I've been reading somebody else's experiences of being a foreigner in Spain, and one of the things he said really struck a chord with me. He was talking about "spanishness" being something he had to wear, like a coat or a hat. Once he had his spanishness on he felt equipped to cope with whatever this country and its people threw at him, he almost became more Spanish. I really like this train of thought and completely understand what he means.
This thing, this spanishness, needs feeding to survive. By speaking the language, watching television (oh please, don't make me do that) or simply being with Spanish people for instance, keeps your spanishness levels topped up. It's not a language thing, that's different again, it's about being open to all the things which set us apart, the culture gaps, including language. When my spanishness is satiated I love being here, I take much more notice of all the positive aspects of life here and feel part of it. I think in spanish and can generally switch between languages without too much trouble. However, if I forget to feed that spanishness it withers. I don't notice the changes, it's a whiley demon that spanishness, it simply starts to fade. Then without notice something will happen which REALLY winds me up, or I answer the phone and realise I don't understand what's being said to me. What's happened is my spanishness levels have got so low I've reverted to being an anxious northern European, not entirely sure what's going on.
Spain is one of the noisiest countries in the world. When I'm running on a full tank of spanishness I not only accept the noise, I often don't even hear it. We once had a friend staying and we were sat chatting, he suddenly went white and his mouth fell open. "what the **** was that!" he spat out. We looked at each other, then back at him, realising he was genuinely worried. "What was what?" I asked. "That noise, it sounded like a huge aircraft landing outside." It took a couple of seconds before we understood what he was talking about, it was the gas man driving a truck full of metal gas bottles at speed down our cobbled street. We didn't even hear it. There was another time when, looking back, I'd let my spanishness levels drop. We were trying to sleep and our neighbours had gone to sit in the street where it was cool and chat to whoever passed by. I lay in bed tutting, letting myself get wound up and getting more agitated by the minute. In the end I couldn't stand it any longer so threw open the bedroom window and shouted...
Another symptom of low spanishness levels is opening your mouth to speak and then listening to the rubbish that falls out of it. You're thinking in English and about to speak in Spanish, or more acurately you're thinking in English and about to speak in tongues.
...and shouted, "excuse me, we are trying to hear. I mean, listening. No wait, we are asleep and the listening is a problem because tomorrow we have to go to work."
Pfff that told them!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
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3 comments:
really enjoyed the post - it is so much harder to keep topped up your spanishness when not in a relationship with an Iberian or when not working on a daily basis in a castillian speaking environment. A huge effort has to be made to consciously leave your home and place yourself in situations where you have no choice but to engage in ones own handicapped fashion.
Inyerestingly, the less it's done - the less it's done. Whilst conversely the more it's done, the more you want to do it.
The more engagement, the greater the desire to remain engaged. The more exposure, the more exposure you want.
Therefore, lob out the satellite dish, change the language on your electronic devices, download only spamish torrents, join the library and buy a
Spanish speaking dog.
You're absolutely right it is about being involved and staying engaged, but it's just finding the ganas to do it.
I'm useless at doing anything unless I make a commitment. I find going to a weekly Pilates class forces me to speak to people whether I want to or not. After all, Spanish people won't usually allow you to just sit there and not engage if only as a listener...
I laughed at the bit about the gas bottles...I completely tune that out now unless I WANT a bombona, in which case its the signal to rush around and get bottle and money tor front door before van shoots past without stopping!
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