1. The other day, I was watching the news on TV. Usually, I always turn on the subtitles, but the remote was too far away (read: I was actually just too lazy to reach for it), so I just decided to not use subtitles. Well, low and behold, I understood everything that was being said! I remember when I first got here, the news seemed impossible to understand, but now it all seems to be pretty clearly said. Success!
Me when I first got here and tried to watch the news (with subtitles)
Me after understanding the news without subtitles
2. I had a whole conversation with Toni, my host mom, and I understood about 80% of what she said (as opposed the usual 50%). We were discussing comparative education, the Spanish school system, and she was telling me about how "back in her day" they didn't have to learn English in school. It was really nice to have a conversation with her, because usually I just keep it to small talk and simple things since I don't really know how to speak like a normal person in Spanish.
Normal conversation success!
3. The other day in my translation class, me and this girl were trying to translate a paragraph from Spanish to English as literally as possible. We were speaking in English, and I was trying to say, "What does this word mean?" but it almost came out as, "What does this word signify?" However, I only got to, "What does this word sig--" and then I realized how weird that sounded, so I tried to restart my sentence in English the "right" way, but at the time I could not remember how to say "What does this word mean?" -- the only thing I could think of was the Spanish word "significar" which means "to mean" or "to signify." Obviously, it looks the most like the English word "signify," which is why I could only think of that word! Finally, after stuttering and restarting my sentence like twice, I finally just switched over to Spanish and said, "¿Qué significa esta palabra?" That was a good moment.
4. I successfully ranted to my host mom in Spanish. I've been having some communication problems with my internship, so one day I came home from it and sat down and started complaining to my host mom. She understood everything I said, and she offered me some advice -- and it was like a completely normal conversation! I didn't have to look up any words, I didn't have to ask her to repeat herself 9,320,483 times (okay maybe like once or twice), and I didn't stumble over a ton of words like I normally do!
How I feel on a daily basis here, except during that rant!
5. I'm catching myself thinking (and dreaming) in Spanish! My dreams aren't completely in Spanish, but the other day, I did have a dream I was trying to buy bread in Spanish. It was just that one part of my dream though, not the whole dream. And the conversation went like this (the translated version):
Me: Is this bread free?
Cashier: No.
Me: But the sign says "free."
Cashier: No, *points at other bread* that bread is free.
Me: Oh, well can I buy this bread?
Cashier: Yeah, it's 1 euro.
Me: Thanks!
I don't know why I wanted to buy bread, but I definitely think this reflects Spanish society -- bread is everywhere here. I don't really want to buy any, though. Especially that bread from my dream; it was just measly looking toast. Why did I want that?
6. And lastly, probably one of my more significant realizations, the other day I decided to listen to my Spanish playlist on my phone while I was walking to school, and I actually understood the lyrics! I never really understood what they were saying before, but this time I was just like, "So THAT'S what they're saying!" That's when I realized, "Dang, maybe my Spanish is improving!"
