Retire in Paradise

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I didn’t study Spanish first, but actually Latin in high school. After learning the complexities of Latin, Spanish was a breeze. It was also more fun, because we moved to West Texas were people atually speak the language.

I talk to people all the time that took a language in high-school, but they still graduate without being able to speak the language. Often, a person can read and write the language, but cannot teach it. Our teacher emphasized conversation and actually speaking the language.

In high school, I had part time jobs at a fast food place, and as a janitor. In both of these jobs, I was surrounded by Spanish speaking co-workers; so I picked up some Spanish that I cannot repeat in mixed company. But in general, it did help enforce the “proper” Spanish that I was learning in school.

Our high school Spanish Club sponsored an annual trip to Mexico city each summer. At the end of my junior year, my parents and I went, and it was another boost to learning Spanish. From a nearby Junior College, I even got three hours college credit for the trip.

I also discovered CLEP (College Level Examination Program) tests, and took the Spanish exams. My university awared me 14 hours of credit just for my Spanish! I went to college already having 17 credits (plus even more for math and science exams).

During my undergraduate program, I took Spanish classes, as electives, just for fun. During one summer, they had a Spanish Conversation class, then later, I took two courses in Spanish literature. During the literature classes, the entire lecture, notes, and exams were in Spanish.

Then, back in the early 1980s, I tried some French, Portuguese, and Hebrew, using the Pimsleur system. After trying other courses that didn’t work, I was very impressed with how easy Pimsleur was. I made two trips to Brazil, in which I was able to “convert” my Spanish into Portuguese by learning a few additional words.

Finally, in 1995 I got to live and work in a Spanish-speaking destination, San Juan, Puerto Rico. While I could have used English on the job, I tried when possible to use Spanish, and the co-workers were encouraging. I was there about nine months, and often found myself starting to “think” in Spanish instead of English. I would have learned even more if I had stayed in someone’s home, instead of living by mself.

After studying a few more languages, I have learned what works and what doesn’t. I decided to create my own Spanish online learning community. We have several native Spanish speakers supporting our forum and creating short lessons.

Tags: Travel & Leisure