Jane and I have just got back from visiting Iglesia Bautista Carismatica de Londres, a Spanish service at Chatsworth Baptist Church in South London. It was a great chance to combine Christian worship with honing our language skills but, even with the kindness and patience of the people there, our heads are still ringing!

While I didn’t come away miraculously speaking Spanish, it feels like the English speaking part of my brain is under assault – I keep wanting to speak Spanish but just don’t have the vocabulary or command of the grammar to go beyond very basic communications. It reminds me of when I spent a week in Glasgow helping out with a children’s activity week; after a couple of days I found I was starting to think in broad glaswegian and thus struggling to understand myself!

Anyway, hopefully it’s all a sign that the synapses are busy firing and making new connections. Learning a language is hard work but it should be helping keep our brains in shape.

Tags: spanish, linguistics, language learning