Almost six years ago, I decided to take on the task of learning Spanish.  Having studied several languages in high school and college I knew that I was taking on a huge task, not being a good language learner by nature.  I found different apps that I could listen to and practice with while I was on the road and with great difficulty began the journey. It took two years before I could begin to follow the simplest spoken Spanish and two years before I could generate even the most basic sentences.  Not a day goes by that I do not study Spanish and I have become quite proficient at understanding most spoken Spanish.  That ability is very helpful when I am in Ecuador, but I have long way to go in being able to speak Spanish fluently.

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Sometimes I will read out loud in Spanish to improve pronunciation and reading comprehension and quite often I will ask Susan if she understands what I am reading.  Susan is fluent in Spanish and speaks like a native Ecuadorian.  When I ask her if she understands what I am reading it is not to ascertain whether she understands the content but whether I am speaking clear enough Spanish to be understood.  Sometimes when I am using my Spanish skills (or lack of) in Ecuador I ask “Me entiendes?” In that context I am trying to ascertain if my sentence made sense in addition to whether I was speaking clearly.  In cross cultural settings the goal is to speak in a way that you can be understood.

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