Practicing My Spanish In Madrid

I've been trying on and off to become fluent in Spanish since taking it in high school. I got an opportunity to put my language learning in practice during my recent trip to the 70th Annual Cannes Film Festival. I was there promoting the documentary I directed, "Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring."

While flying to Cannes, which is situated in the picturesque French Riviera, I had a connection in Madrid. The Spanish flight attendants would come by my seat and ask questions such as "¿Mas pan?" ("Would you like more bread with your meal?"). I would reply in Spanish, "Si, gracias" ("Yes, thank you.")

Maybe the flight attendants appreciated my effort, but my attempt at speaking their language seemed somehow wrong. I felt pretentious and condescending, since they were obviously more fluent in English than I was in Spanish.

I also felt like I was putting the man sitting next to me, who was American and English-speaking like me, in an awkward position. When the flight attendants would ask him the same questions that they asked me, he would pause, as if he felt pressure to try to reply in Spanish as I had.

So for the eight-hour flight between New York City and Madrid, I alternated between Spanish and English. Of course, I felt more comfortable speaking English, of which I have a much firmer grasp.

On the return trip, I had another layover in Madrid. Eating lunch in the Madrid-Barajas Airport while waiting for my flight back to New York, I decided to grab a bite at Burger King. Not exactly the cultural experience I was going for, but it was quick and cheap.

For some reason, I felt entirely comfortable going up to the young man behind the counter and placing my order in my rudimentary Spanish: "Quisiera ensalada con pollo" ("I would like a salad with chicken"). He responded as if I'd spoken perfect Spanish, asking, "Es todo?" ("Is that all?").

The fact that I felt more comfortable practicing my Spanish with a fast-food worker than with the flight attendants says more about me than it does about them. As much as I'd like to think of myself as seeing all people as equal, I obviously have some middle-class prejudices. I perceived the flight attendants as worldly and well-traveled, and would therefore look down on me and my broken Spanish. But I didn't care as much what the working-class BK employee thought of me.

That's one of the many cool things about traveling: it reveals hang-ups that you need to address, but that you didn't necessarily know you had.

I'm going to continue to practice my Spanish with native speakers whenever I get the chance. I've come to realize that sometimes I'll feel awkward and out of place, like I did with the Spanish flight attendants. And sometimes I'll feel confident, like I did with the fast-food worker. In that sense, language learning is like dating — trial and error.

Learning a language often requires you to come out of your comfort zone, and travel is one of the best ways to accomplish that. Travel — especially international travel — truly broadens your horizons.