Being a child that grew up in a single-culture community composed of white, middle class Americans, I am amazed about how interested I was in other people around me at such a young. I have always longed to know more about other cultures, other regions, and other ways of life. I know that this is a passion that has been deep rooted from God for something later in His master plan.
Here I am, a seven year old child in a community of 7,000 residents composed of 99.9% Caucasian and I want to learn Spanish. This was years before Dora the Explorer. When we would be on vacation, I would stare in wonder around the sounds of the travelers' and long to understand their word.
I never had any luck with learning the language. Through the local community college, I enrolled in children's college classes during the summer to learn Spanish. The teacher consequently found a husband in Spain over the 4th of July break and never returned.
The next summer, I repeated my attempts. This teacher, however, was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and was submitted to treated about three weeks into the class. In middle school, they attempted to offer a foreign language course, but there was not enough children to show interest and it was cancelled. In high school, two years of language class was all that was offered and we did not even get past half of the first book in the two years.
In college, I dated a boy with deep Mexican heritage, one whose grandmother did not even speak English at all. Again, a failed attempt at a longing desire; the boy did not speak much Spanish and could really only understand others speaking. Post-college, I took an internship that offered free membership to Rosetta Stone; I quickly signed up to the program. Three weeks later, they cancelled the opportunity to have the membership for free.
If it is not obvious, learning a new language is not something that is new to me. The placement of this goal on my 30before30 list is extremely fixed and has been one that I have spent years on. I have come to realize that I will never be fluent in another language unless I emerge myself into another culture completely, and I am okay with this realization. I learned this from some friends that I have at work. Stumbling into a job working for a Spanish company (truly based out of Spain), I have met numerous individuals that have struggled and desired to speak English just as much. I have learned from them that complete fluency at our age is hard and takes persistence and the continuity of the language that emersion gives you. Without being forced to live in a world that knows nothing of your native tongue, one may never be fluent.
This does not discourage me from learning. One benefit of working for a Spanish company is that they offer Spanish classes alongside of English classes to help their employees. I have taken full advantage. Officially a graduate of Spanish 101, I feel as if I can mark "learn a new language" off of my list. I travelled to Mexico on my honeymoon and was able to communicate. I communicate daily with those in the office that are lacking English vocabularies and are able to accomplish common goals with the little communication that we have. I also travelled to Spain this past spring for our global conferences and was able to navigate not only our corporate campus, but also the beautiful city of Sevilla with ease. I am really proud of my goal.
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