Limping through Spanish acquisition

This morning, I was thinking about how I can't ever tell how old people are in person, but I REALLY can't tell when I just hear a voice, like on the radio.

I had the thought, "When I'm talking to you on the phone, I have no idea how old you are." As per usual, I wondered if I could say that in Spanish. So I thought, "Cuando estoy hablando contigo por teléfono, no tengo ni idea cuantos años tienes." 

When I put that into Google translate, it gave me in English exactly what I was trying to say! Yay!

But then I reversed them, because I do like to see what it recommends, this always makes me see that I have a way to go. 

What Google translate recommended was, "Cuando hablo contigo por teléfono, no tengo ni idea de qué edad tienes."

It's just a little different, but probably more polished. Still, it makes me hopeful that when we travel to Mexico in spring, I'll be able to make my way a bit better than if I were going in unprepared at all. 

Do I know Spanish?

In August, I'll have been using Duolingo for 3 years.

James will hit 4 years at the end of this month. He started studying Spanish in June 2021. I decided to go with French at first, just because that's what I studied in high school and college and I figured having some momentum from the get-go would keep me motivated.

We planned a trip to Montreal, which we took in spring 2023, and after we got home from that, I switched over to Spanish, too.

Living in Texas (and, really, anywhere in the US), this is a much more practical language. I wish I'd studied it in high school rather than French, but I think French seemed so much more romantic.

In terms of practicality, ASL would have been the most useful to me, but I shudder to think how it would have been taught, especially given how I was taught French in high school. I had to take remedial French for a semester in college, because I was functionally starting fresh. Sigh.

Now that I've been studying Spanish in Duolingo for a couple of years, I've attained a score that indicates I should be able to have basic conversations in Spanish.. but I don't feel like that's the case at all.

We're planning to visit Mexico next year, and I've started listening to an immersion Spanish podcast to see if I can gain some confidence in this regard.

What I think is happening is this: I am really good at taking tests. I can usually do pretty well in challenges and stuff, but that doesn't always translate to learning with me. I have surpassed James's "XP" within the game, and I'm further along than he is. But I'm 100% sure that he's better at actually speaking Spanish than I am.

This is a part of my personality that I wish I could turn off. I'm trying to stay focused and learn to learn, but sometimes the "gamification" here is counterproductive to why I'm actually on the app: to learn a language.