Most conversations are unpredictable. We don’t know exactly where they’ll take us.
It’s part of the challenge when learning a new language:
We can’t prepare for all possible scenarios.
But many scenarios are very predictable.
Extremely common.
So common, in fact, that we often forget about them until we’re in the moment, grasping for words we should know.
It’s a disheartening feeling that makes you doubt your abilities.
Fortunately, preparing for those situations isn’t too hard. And that prep is low-hanging fruit that adds to your speaking confidence.
How do we prepare?
By considering the situations we’re bound to encounter in our Spanish-speaking interactions.
Let’s take a look at how and what to prepare for.
“I should know that”
A few years ago, I was in Mexico visiting my brother and his then-fiancée.
After lunch at a beachside restaurant, my sister-in-law (who is from Mexico) got the waiter’s attention and said, “Te encargo la cuenta por favor?”
In all my years learning Spanish up to that point, I’d never noticed that phrase.
It’s common in Mexico, but I hadn’t spent much time there.
Despite all my immersion, practice, and general comfort with the language, I understood she wanted the bill, but was confused by the phrase itself.
Your everyday interactions in Spanish can be full of situations like this:
Things that feel simple, but are not — only because you’ve not been exposed to them enough.
That’s the goal with this exercise. A bit of reflection to help you uncover the Spanish you can’t avoid.
Let’s prepare
There are a few main categories that you might benefit from practicing:
- Your personal biography
- Questions you might want to ask
- Transactional situations
Let’s look at each in more detail.
A. Your personal and family biography
Learning a new language means meeting plenty of new people. Many of those conversations will repeat themselves.
Put together a simple 2-3 sentence paragraph that answers questions you’re likely to be asked:
- ¿De dónde eres?
- ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas aprendiendo español?
- ¿A qué te dedicas?
- ¿Qué haces en [insert country here]?
- ¿Tienes familia/hermanos/hijos/nietos? ¿Dónde viven?
Avoid one-word answers.
If you can elaborate when asked small-talk type questions, you’ll show off your skills and give the other person a better idea of your Spanish level (if they hear short, uncertain answers, they might assume you’d prefer to speak English).
As part of your ‘biography’, also consider your interests.
If you’re an avid bowler, you want to make sure you’ve got a few bowling-related words in your back pocket for when that topic crops up.
If you’re planning to hike the Inca Trail on the way to Machu Picchu, some hiking and Inca Trail-specific vocabulary will help your conversations along before, during and after the trip.
Your questions
Hopefully, you are not the only topic of conversation.
But the structure of most language learning is that you spend more time answering questions than asking them.
This might lead to an imbalance.
One where you’re not bad at answering things, but a little less comfortable with the back and forth of a natural conversation.
The fix is simple.
After considering your answers to the questions above, tack a question onto the end of your answer.
- ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas aprendiendo español?
- Unos dos años, creo. Empecé porque me encanta visitar México y estaba harto de no entender nada! Y tú, ¿has estudiado inglés?
Or something like that. Seems simple, but worth practicing. You keep things going and take the conversation pressure off yourself.
Transactions
This most basic stuff can trip up even seasoned learners.
Questions like, “quiere un recibo?” or “para aquí o para llevar?”…
Knowing how to ask if they have “leche de avena”, if that’s your milk of choice…
Understanding when the waiter says “¿Se les ofrece algo más?”…
Most people learn to deal with those situations in context, which is okay.
But preparing in advance can lend your Spanish a bit more confidence in a situation where you may really need it.
And as in my restaurant example above, don’t forget to consider regional phrases.
The way people order food changes just slightly from Peru to Mexico to Spain, so it helps to get acquainted with what’s different where you’re going.
It makes the unpredictable more manageable
It’s like learning to drive.
There is plenty of unpredictability about driving — what another car will do, how fast they’ll be going, if the roads are slick, if you’ll need to find a detour around traffic, and so on.
But a few key movements are always there: you have to stop and go at stop signs and lights, turn left, turn right, and reverse.
Practicing those is a big part of learning to drive because they’re so frequent.
Your interactions in Spanish aren’t too different.
So take a few minutes to think about how these situations apply to your life.
When you’re at ease with the simple stuff, it leaves more brainpower for the unpredictable parts.
Connor
P.S. In these interactions, you don’t want your accent to hold you back or introduce more doubts.
Instead, you want to feel natural and at ease in how you speak, so you can practice building fluency.
If that’s a goal of yours, the Confident Spanish Pronunciation course can help. Check it out here.
