Why poetry is great to learn Spanish?

I recently sent a questionnaire to my audience, asking them about their Spanish struggles and what they wanted or needed more of to improve and progress in their Spanish journey.

One of the questions I asked was how interested they were in a poetry course in Spanish to improve their Spanish skills. The options for courses were grammar, conversation, journaling, and poetry. The answers floored me. The poetry course was, by far, the one that people were less interested in, with conversation being the one with more interest.

Now, there is nothing wrong with those results, and I expected them even though I have been in the language learning industry for almost 20 years. However, what saddened me and made me want to pull my hair out was that the number one struggle my Spanish-learning audience had was… accuracy—being accurate in their expression. Being able to find the words to express what they want to say, express how they feel, express themselves in their own unique way.

Emphasis on “unique”.

So, basically, the conundrum I find myself now as a businesswoman wanting to provide a service to my audience that fixes their problems is how to convince my audience that what they need to improve on their accuracy is, apparently, not what they want, which is poetry.

But that’s the beauty of our paradoxical lives. Very often, what we need is not what we want, or the path to where we want to go is not the path we want to go through because it is often uncomfortable.

We want the easy path, the direct path. We sometimes accept the scenic route and slow path as long as it doesn’t make us uncomfortable, even if the views are amazing and worth all the bumps in the road to get there.

So, the way I see it, if you want to achieve accuracy in Spanish, you need to take the scenic route with a bumpy and windy road because the direct road won’t get you there, not really, and on top of that, you won’t even enjoy the views.

Why Poetry for Accuracy in Spanish?

Let me separate the two angles of working with poetry here. On the one hand, we have read poetry in Spanish; on the other hand, we have written our own poetry in Spanish. And both are two different things that contribute massively to the improvement of the language.

Reading poetry in the target language, in this case, Spanish, helps with pronunciation and prosody. What is prosody? Prosody is just the patterns of stress and intonation of the language. So, if you want to sound like a native Spanish speaker, you might want to give reading poetry a go.

There are, in fact, a lot of studies that prove the benefits of poetry in language learning. Look at the “Further Reading” section at the end of this blog post.

But reading poetry is only the first part of the equation. Language has a passive and an active component, so reading poetry is passive. The other side of the coin is writing poetry.

And I understand that when what you want is to speak accurately and think on your feet about the words you need, you might think that practising speaking all the time is what’s gonna get you there. Well, you’d be wrong.

Have you ever had conversations in your target language with native speakers and felt frustrated because they wouldn’t correct you? Or did you feel frustrated when your teacher was overcorrecting you, that is, correcting every single mistake to the detriment of you conveying your message and having a resemblance of communication?

The truth is that relying only on the fakeness of conversation classes with a teacher who will correct you to some extent (understanding or not that correcting every single mistake is not good) so you learn but don’t communicate. Or the real situation where you communicate but don’t learn from corrections because people don’t correct you. None of those situations won’t help you reach accuracy. Fluency may be, but not accuracy.

Accuracy is achieved when we actively search for the words we really need. But first, we need to understand what stories we have inside of us that need to be told.

How to Write Poetry to Reach Accuracy in Spanish?

This is where writing poetry for language learning purposes differs a bit from writing poetry for personal reasons (that is, every other reason other than learning Spanish).

Regardless if you have written poetry before or this is the first time , when you want to write a poem for language purposes, the focus goes on the words and not on the emotion so much.

So, what steps do you need to take to make the most of this activity?

>>> Decide on what you want to write about. For example, start with something that brings you joy or gratitude, something that inspires awe or something that makes you feel sad… Basically, anything that brings emotion.

>>> Brainstorm or free write a bit about it. This can be in the target language or your native language if you are not yet comfortable expressing it in Spanish. It won’t make any difference in the outcome. Trying to write this stage in Spanish when you don’t have the words and fluidity will block you, so please be nice to yourself and don’t make things more complicated than they need to be.

In this brainstorming phase, you are looking for sensations to express the topic: go for colours, smells, emotions…

Show, don’t tell. How would you describe the topic with your senses only?
How do you feel about it? How would you describe that feeling/emotion?

>>> Once you have a “picture” in your mind, start writing.

>>> Have your monolingual dictionary, a thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary at hand.

For example, my go-to poem topic is always how my first sip of coffee in the morning makes me feel because it’s something I know very well.

