Sunday Scribbles #7: Failing Forward in Spanglish

“A different language is a different vision of life” — Federico Fellini

I’ve been trying to improve my Spanish the past few weeks. Watching Spanish TV shows, studying a page of a children’s encyclopedia every day and conjugating verbs in different colour pens.

It’s made me realise how much I miss learning. I loved studying languages as a child at school and even chose to study languages at university. It unlocked a whole new world where I could travel, meet new friends and explore new horizons. There was a time when I was obsessed with languages, filling notebooks with foreign characters, weaving together phrases and listening to foreign films without subtitles. But somewhere along the line I fell out of love with it. Maybe I tried to learn too many at once or lost my childlike wonder at exploring the world.

Learning a new language often means taking a few steps back. Going back to a childlike version of yourself who would ask open questions without fear of judgement or try new phrases without embarrassment. To improve, I find it’s essential to approach tasks with a beginner’s mindset and not worry about speaking perfectly. Just be open to learning and speaking with anyone — embrace imperfection! Something which I found harder and harder as I got older.

What struck me the most this week was how quickly I rekindled my love for the process of learning. It wasn’t just about memorising vocabulary or conjugating verbs, it was about the sense of discovery – the thrill of understanding something new, even if it was just a tiny piece of the puzzle. Of course, having a target in mind makes all the difference. Knowing that I’ll soon be navigating markets, cafes, and daily life in Spanish gives me the drive to push through the more dull or challenging parts.

If I’d never studied languages or embraced those uncomfortable moments of learning, I never would have worked in France, studied in Lebanon, made friends in Berlin, travelled across Latin America or moved to Egypt. I would be stuck in a much smaller and less exciting world than the one I know.

When I find myself in Valencia stumbling over words, fumbling through awkward conversations, and mispronouncing phrases so many times, I need to remind myself that each mistake is a learning opportunity, not something to be ashamed of. The process of making mistakes, correcting myself, and moving forward is incredibly liberating. Time to fail forward.

Zephyr learns to crawl in front of my beloved children’s Spanish book