Hola. Me llamo Micah y yo no hablo español. 

Spanish is a language rich in history, stemming from Latin origins. It is also the mother tongue spoken by my entire family. This includes my younger brother, who quickly learned it by taking Spanish three and practicing with my family. However, as he quickly learned, I soon fell behind, only rivaling my four-year-old brother.  

My grandparents were born in Puerto Rico, but moved to the U.S.A. after my abuelo got a job in the army. While they had to leave their homeland, they did not leave their culture, heritage, and native tongue. Therefore, my whole family grew up learning and speaking Spanish—except for me. 

Growing up, I was never taught my native language. Now, both my parents tell me how much they regret not incorporating Spanish into my vocabulary as a kid. I’ve since learned that learning a language as a teenager is much more complex than learning it as a child. 

My family has seen my recent interest in learning it and has been motivating and supporting me on my journey. However, it has been a grueling process since learning a language has its positives and negatives. Some days I feel ready to speak Spanish to that one friend who knows it, and other days I forget my basic Spanish vocabulary.  

Although I’ve tried, countless of my Spanish-speaking friends and family poke fun at my inability to learn Spanish. To them, I was always sort of the ‘odd one out’ for not taking the initiative. 

Over the past three years, I’ve tried to revive my lost motivation by using the language learning app Duolingo. To my immense pride, I even managed to reach a year-long streak and purchased subscriptions to assess my speaking ability. 

New developments have distracted my journey to learning Spanish. A couple of months ago, I got a job working at a movie theater where most of the customers spoke Spanish. Oftentimes, I’d find myself looking cluelessly at the customers in the concession stand as they ordered their snacks.

Many times, I find myself stressing and panicking because I don’t understand what they’re saying. However, I would often find my Spanish-speaking coworker helping me and taking the orders without issue. It bothered me that every time my coworkers asked for help with a Spanish-speaking customer, I would inwardly cringe, knowing I couldn’t do anything to assist.

This helpless feeling got me thinking: I am a Hispanic, a Puerto Rican, who doesn’t speak Spanish. My last name is Lopez, for goodness’ sake. I needed to learn to converse fluently in Spanish, not just for my job or my family, but so I could gain confidence in myself. 

I’d often question myself about what has truly helped me develop the proper tongue and understanding of Spanish. I realized it wasn’t the two years of Spanish or using language-learning apps, but it was when I visited the island that brought my family together: Puerto Rico. 

Last summer, my whole family took a week-long vacation to Puerto Rico. Being there on the island, surrounded by delicious food stands chock-full of empanadillas, mofongos, bacalaitos, and sorullitos, with live music playing in the town center, really helped me understand Spanish more. 

Being immersed in the culture encouraged me to speak more openly and think critically about how to respond. After that week had ended, going to Puerto Rico helped me speak Spanish more fluently than I had in my previous 16 years of life.

In the end, the experts are right: immersion is the best teacher for learning a language. As of now, if you say something in Spanish to me, there’s only a 50% I will blankly stare at you. That’s what I call progress. Many obstacles have come, and many more will come, but I slowly trek towards the ultimate goal of fluency. ¡Adiós, mis gentes!