As you will notice from the title of this article, there are some words in Spanish that are very close to their English counterparts. Maybe that’s why I have heard many people say that Spanish is an easy language to learn. And yet, none of those people actually speak Spanish themselves, so I can’t put much stock in their opinion.

I can’t really comment on whether Spanish is easier to learn compared with other languages, but I can tell you that it’s not always a simple thing to start using your fledgling language skills in a real-life environment. Anyone who has studied a language in a classroom will tell you the experience differs greatly from meeting and talking to people por la calle (in the street).

I’m not trying to strike fear into the hearts of Spanish students or dissuade people from using their burgeoning Spanish in the real world; far from it. In fact, back in 1997 when I first moved to Spain, I found the unique challenges of communicating in a second language immensely enjoyable and enlightening.

Curiously, I was taken back to those early days of learning Spanish through a conversation with a friend recently and discovered that her experiences were virtually opposite to mine in many ways. Yet we both ended up integrating ourselves into Spanish society and happily speaking the language with confidence. (Mine grew rusty in my decade-long absence but I’m now working to get it back to that level.)

What I took away from that trip down memory lane is that both introverts and extroverts alike can learn a new language and benefit from the experience.

Lara, the extrovert
My friend, Lara, arrived in Spain when she was 18 with a personality and level of self-confidence that made her an undeniable extrovert.

In many ways, this seems the best starting point for language acquisition. She wasn’t about to suffer from the intense embarrassment that many feel when they attempt to speak with the clumsy tongue of a novice. She wasn’t the type of person to dread making a mistake or fear social rejection. For her, wouldn’t Spanish truly be ‘easy’ to learn in many ways?

I, the introvert
Before we examine her experience, let’s take a look at mine. I wasn’t extremely shy when I arrived in Spain at 21, but I was definitely in the introverted range of the personality spectrum.

For me, embarrassing myself by saying something silly or inappropriate was too mortifying for words and I lived with a constant, if not always acute, fear of it. How in the world was I going to cope with the constant stream of ‘stupid mistakes’ that are unavoidable for people grappling with a new language?

I was a diligent Spanish student, though I never took a formal class. I was seldom parted from my pocket dictionary (I even had it with me at nightclubs and discos – what a geek.) and referred to it constantly. I annoyed all my coworkers with a barrage of questions about the colloquial expressions that they used. I made countless mistakes but quickly became adjusted to the idea that there was no way around it. I learned to swear like a sailor from my roommate and, well, I managed.

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