to say it, and she would help me. Back to my next work day I was feeling good a brave, able to follow my plan. It worked at times, but the reality is that I could not keep myself to the script, because conversations are just spontaneous, you cannot plan every line.. yours or the others’. Thinking back, it was kind of comical, I would run with my lines, then a person would respond in an unexpected way and notice my question mark face. But at the time it was stressful.

I did rely on the Hispanic people I met, and most of them were very nice and willing to help me.

On the other hand, I also faced some not so nice or impatient co-workers, some that would “enjoy” correcting me, or insisted in not understanding me because of my accent.

I welcomed the feedback; my goal was to speak properly. Eliminating my accent was not, and has not been a priority of mine .. yes, there exist lessons for pronunciation and accent elimination.

After a few months I started mastering the workplace and business language. My next challenge became the language to socialize. Co-workers would invite me to happy hours or activities off work. I am an introverted person, and not being so confident in English, made me quieter.

I watched TV in English with subtitles so I could read and understand what was being said. I probably used subtitles for about 5-6 years.

Going to the supermarket and stores was fine, until I had to speak with a store worker and ask for help finding things. Oh yeah, so many other words I had to learn! Cashing out was easy, just looked at the numbers, math is math.

Speaking of math, even now after over 20 years of living in the USA, I do math in Spanish .. count in Spanish .. it is just faster than trying to do it in English.

Another thing I did to learn was to write down next to an English word, how the pronunciation sounded in Spanish. So, at times at work when it was required of me to read or present something, I would have my pages and notes all marked up with the pronunciation.

As time went by I kept improving, and learning also some Texas slang. At this point my ear did not differentiate accents in the USA, only from non-English speakers.

I did ask friends if they could tell the difference between Spanish speakers accents when speaking English, and most people could not, so I realized I was normal.

I moved to NY State after being in Texas, and it took a little while for people at the site to understand my accent, but this time I was fully able to communicate my thoughts.

After a year or so I reached the point where my hearing got refined and eureka!.. I was fully able to distinguish accents! My friends from Texas, what? Yes, so different from my friends in upstate NY! New Englanders? Wow .. trivial but interesting.

Friends and family have wondered if I thought in Spanish and then translated into English.

At the beginning for sure, my notes at work would be in Spanish, and then I would translate them into English. I probably had this habit for 6-8 months before switching to English.

Before speaking I would also think in Spanish then translate. Thinking in English took a little longer, not sure when the automatic switch got activated.

Dreams .. I have always dreamed a lot, and normally remember my dreams. At the beginning all my dreams were in Spanish, even my USA friends would speak Spanish in my dreams.

With time, it switched to English. Even now, sometimes I have dreams in Spanish, sometimes in English, and all characters speak whatever language I am dreaming in.

I would say, though, whenever I am mentally exhausted, or too tired, my brain wants to switch to its default language, Spanish.

Immersion, practice, time, perseverance, that is what it took for me to learn the language; and I am not done, more than once a week I learn a new word, a new expression. My kids teach me. I still struggle understanding the lyrics of songs, but that is not needed for survival.

So, amigos, hope you enjoyed my story, and would love to hear if yours has similitudes to mine.