Inside the mind of a non-fluent Spanish speaker
I bet it's funny to some and heck, maybe even I find it funny myself how I prepare everything into detail when one of us (or all of us) has (have) an appointment somewhere at a Spanish government department, internet supplier, municipality, you name it. Speaking to a real estate agent is no different by the way. Rewind about a year and I was still trying to speak to real estate agents from a distance (Hungary) to see if we could plan a visit in advance. It was impossible, even with me using google translate.
It soon became apparent that when the demand is bigger than the supply, you will not waste your time on messages, but you call instead. Let me explain to you that I hate calling because then the insecurity pops up. I wonder if I will manage with my partial knowledge of Spanish, will I get a blackout or will they even listen to me and try to understand me? I guess the mentality of those we dealt with in Budapest has left a mark on my soul and made me worry more. Yet, I'm always the one that deals with the phone when someone calls in Spanish, my boyfriend (sorry hun) doesn't take a few seconds to process what they said and often responds while only hearing half of it and therefore not talking about the same thing, lol.
Tiny tricks to make it easier
I have learned to at least catch who I'm talking to or the company they're calling for/from and if that's not clear I first ask: "Lo siento, no escuché tu nombre." Which means, I'm sorry I didn't hear your name. Often they repeat their name and which company they're calling from and then at least I know what it's about (usually). I've learned to pay attention to keywords that help me get through the call easier, haha.
I had to learn quickly because for several months our doorbell was broken so everyone received a note when we ordered something stating: "El timbre esta roto, llama me por favor" which means "The doorbell is broken, please call me". And then when they called me, the next phrase that I learned the first few orders was "Estoy llegando a la puerta" which means I'm coming to the gate. To learn this quickly, I made up a funny tune to sing these words in my head, and within no time I knew how to say it as well as our daughter. My boyfriend still doesn't remember but he rarely deals with the couriers so that's not too weird.
Practice makes perfect
I'm now at the point where I use Google Translate to check if my thoughts were right, if not, instead of showing the translated text, I will say out loud what I read there instead. That's progress and I noticed I pick up on things much faster since I started being bold. I tell my daughter every time she's insecure that mistakes are remembered and you learn from them, while I was too scared to put myself out there for 6 months or so.
I also try to pick up on written Spanish by reading Spanish content and leaving a comment in Spanish here and there. Surely don't expect them to be perfect but it helps me learn. I think it's safe to say that at least I can now pronounce the Spanish content without too many failures in how it's supposed to be pronounced. Sometimes (depending on the content lol) I can even speak fast. I'm curious to see where I'm at in 6 months. I have good hopes!
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