Reality Check

God bless my new friend, a veterinarian from Barcelona who recently moved to Minneapolis and has traveled twice to Des Moines in the last month for work. Three weeks ago, he was in town with two colleagues working at Des Moines' World Pork Expo. They were looking for people who spoke both Spanish and English to help translate for them while they were at the fair, and they solicited our Spanish conversation group for volunteers. I was unable to help them at the fair, but we arranged to go out for food and drink later that week. I had a great time and got a lot of practice! My friend had an early meeting in Ames and called to see if I could go out for a drink. We have spoken mostly in Spanish, which is more for my sake than anything. But I do not garner praise for my superior Spanish-speaking abilities from this new friend (nor did I do so with his colleagues when they were here three weeks ago). The reality is I have reached a new level in my abilities. I can keep up with a conversation more often than not, and I can express myself in words in an increasing array of circumstances. However, I am far from possessing a seamless ability to communicate effectively in Spanish. I still have an accent that he says sounds very bad. He can understand what I'm trying to say, but he can very clearly tell that I'm not a native speaker. This is good for me. As I become more confident as I progress, it's important to be aware of where I really stand on the spectrum of abilities. I am much better than I was a year ago, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.