Little Discoveries

I used to learn Spanish.

The proudest moment of my Spanish-learning endeavor was not getting good grades, or figuring out elusive extra credit questions. It was not the time I got an 100 on a test.

Last year, I went to China over spring break. The best part of it wasn't climbing the Great Wall or visiting the striking palaces or even the food.

It was the moment, on a crowded, busy Beijing street, by a vendor selling fried scorpions on a stick--in a span of five minutes, I spoke three languages at once. I conversed with the vendor and translated for tourists from Spain, and in that moment in time, I switched between the three languages I knew in varying degrees of fluency almost effortlessly.

(I also tried to dissuade the tourists from buying said scorpions on a stick, but sadly, the didn't heed me.)

That was an aha moment for me. I was a little bit sick and weak that day, but I remember emerging from that street, my cheeks glowing. The fact that I COULD use the things that were taught me in class--and in such a natural way--it made me love languages even more.

This fall, even though I switched from Spanish to German, at a park district center, I picked up a copy of a Spanish newspaper--and discovered that I could read it.

That, also, was a groundbreaking moment for me.

As I am learning German, I try to do well in class, but my teacher is also very, very good at combining culture and colloquies with grammar and conjugation. Little by little, I get the full experience of Germany and its culture.

The discoveries have spiked up my life in little ways. Reading a tweet in German and suddenly figuring out that the word "gewinnt" meant "win" in past tense.  Being at a debate tournament and discovering that one of the opponents' last name was Silber--meaning silver in German.

Realizing that German isn't quite the guttural, throaty language I had perceived it to be, but actually something that sounded smooth and sweet and concise.

These little discoveries are my proudest moments.