Spanish vs. French: The College Years

When I was a sophomore in college, I began to pursue a minor in the Spanish language, to go along with my English major. I had taken several years of Spanish in high school, which meant I didn’t have to start at square one. No SPN 101 for me! After taking the proficiency test, it was determined that I would start with … SPN 102.

Well, okay, I thought. Aside from a (very basic) German class in third grade, Spanish was my first attempt at learning another language, and they always say the first one’s the hardest. And at least I got four free credits for the 101 class I managed to skip. It wasn’t a total loss, and my bruised ego and I showed up for class and dutifully collected the syllabus.

Subjunctive tense? Imperfect tense? Preterite tense? I already learned all this stuff in high school! Having convinced myself that I was wasting my time, my professor, Señor Courtad, asked me to explain the difference between preterite and imperfect. I tensed up: I had no idea.

So maybe I was in the right class after all.

(Re-)Learning the Language

A week or two passed, and as most of the things I’d forgotten since high school started to come back to me, I settled into a groove. I was usually able to provide satisfactory answers when called on, and the questions I asked weren’t completely remedial. During an exercise to refamiliarize the class with colors, Señor Courtad called on Lindsay, the girl sitting next to me, pointing at a red ball. “¿Qué color es eso?” What color is this, he wanted to know. Pretty easy stuff, a real softball of a question: Everyone in class knew it was rojo.

“Um … rouge?”

Okay, maybe not everyone. Close, he told her, with a wink — but rouge is French. Her cheeks went a little rojo, but there was no real harm done. Everyone forgot about it by the end of class. Everyone but Lindsay, anyway. As I was packing up my books, she approached me.

“You’re pretty good at this stuff, right?” Sure, I told her. I guess. I’d tested into the class, the same as she did, at any rate. “Okay, well, I took four years of French in high school, and this seems to be mostly the same stuff. Do you think you could teach me the difference?”

My brain jammed in neutral, trying to process what she’d asked me. The only French I knew came from Pepé LePew cartoons, and in the grand scheme of things, my Spanish was little better. My lack of familiarity aside, however, I don’t think anyone could have done what she’d asked.

Spanish as a Lingua Français?

Languages aren’t so easily broken down. Even though French and Spanish have many similarities — both descended from Latin, both official languages of the UN, both likely to make someone swoon — there’s no quick and easy conversion possible from one to the other. Or for any pair of languages, for that matter. Part of what makes translation a skill is the ability to understand nuance and subtlety in both the source and the target languages, and for that, a translator needs to be fluent in both languages. As a Spanish 102 student with no exposure to French, I didn’t come anywhere near qualifying.

After explaining this to Lindsay, I urged her to talk to our professor. She did, and promptly dropped the class. I’m still not sure whether she decided to head back to French or start Spanish from the beginning. I just hope she didn’t try to sign up for German 102.