What is Stress-free Spanglish?

Switching between languages is not cheating —it's part of the learning process. We just stopped apologizing for it.

"Sure, I can order food and make small talk about the weekend in my second language. But sharing an actual opinion or telling a meaningful story? That's when I start to sweat..."

Sound familiar?

That's the infamous intermediate plateau where you understand quite a bit, but when it comes to expressing yourself, you're stuck in simple conversations that don't reflect who you really are or what you want to say.

So what happens? You stick to safe topics. You avoid complex conversations. You nod and smile a lot. While you're surviving, you're not really connecting or progressing in the way you'd hoped.

How Stress-free Spanglish came about

In traditional language classrooms, the advice is often to just push through—stay in your target language no matter what. But as language teachers who are also language learners ourselves, we've experienced this challenge from both sides.

And that's exactly how we stumbled upon what we now call Stress-free Spanglish:

During our sessions, we'd find ourselves searching for words in our second languages, and help each other out. One of us would pause mid-sentence wondering how to express something, and the other would jump in with suggestions. Or we'd just ask the other to completely switch languages when we needed to give our brains a break.

Before long, we noticed something that felt almost too obvious: when we allowed ourselves to move freely between languages, our conversations became richer, more authentic, and noticeably less stressful.

Instead of staying in the shallows of what we could perfectly express in our target language, we ventured into deeper waters. We discussed politics, shared personal stories, debated teaching ideas, and explored cultural differences that would have been nearly impossible to articulate if we'd forced ourselves to stay exclusively in one language.

Why traditional approaches often fall short

What makes this intermediate stage so tricky isn't just about language skills. It's often about getting stuck in a comfort zone that limits your growth. You're just so aware of what you "should" sound like that it affects your confidence and willingness to engage in more complex conversations.

We've seen this pattern repeatedly with our students (and ourselves!):

• You reach a functional level where you can understand quite a bit

• You struggle to express more complex thoughts and ideas

• This leads to avoiding challenging conversations

• Which means you practice less, especially with challenging content

• Resulting in a self-reinforcing cycle of limited growth

The solution can't be an all-or-nothing approach where you either avoid making mistakes by defaulting to simpler topics or just “push harder”. Sure, there's value in challenging yourself, but sometimes a little support is exactly what allows you to take risks and gently expand your comfort zone.

That's the kind of safety our coffee chats provide. Plus, instead of seeing your native language as something to avoid, we encourage you to see your entire linguistic repertoire as a resource to embrace (fostering what researchers would call your "translingual competence").

Is this actually effective? (Spoiler alert: Yes)

When we first opened these sessions up to others, we wondered if some people might see it as if we were just trying to make them feel better about their language limitations.

But as more people joined our coffee chats, we noticed something remarkable: once participants knew there was no expectation for them to stick to one language or even be "good" at it, they started taking more risks and gradually felt more at ease, getting a lot more language practice than if they had felt too nervous to participate. They'd also ask more questions, and we know that understanding language that comes up is crucial for learning it.

So, what do we mean by "Spanglish"?

This term typically refers to dialectal varieties that emerge when Spanish and English coexist in communities, characterized by borrowing and blending vocabulary and grammar.

But you'll also hear people informally say they're speaking Spanglish whenever they mix these two languages. This is closer to what we're talking about here.

The only difference is that most people often apologize when this happens. But as psycholinguistics expert François Grosjean said:

A bilingual person is not two monolingual brains in one.

In fact, you can intentionally draw upon your knowledge of different languages as a strategy for finding meaning, potentially leading to:

• Deeper comprehension, which facilitates processing and learning new information

• Cognitive processes not tied to either language in isolation, enabling the linking of concepts across languages (how cool is that?!)

• Greater awareness of different cultural viewpoints –often mediated through different languages

• Better understanding of when and how to use your different languages most effectively

But beyond the long-term benefits of what experts would call "translanguaging," here's what you can expect to notice when you join one of our sessions:

• Anxiety decreases significantly

• Willingness to engage in complex topics increases

• Social connections form more naturally

• You get a lot more language practice that gently challenges you to go beyond your current level

Far from being a weakness, this is actually a pretty sophisticated problem-solving technique that multilingual communities around the world use every day!

Beyond the either/or approach

To be clear, we're not suggesting that you should always mix languages. There's undeniable value in stretching yourself to stay in your target language as much as possible.

But language learning isn't an all-or-nothing process. Just as you might use stabilisers or training wheels when learning how to ride a bike (and then gradually rely on them less), allowing yourself to switch languages when needed can be a powerful stepping stone toward greater fluency.

As we've mentioned, we've found that by removing the pressure to be perfect, people actually end up speaking more in their target language, not less. When the fear of making mistakes diminishes, people find themselves being more open to experimentation.

Creating your own stress-free practice

Whether or not you join our coffee chats (although we'd love to have you!), here are some ways you can bring this approach into your own language learning:

• Find a conversation partner who speaks your target language and is learning your native language. Agree that switching is allowed when needed.

• Focus on expressing your ideas in a nuanced way, even if you need to use some words from your native language to bridge gaps.

• Notice when you feel language anxiety rising. Instead of pushing through, ask yourself what may make this experience feel safer for you. Maybe it's giving yourself permission to use a word or phrase from your first language, or asking how to say it in your target language, or trying a different, more relaxed setting.

• Celebrate communication wins, not just perfect grammar. Did you express a complex thought? Connect with someone? Learn something new? That's success!

• Be patient with yourself. Language learning is a marathon, not a sprint. Those moments of switching languages aren't failures—they're proof that you were brave enough to learn something new!

Join us for coffee?

Our Stress-free Spanglish Coffee Chats have become our favorite way to practice our conversation skills—and based on the feedback, many of our participants feel the same way. There's something liberating about having a space where having more than one language in your brain is celebrated rather than punished.

If you'd like to experience this approach firsthand, we host regular Zoom sessions limited to six participants. Newsletter subscribers get first access to registration, which we share at the end of each issue.

In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you! Have you experienced the intermediate plateau? Do you mix languages? Are there any other ways you handle those moments when you can't find the words you need? Drop us a note in the comments—in English, Spanish, or any combination that feels right to you ;-).