Spanish

[kybearfuzz]

Today was a different kind of day. I had a voicemail message from a man who said he needed someone to respond to him in Spanish. Sadly, after years of learning French, I speak it... horribly... which is near useless in this area.

Luckily, one of our newly hired inspectors named Alan is bilingual. I just needed him to translate for me, as the man just needed to know what documents to provide to me to get his shipment released. Alan was nervous, as he didn't really understand the process of my work yet, but he asked good questions.

Needless to say, Alan impressed me greatly. It sounds odd to say that. He obviously grew up in a Spanish-speaking household, but the way he rolled his R's and put the accents in the perfect place sounded amazing. I was envious of his fluency and suddenly I want to learn how to speak Spanish. It certainly would be far more useful.

Maybe I'll pick up Rosetta Stone in the future.

Comments

Olé

[hardybear.livejournal.com]

I started studying Spanish at City College here in San Francisco in 2010. It has been a lot of fun. There is such a strong interest in the language nowadays, and so many interesting Hispanic voices and institutions to study, right here in the US. I think you would enjoy it.

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

It certainly makes sense to learn Spanish as so much of the world speak it (although I guess one could argue than one of the Chinese languages would be more useful in the future).

I wish more of the world spoke Italian.

[barak.livejournal.com]

I've been really enjoying my stretch of ASL classes even though they've been slowing down my graduation. I find I have more patience to learn a language now than I did when I was kid, although learning it as a kid I'd probably have more dexterity.

That said, I think learning from a piece of software is nothing compared to learning from a classroom setting.

Duolingo?

[jerrycakes.livejournal.com]

That may be an easier and far more affordable alternative so you can learn Spanish - if you've got an iPhone or Android, you should be good to go.

Also, as someone from Louisiana, I have discovered that French to me is useless. Wish they'd let me learn Spanish in high school instead. Would've done me a lot of good.

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

I was going to put my response to this in Spanish, but unfortunately, I lack the bilingual keyboard on my desktop.

If you're nearby a local junior or community college, I would check to see what they have for evening classes and self paced computer based tutorial classes. If the local Hispanic community there is Mexican/Central American, that's a slower and clearer form of Spanish for the novice, AND those communities are often very gracious with people who are willing to pull out what Spanish they have and will often pull out what limited English skills they have. Currently, I spend the majority of my day in Spanish and frankly, wouldn't want it any other way. Almost without exception, I'm treated with respect and warmth.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

My parents took me to Mexico for 3 months when I was a little kid; lack of practice means I've forgotten most of the language except for the handful of words and phrases (Si, no, por favor, gracias, etc.) anyone paying attention to the world tends to pick up. However, I can still roll my r's properly. ;)

[dendren.livejournal.com]

it's such an oddity to me that Spanish isn't spoken *everywhere* LOL I swear I hear as much Spanish here as I do English (followed closely by Vietnamese I'd say). I am pretty sure English as a first language is a minority round these parts anymore. I really wish I had more Spanish skills than just picking up words here and there and being able to read it a little bit, it would be very useful.