“You’re a Spanish major. You must be fluent, right?”

 I receive this question a lot nowadays, when I explain to loving family members or friends what my course of study at UMass has been. How I am a primary Spanish major. And how, no, contrary to popular belief, I am not fluent. Far from it.

There is something incredibly disheartening about admitting that to oneself. That no matter how much you have studied, or the time that you have poured into the major, or the number of literature reviews turned in, that you are simply not fluent and perhaps never will be. And what is profoundly strange about studying a language is that there are millions, hundreds of millions of people across the planet who are infinitely more skilled in the Spanish language because it is their heritage language—these skills they honed on the playgrounds and in school rooms and in thousands of bedtime stories con sus padres. By age 10, barely anyone knows about the realist theory of international relations or how to properly run gel electrophoresis—those things you learn when you study for a Political Science or Biology degree. But there are millions of ten year olds who can speak effortless Spanish, whose tongues don’t tap against their teeth in that oh-so-gringo way and who don’t mix up feminine and masculine pronouns of a score of household items. Continue reading →