¿Cómo aprendiste español?

from Spanish Facts · host Almendra Gomezleyva

Today we are going to interview my good friend Tuuli, Tuuli comes from Finland, and the first time she came to Mexico was  11 years ago she was coming only for three weeks and she only could speak Finnish, English and a little bit of French. She came to Mexico with a small book with some sentences in Spanish, so she was only able to order food, to ask where the bathroom was, to say  "hi", "thank you" and "please." After this time she went back to Finland and she started to learn Spanish at college. She came back to Mexico for three or six months. Then she started to learn Spanish with a private tutor from Uruguay. After a year, she realized she was able to understand and to communicate quite good, but she had another challenge: She had already a group of friends, but when they were speaking together, she was not able to understand the topic until it was too late to participate, so she developed some techniques in order to understand and to pick some words from the topic so she could participate and contribute with her ideas. Then she got a job and she was very excited for it. But there was another challenge: the phone she was able to answer the phone and to understand who was talking but she was not able to understand the message so she could only tell her boss who had called but she was not able to tell what the message was. After some practice and some hard work, she was able to speak Spanish. Now she lives here. She has a job and her life is like any other local. She has a tip for you, when you are learning Spanish in another country, go with the locals and with the people who have no other choice but to speak Spanish. If you try to talk with people who also speak your language or English. They are going to try to talk to you in English because they are also eager to practice their second or third language. So if you go with a host family, that only speaks Spanish, it will be very good for you. It will be faster. It will be challenging, but it will be better. So let's hear from to Tuuli. Thank you for being part of the first episode of Spanish Facts. If you want to ask truly some more questions and to get to know her better and get to know about her life here and her work, please let me know so we can interview her again. Thank you so much.

What this episode covers

Today we are going to interview my good friend Tuuli, Tuuli comes from Finland, and the first time she came to Mexico was 11 years ago she was coming only for three weeks and she only could speak Finnish, English and a little bit of French. She came to Mexico with a small book with some sentences in Spanish, so she was only able to order food, to ask where the bathroom was, to say "hi", "thank you" and "please." After this time she went back to Finland and she started to learn Spanish at college. She came back to Mexico for three or six months. Then she started to learn Spanish with a private tutor from Uruguay. After a year, she realized she was able to understand and to communicate quite good, but she had another challenge: She had already a group of friends, but when they were speaking together, she was not able to understand the topic until it was too late to participate, so she developed some techniques in order to understand and to pick some words from the topic so she could participate and contribute with her ideas. Then she got a job and she was very excited for it. But there was another challenge: the phone she was able to answer the phone and to understand who was talking but she was not able to understand the message so she could only tell her boss who had called but she was not able to tell what the message was. After some practice and some hard work, she was able to speak Spanish. Now she lives here. She has a job and her life is like any other local. She has a tip for you, when you are learning Spanish in another country, go with the locals and with the people who have no other choice but to speak Spanish. If you try to talk with people who also speak your language or English. They are going to try to talk to you in English because they are also eager to practice their second or third language. So if you go with a host family, that only speaks Spanish, it will be very good for you. It will be faster. It will be challenging, but it will be better. So let's hear from to Tuuli. Thank you for being part of the first episode of Spanish Facts. If you want to ask truly some more questions and to get to know her better and get to know about her life here and her work, please let me know so we can interview her again. Thank you so much.