I’ve called this blog ‘Getting By in Art and Languages’ because at my last Spanish class (which was only my second so far) the teacher, Carmen, said that at the end of this foundation year we would be able to “get by in Spanish”. I thought about how ‘getting by’ is often in the title of language course materials and I like its realistic ambition. I suppose it is meant to make the task of learning a language seem less threatening and offer the hope that something will have been achieved at the end of it if one makes some effort. I also like the suggestion of there being a physical obstacle there that one has to ‘get by’ in order to progress.
I am aware that taking on this blog as well as learning a language in addition to doing all the other things I’m meant to do in a week is extra work but I’m starting it precisely because I would like it to form a connecting thread that will help me better understand what holds my various activities together rather than being a new separate distraction. When considering whether or not to learn a new language I found myself weighing up whether it would be better to spend those two hours a week making art or in a classroom speaking Spanish and I decided that there didn’t need to be a conflict if I reconciled the activities by perceiving them as part of a whole.
I know that I have always hugely enjoyed learning languages. So far I have learnt French at school from age 7, German from age 16, studied both to degree level, studied Arabic for one year and Polish for another at evening classes and dipped my toe in Armenian for a recent art event. The desire to learn Spanish came from having spent our summer holiday for the past 6 years in Spain without ever having learnt the language. This summer I decided I was too ashamed to still be communicating in hand signals with people we have got to know in the places we always visit and resolved to get on with learning to speak.
Key vocabulary: Beginning. Enjoyment. Holiday. Learning. Art. Connecting. Communicating. Understanding.
