Youthpass, communication in the mother tongue

¡Hello shells!

As I told you yesterday, I keep working on my Youthpass because I want to finish it before I go back home. Also, you know that I want to write about everything I have learned during my EVS Project here.

As you can see in the Youthpass website, they give you some guides to help you writing the document, so I will be answering that questions just to make this as less boring as I can. After the questions, I will add one paragraph suming up the principal idea. I promise, I will try to do this entertaining.

I want to remind you that the Youthpass has eight key competences and the first one is communiation in the mother tongue. And you are wondering, why do they have one competence about the mother tongue if you are in a different country with a diferente language where you are not using yours? Good question. I have no idea. And the worst thing is that Bob explained us this part in our training in Nottingham, but I can’t remember anything because I was going out every night with the other EVS. I just remember Bob asking the same question, why the Youthpass has this part? And that is my final memory. Well, not the last one. The last one is myself thinking “I should write this, it looks important”. And here we are! Six months later!

Anyway, let’s go back to the principal issue here. If you read the Youthpass website, I understand that, in this competence, you have to share how you have used your mother tongue in UK and how you think in your language, now that you are learning another new one. Let’s move to the questions:

 What difficulties did I experience in communicating? How did I overcome those difficulties?

I’ve been really lucky since the beginning so every time I had a problem I sorted it out easily. At first, I had problems with the Prestonian accent but, lucky me, most of my partners in the project were Spaniards. Yes, I used them as translators. But, you know, I’ll scratch your back and you’ll scratch mine. I’ve been translating things for someone else too, and I’m quite proud of that!

 What opportunities did I have to use my mother tongue? How well did others understand me?

Well, I’ve been living with Spaniards so, I had a looooot of opportunities and we understand each other perfectly. But I had the opportunity of speak Spanish with people from different countries and, surprisingly, we understand each other as well!! My Spanish is on fire!

 To what extent did I develop my communication skills in general? In what way?

My communication skills have improved aaaa loooot. And the reason is that you have to find different ways of explain yourself to someone who doesn’t understand you, using different words or simply using non-verbal communication. I’m such an artist!

 How did I adapt my language to the level of the people I was speaking to? Did I make other people fell OK?

One of the most important things I’ve learned here is to not feel ashamed if you need to ask someone to speak slower because you don’t understand them. I mean, I didn’t need it with my partners because we all had the same spanish level but, if I was speaking with other people in Spanish, I tried to speak slowly because I know how hard it is. And I don’t think I made them feel bad. When someone speak slow is becuase they are trying to make themself understandable and, believe me, I’m very grateful when someone does that! Never feel bad if you need to ask someone to repeat something they have said!

About not speaking perfectly, what was – for them- a foreing language?

Spanish rules!

Has benefited me that most of my colleagues were Spanish? Definitely, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have problems trying to communicate with someone.

Finally, and advice. If you think that the people who have English as their mother tongue are lucky: yes they are. But most of them don’t speak another language. Don’t forget that you can make yourself understandable (almost everywhere) with your Spanish and your 4-words-English. But, if you don’t feel that way, don’t stop there. Try to learn and improve. KEEP MOVING!