When people would ask me my level of Spanish before going out to Madrid, I would naively flirt with the idea of telling them that I’m ‘semi-fluent’, which in hindsight was a complete lie. I was very quickly humbled upon my arrival as I realised all I could confidently say to the taxi driver were the AR endings of the preterite tense and that I liked going to the cinema with my brothers. Although not helped by the majority of friends I made being English, this really does change if you throw yourself into everything.
I made sure I exclusively watched Spanish TV, listened to Spanish music, and made an effort to converse with the Spanish people I crossed in day to day life. Ultimately this changed my limiting conversations from “How are you?”, to which I responded, “Yes please”, to actually being able to form a human connection with these friendly people. I’m not sure if my parents were disappointed or proud when during their visit they saw the bouncers at the local €2 pint bar greet me with a familiar hug and know me by my first name. Either way, it strangely measured just how much I had improved.
This getting stuck in approach, doesn’t only apply with learning the language, but also socially. A big worry of mine as I landed in this new city knowing hardly anyone, was wondering how on earth I am going to make any friends. Admittedly at first, it felt like an even more intense version of freshers week as you’re in another country, don’t have the accessibility of halls, and you can’t just hop on a Virgin train back to Kings Cross if you feel like it. However, the ‘yes mindset’ approach that I adopted in my first weeks landed me with friends for life who I may not have met otherwise. The quantity of Erasmus students you meet, especially somewhere like Madrid, and the domino effect of meeting their friends and their friends and so on, meant that all my previous worries were unnecessary. It is undoubtedly overwhelming, but ultimately so much fun and definitely worth draining the social battery for at the beginning.
My final recommendation to anyone considering a Year Abroad, would be to travel as much as you can within that country. I was lucky that I had opportunities to travel with work, but additionally to that we put in effort to visit different parts of Madrid and Spain. As well as my job, I nannied part time so that I was able to do this (which also helped with the Spanish), and we took advantage of the weekends with day trips and stays which were such highlights of the year. Without these trips, I never would have learnt and appreciated the vast culture of Spain and menu of several Tapas restaurants.
No article could properly justify the year I’ve just had, or give enough advice for anyone thinking of taking a Year Abroad, but hopefully this encourages the decision for those considering it. Of course there are lows, countless pickpocketing, and moments where you need to dig deep, but the lifestyle, the lessons and the fun to be had, makes all of that more than worth it.