In the brainstorming phase, I would place colours (browns, blacks…) and smells (coffee smell) and textures (the touch of the hot coffee cup in my hands)… I would think about how I feel before, during and after that first sip, what it means to me have that coffee (safety, comfort, self-care, love, home, cosiness…) and along with those emotions, I bring more sensations to my picture, like a blanket, fireplace, the warmth inside opposed to miserable weather outside, a hug….

And then I start.

I start simply with the title: “The first sip of coffee”

First draft verse:

Sleepy eyes, out of focus

Here, I go check “sleepy” and “out of focus” in my thesaurus. Is there a synonym that expresses my idea better?

For sleepy, I find “somnolent” (which I like because it is similar to a Spanish word), and then when I google “somnolent eyes,” I find this result: “slumberous (or slumbrous) eyes.” Mmm, interesting. I did not know about this combination, so I am going to go with it for now.

For “out of focus” I find “unfocused”. I see “blurred”, “hazy”, “misty”, “fuzzy”… So I go now to the monolingual dictionary and search for their meaning and also try and see any constructions with those words. I discovered then that “hazy” is used for vision. Voilá!

My first verse has now become something like:

Slumberous, hazy eyes

I don’t know if I will keep this version (I write with pencil and have noted some other synonyms on the margin of the page to explore later).

I continue:

Slumberous, hazy eyes
as I go down the stairs,
stumbling.

Stop again. Is there any other way to express this idea of me going down the stairs in an unstable manner?

I look for synonyms of “stumbling”. I find “stagger”, “bumble” (which I love the sound of but don’t know yet if it will work out), “blunder”, “wobble” ….

Note here that there are many more synonyms but I am just making a note of those that I like because of how they sound. We all prefer some words over others for personal subjective reasons, nothing wrong with that.

Then, I explore the meanings of some of the synonyms that caught my eye. I am in love with “bumble” and “wobble”. The sounds of them and the images they create in my mind: bumble like a cute bumblebee or wobble like a flan!

I keep exploring, and I find the use of “wobble down” to describe a kid going down the stairs. Perfect!

Slumberous, hazy eyes
as I wobble down the stairs
and enter the kitchen.

See? I start with my idea and the image I want to convey. Then, I go search for synonyms and explore their meanings and uses until I find the exact word for that image.

I will stop here with my poem. This process can really help you increase your vocabulary and accuracy.

What are your own, unique images?

The other element that makes poetry so interesting is that it invites you to reflect on your own personal “imagery.” As I said, coffee is like a cosy blanket. It makes me feel cosy, warm, and safe, and I have clear images of how these feelings appear in my mind. Now, what does this first sip of coffee mean to you? Is it the beginning of a new day, gratitude, or potential? And what images do these feelings evoke?

These images are super important when we want to talk to someone. They help the listener picture our message in their heads, making it clearer and helping them connect with us better and deeper.

If you talked with me, you will soon notice how I bring colour to my speech by bringing images and comparisons. I tend to speak in English all the time because I live in an English-speaking country, and all my friends speak English. So, what helps me understand myself is by bringing these images when I don’t find the right words.

So, let’s say I want to explain to my friend that the other day, I woke up super disoriented. I wanted to tell her that I was “wobbling down the stairs,” but that word wasn’t in my vocabulary yet.

I then would say that I was going down the stairs like a toddler, which would immediately paint a picture in her mind. We would “share” that image, and she would connect with my emotion of how I felt going down the stairs. Now, this is a common image as an example, but the point is that being “fluent” in your own imagery is more important and useful than having a long list of decontextualised words.

Three realities about reaching accuracy in the target language

ONE

You can memorise a list of synonyms or words, but you won’t be able to use them in conversation unless you have them in a context in your brain’s catalogue. And, you won’t remember them easily unless you attach some “meaning” or “emotion” to them.

TWO

In the absence of the “exact” word, be fluent in your images so you can either use the exact word, the image, or both to help the listener understand and relate with you. Connect with you.

THREE

Connect the exact word with the image to gain accuracy and colour in your speech. How, poetry!!!

And, yes, writing poetry is scary. We have to actually delve into our emotions instead of ignoring them, but that is actually the point of communication.

The point of communication is to actually express the reality of what’s going on inside of us, and in order to do that, we have to allow ourselves to feel it, to paint a picture and write poetry.