My First Day of Class in Spanish

Most of my Spanish-speaking friends had their first class entirely in English somewhere around the age of 12 or 13. I had mine at 26. I just really wanted to learn Law. It so happened that the only classes with legal topics were in Spanish, so I passed the DIEN in order to take them.

There's a scene in Legally Blonde that depict's Elle Woods' first day of Law School. She comes in, sits in the front row, pulls out her heart-shaped notepad and feathery pencil while everyone else whips out laptops. Everyone has read the case before class except her, and the teacher stands formidably before her and asks about Gordon vs. Steele. What comes out of her mouth then is absolutely embarrassing, and she gets kicked out of the class for not being prepared.

That's how I felt my first day of Spanish Law class. I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb. The teacher kept coming around to me, standing right in front of me (I was in the front row) and talking directly at me until I froze. I must have looked terrified throughout class because one time, he stopped and asked me something. I had no idea what it was. I thought for sure he knew I was English and was trying to frighten me out the class.

So I started talking about Contract Law.

We weren't even talking about Contract Law. That's when I felt like Elle Woods, with her little heart-shaped notepad.

The whole class started laughing. It turns out he was just asking if I understood him and why I was looking at him with a strange face. At that moment I knew I had 2 choices: I could take the easy way out like I always do to avoid embarrassment and challenges -- drop the class and go for something I don't really like as much but in English. I don't have to take any class in Spanish, or in Law for that matter. Or I could force myself to learn more about Spanish and Law than I ever thought, and suffer. I know my level of Spanish, so I know I'll suffer a lot. If I choose the second, I'm going to have to drop my pride and ask for help from my Spanish friends. And I was probably going to get embarrassed again.

But I also know that if I drop the class, I'd be very disappointed in myself. I came to Spain in part to become fluent in Spanish (it has been a challenge so I have been avoiding it). And, I took the DIEN just so I can take these Law & taxation classes. If I gave up, there is a good chance I'll regret it forever, not knowing how far I could have gone...