Hay más de lo que parece a primera vista – There is More than Meets the Eye
Following is a comment left on our online magazine La Casa Rojas from a student of our Free Spanish Video Classes Online -
“I want to learn Spanish because I love people and I love different cultures. Growing up in Denver where Spanish was common, I thought I would be different and learn French. I don’t regret learning French – the two years I spent as a Peace Corps volunteer in a French speaking African country were two of the best years of my life. But in the United States, the Spanish speaking population continues to increase, and I want to be able to communicate with them in their own language. I also have found that I am able to have a much deeper and more meaningful cultural experience when I travel if I can speak the local language. I’ve tried to learn Spanish off and on for 20 years, and I am really enjoying Luis and Joan’s teaching methods.
I read through all the other comments before posting this and two things struck me:
First, how wonderful to see so many police, firefighters, and EMT’s learning Spanish. You have stressful jobs and busy lives, and I admire you for the effort you are making to learn Spanish in your free time.
Second, why, when some people meet a non-English speaker, do they assume that person isn’t making an effort to learn English? How do they know how long that person has lived in the U.S. or whether they are just visiting? How do they know whether that person might have a hearing, speech, or other impediment that affects their language learning ability? How do they know whether that person has to work 2-3 jobs just to feed their family and doesn’t have time to learn? How many generations did it take their own German, Polish, etc. ancestors to learn English? Have they ever made an attempt to learn a Native American language like Navajo or Ho Chunk? Because English is not the native language of North America. Why is it so important that there be one langauge in the U.S. anyway? How boring. Lots of other countries get along just fine with more than one /official national language. Sorry for the soap box, but it is this type of attitude that motivates me to learn Spanish – so that I can show the Spanish speakers in my community that we aren’t all “ugly Americans.” Nancy T.
This last paragraph was the one that grabbed my attention. We do fall victim to our tendency to jump to quick conclusions, don’t we? Here-say, a couple of isolated experiences all serve as evidence from which we form our opinions. Convenient; rather like a primer, rather like fast food and if convenience equaled wisdom and health … well, I would be among the first to say …. bring on the fries ….
…..but I can tell you that in my job as a Psychologist where I work exclusively with Spanish speaking folks and that it is rare that I meet someone that has absolutely no intention or desire to learn English. Most folks I talk to experience learning English in the very same way we experience learning Spanish. Many are either in classes or have taken classes or intend to take classes and they tell me that English is as difficult for them as they imagine Spanish is for us. Hmmmmm……. add to that 3 jobs at less than minimum wage (which necessitates the 3 jobs) … oh and that´s ‘each’, if there happens to be two parents in the family, I know, I know …. but….
…..I am really committed to being a-political here. I strive to relate only what I hear first hand or experience myself. I am guessing that every major and perhaps minor religion has their version of; ”Unless you’ve walked in my shoes ….” , that’s all I’m saying. Aquí estamos, Joan
Gosh, this article, together with the question ¿why do I want to learn Spanish?, the reply to which I previously auto-censored (nice outmoded Marxist terminology!) because it could be interpreted as being too political (in these resolutely anti-political times)… Where I live, there is a lot of turbulence (flatulence might be better said) due to thousands of fellow citizens leaving a nearby predominantly French-speaking capital city to come and live in previously predominantly Flemish (Dutch) speaking suburbs, without the newcomers doing any effort at all to learn Flemish, the underlying philosphy being that theirs is the better, more useful, culturally superior …etc etc… language. No, I will not expand (it gives cancer). But that is one of the reasons that I’ve been learning Spanish: a purely theoretical challenge, inspired by a search for roots which have, long since, withered. ¡Argh!…. Never can I be a Spaniard! It’s sooo much easier to become an American, one of the huge advantages of a nation where (nearly) all are immigrants (with sympathy for the American Indian population, I can understand their frustrations). A mí me gusta la literatúra, y el reto…