Why do I consider myself a bilingual person?

 

It wouldn’t be my blog if I didn’t explain its name – my experience as a Spanish bilingual person. This name appears in two different languages as well – in Spanish and Finnish. These are three languages which I understand, speak and try to improve. I have a different level in each of them. What’s more, I don’t feel the same affection for Spanish, English and Finnish. Of course, it is related to my experiences that differ depending on the tongue. Today I want to comment on this topic.

First impression

Despite the fact that English was the first foreign language which I studied, I have been better at Spanish since my childhood. The explanation of such a phenomenon is that the latter is the first foreign language which I heard. Most people should think – but you haven’t studied it yet. However, as a child I sang Spanish songs and watched Mexican television with my older sister very often, before I went to school. My first impression was – this is a part of my life, Carita de ángel’s song and televisa channel. I wasn’t aware that I was absorbing the Spanish language passively – it was just passtime.

the First contact with a foreign language

Here we go with my English classes in primary school. At the very beginning of my education I had the best marks and studied English without any problem. I had an impression that the lessons weren’t enough for me – that’s why I kept asking my sister different words and I wrote them down on small pieces of paper in order to memorize them. However, I was aware that it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Studying English at school was too boring for me. That is the reason why I started leaning Spanish by myself with a handbook bought at empik. I was really excited about this challenge.

First real contact with my second language

When I was in middle school, my Spanish language teacher decided to ask me for writing extra texts and it was the main way of progress. I built the basics and I my teacher persuaded me to participate in OJH [Spanish Language Competition] organized by UAM in Poznań.

Thanks to my little success I felt encouraged to pursue my dream of speaking castellano. I studied hard and I decided to go to bilingual school. (In fact I had considered going to this kind of school earlier but I wasn’t sure that I could fulfil all the requirements.)

Why is Spanish  my second language?

It is a tough question for me because somebody told me that I was bilingual after I started studying at the University. I didn’t want to agree because I felt little bit awkward that I should call myself a bilingual person without ever living abroad.

I can mention a lot of situations that show that sometimes I feel more free to express myself in Spanish than even in Polish. Instead of that I will share with you some amusing stuff that I experienced:

·         I talked to my father in Spanish and to my teacher from Spain in Polish without noticing that I forgot to switch languages  [it occurred at the railway station, when we came back from Warsaw, where we used Spanish all day at the contest of Spanish Theaters]

·         Despite the fact that the supporting language on Finnish lessons was English, I talked to my teacher from Finland in Spanish and I didn’t even realize it [I felt so embarrassed!]

·         Sometimes the very first words that I have in my mind are Spanish words, even when I am using Polish

·         reading out loud in Spanish is easier for me than doing the same in Polish

·         once, while I was listening to Spanish music on a bus stop, a woman asked me something in Polish and at first I didn’t understand her and I had to ask to repeat

What is really bilingual education system  ?

The best option to help the children grow in bilingual environment is to enable them benefit from bilingual education. If a child goes to this type of school, he/she has to learn in two languages. Some subjects are taught in the second language and the rest in the first language. Right now in Poznań there are three schools with bilingual classes.

·         Dąbrówka [German-Polish classes]

·         Marcinek [French-Polish classes]

·         ZSO n 4 [Spanish-Polish classes]

Thanks to my dearest teachers I didn’t surrender. I studied Spanish language, literature, history and geography in Spanish with different tutors from Spain. I took Bachillerato [Spanish maturity exam] and became master according to my Spanish friends.

However, I am sure about two facts:

·         This school helped me to find out how to learn foreign languages at all, so now it is easier for me to plan my learning process

·         I still have to use Spanish not to forget it