I had my first full session with my Spanish tutor today. Again, it went… ok. 

I find I can understand about half of what he says in Spanish, and understand a bit more of the written material he shares. Let’s call that “input.” 

However, my “output” stinks. When he asks me basic conversational questions, I spend many cycles struggling to recall key phrases and vocabulary. I constantly botch conjugations, matching adjectives to nouns’ gender and number, and remembering which gender the nouns are in the first place. I get embarrassed when there’s something we talked about in the previous session that I know I should know but is just not coming to mind. 

I’m grateful the tutor is so patient with me, and offers hints when I appear to have McConnelled. I’m informed that at this point in my language journey, what I’m experiencing is perfectly normal. 

Nevertheless, my autistic brain is very agitated that I’m not amazingly fluent right away. Just like it does with any new hobby I pick up but am not immediately proficient at.

Anyway, I need to find ways to improve my “output” rapidly and to get more comfortable when I hit the boundaries of my current knowledge. For those who have learned a new language later in life, what tips and tricks did you use to overcome this hurdle?