FINALLY Learn Spanish Right Here In Tulum!

So, I originally wrote this as an email and sent it out to the sweet folks that like to hear from me from time to time. It is about my lifelong struggle learning Spanish. But, the more I thought about it, I decided I wanted to put it up on this site so other people can hear my story too. I’m guessing I’m not the only one in this boat so maybe it will help other folks out as well. Check out my “email” and please, leave a comment if you have any questions about what I’m up to right now! (or if you have any suggestions for help learning a language… I’ll definitely take all the help I can get! 🙂 )

Hola! Buenos dias a todos! Como estas???

Don’t worry! This email won’t be completely in Spanish. 🙂

I’ve been experiencing a really unbelievable personal transformation lately that, while I’m clearly just beginning, I feel like I’ve gotta share.

But before we really get into that, I’ve got to give you a little bit of back history on my struggles with the Spanish language. I’ll probably joke about it but in reality, I have always been (and continue to be) very embarrassed by my difficulties with the language.

My first memories of trying to learn Spanish were in high school. I remember I had to take three years of it. It was the first time in my life I worried I was going to fail a class. Now understand, I was a true child nerd. I was in a program that essentially moved me into high school classes after 6th grade and had never experienced anything but praise in my educational life. Now here I was facing the idea of true failure. Now that my friends, was traumatizing for this 12 year old little nerd. But, somehow I did pass, just barely, and continued on year after year. I still get a pit in my stomach visualizing walking into those classrooms. All I think of are those damn verb conjugation grids and the tests where we had to fill them out for what felt like 300 different variations. Honestly, I think Spanish class for me was the 8th level of hell.

Then, get this… I continued my way on and at the beginning of my college career, as an English major, was required to take MORE Spanish. Shoot me. Here is where I think I may have actually failed the class and begun to rethink my major. (In the end I wisely switched over to Business.)

Fast forward many years… I meet my husband Frank and his family speaks Spanish. In an effort to step up my game, I purchase Rosetta Stone and get to work. Now, I think Rosetta Stone may have some merits if you are using it very consistently and I really tried to. But, I wasn’t great at it and most people I talk to say the same thing.

A few more years go by and… boom… I’m a full blown resident of Mexico that speaks very very little Spanish. (You can read more about how that happened here.) I begin taking classes again and make many Spanish speaking friends. I am improving little by little but I’m not even at a caveman communication level. I’m hopeless.

I hear about another Spanish school in town that people keep raving about. It’s an immersion program and truthfully, I’m super intrigued but also a little intimidated by it. But – over and over again I hear stories of “I did Meztli’s immersion program for 2/3 months and came out of it fluent.” (Now, fluent is such a relative term, right now I’m going for strongly proficient and beyond.)

So, finally, after almost a year here in Tulum I decide I can’t wait any longer! Speaking Spanish is a huge priority so… I jump in! It has only been two weeks and I am blown away by my progress. Even hoping and dreaming, I would have never been able to expect these types of results over two weeks! I really don’t know their secret but some of the things that I have found very helpful is that we’re not focused on a specific educational curriculum per-se. (None of my dreaded verb charts – hallelujah!) We’re focused on the need-to-knows and getting the guts up to speak Spanish more and more both inside and outside of class. Every day I speak a little bit more outside of class and I find myself saying things I didn’t even realize that I knew, it just comes out of nowhere.

While they offer everything from private skype lessons to local excursions and beyond, I am in what they call their Spanish Group Lessons. If you take full advantage of their optional “extra-curricular activities”, you can potentially be there for 5+ hours, 5 days/week. The actual “classroom” piece is 3 hours but they have optional morning yoga classes Tuesday-Friday and evening activities Monday-Thursday. The evening activities range from game night to cooking class. Of course, cooking class is my favorite. I try to go to as much of it as possible. So, while my initial trepidation had much to do with the time commitment and possible overwhelm, now that I’m in it I see, it is much to do with what makes their students so successful.

This is a long email! Sorry! When I get goin’ on a topic I’m excited about there’s no stoppin’ me. And, I’ll probably send updates along the way as I make my way to fluent! My goal is to stop speaking to Frank in English and only speak Spanish at home. Wish me luck!

How’s your Spanish? Any tips for me as I make it a major priority in my life?

Cheers!

Ashley

An update: When I first walked into the grounds at Meztli I was shocked by the entire place – I just really didn’t realize how peaceful it would be, how wonderful the small “classroom” palapas are, the birds chirping, on and on. So, I decided to make this little video to give folks a tour of what it’s like. Below the video you’ll also find an email/article that I wrote about the school early on in my learning journey. Enjoy!

PS – If you’re interested in learning more about the programs at Meztli – here’s their page. Tell them Hi! from me!