Learning a second language: language and migrant experience two years later

The process of learning a second language is long and never linear. However, two years after I left Argentina, I can tell that my English has really grown and strengthened. Australia has been an intense, hard and also fun school, challenging and pushing me all the time beyond my limits.

A second language will never be like your mother tongue, but little by little you gain familiarity with it. And one day finally comes the moment when you stop translating in your head, although you do not realise when it is happening.

Of course if you get into new areas you can get stuck with words you do not know or remember, and your mind will automatically bring the word that knows, the one in your language (or any of both if you are not lucky enough).

It is interesting to see how native speakers interact with a non-native speaker: the same person can move from talking to you with hand signals and onomatopeias, to speaking superfast and using slang standing at your back.

We just need clear speaking at a normal pace: when I talk to a non-native Spanish speaker, I try to be as neutral as I can, avoiding Argentinian words and pronouns (vos instead of tú), and speaking clearly.

I remember how scared I felt when I had to use a radio in one of my first jobs, and now, after several job interviews by phone and other situations that forced me to talk without being able to see my interlocutor’s face, I can get through phone calls smoothly and without stressing out.

Same with these articles: they have grown in length, fluency and vocabulary.

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In spite of that, the brain always has milliseconds of confusion and uncertainty. It happened to me a few times that I believed I heard phrases in Spanish, in an inconfundible Argentinian accent, just for a fraction of a second until I understood it was a joke of my head. Or the opposite situation: sometimes I crossed at the street people speaking in Spanish, and although I recognised the language I couldn’t understand what they were talking about.

At the same time, a funny mix of words appeared in daily life, as every language has its own short ways to express things, and you start solving situations with everything you have at your hand’s reach.

I’ve always had perfect written Spanish, with a strong knowledge of grammar that was natural for me. However, after two years of an immersion in English I started to see involuntary spelling errors when I write in Spanish, as a result of the salad I already have in my mind.

I am in the foundations of my Dutch learning process and I think it’ll be fun to see where everything takes me in the near future, after one year or two of living in the Netherlands, with three languages together in my head.