Always Keeping My Spanish Language Active
at 12:30 am on Monday, 26 January 2009
by Neal Walters
My first foreign language in school was Latin – a great
language to prepare you for any university. But then we
moved, and the only language offered was Spanish. I found
Spanish more fun, because people in West Texas actually
spoke it, where as Latin was mostly just reading and
learning complex grammar.
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.
During high school, I had two labor-type jobs, so I got to
work with several Spanish speakers. I can’t repeat many of
the “colorful metaphors” that I learned, but it was a good
experience. It actually did help reinforce what I was
learning in school.
At the end of my junior year in high-school, I went on the
Spanish Club’s trip to Mexico. Travelling to a
Spanish-speaking country is obviously a great way to boost
your skills. I created an audio-scrapbook for the trip, and
got 3 hours of transferrable college credit from a junior
college.
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 Bachelor’s in Business, I took three more Spanish
classes. One was in Spanish conversation, and the other two
were Spanish literature, where the teacher spoke in Spanish,
we took notes in Spanish, and of course the tests 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.
In 1995, I was a consultant and got a job offer in San
Juan, Puerto Rico. Being single and living by yourself is
not the optimal way to learn more Spanish. But on the job, I
was able to put a lot of Spanish to use, even though it
wasn’t a requirement.
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.
Check out our free tutorials at Learn Spanish Online Free website.
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