Language
Language is a funny thing for instance, my first language is English, yet in grade school one of the required subjects is “English.” To read and write proper English was the empathies, not to speak because everyone in the class spoke English.
My first experience with a foreign language was when I was eleven, I had to take French. Back then I never had contact with French speakers except the Teachers whose first language was English. Never really got much out of that class. Today, the only thing that I can do in French is count.
When I came to live in New York City at the tender age of thirteen and a half, I was suddenly exposed to every spoken language on earth. Don’t believe me, go to midtown Manhattan, let’s say 34th street, by the time you walk to 35th street, you will have heard people having conversations in a whole host of languages, that you’ll wish you had a universal translator.
It’s so crazy in the city, that in the enclaves of certain neighborhoods you’ll see children that were born in New York and haven’t set foot in a foreign nation learn and speak different languages. Although not perfect, and broken, they are able to communicate with the native tongue speakers in a manner which is understood.
Personally, I never learned a second language until I needed too; it all started when I became a government bureaucrat, the geniuses that ran the agency decided to station me to do the government bureaucracy work in a neighborhood that speak predominantly Spanish.
I found that the translators were so bad, I decided that it would be better to do my own translation. Thus, to get a handle on the language I went to the local college to take a course in Basic Spanish.
Yeah, the college taught basic instruction of certain common words and how to read and write in Spanish. But, when it came to learning conversation, the college course failed their students.
This put me in a dilemma, I found that I could read and write better then a lot of Spanish speakers I encountered, that unless that Spanish speaker went to school to learn how to read and write in Spanish, that they were illiterate in their own language.
This is when I understood why “English” was taught to English speakers in grade school. I suppose in the Spanish speaking countries they probably do the same thing to ensure that children are literate.
So, the next step is to learn how to hold a conversation is Spanish. I had to seek out a school that specializes in that area. This is when I found the Berlitz Language school. The classes were unique, no books, no writing, just converse the best you can.
So now the foundation was set, and having conversations with everyday Spanish speaking people has made me into a fluent Spanish speaker.
True_George 
Thanks for sharing your experience with working at the government agency. To place you in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood while not providing instruction in the language sounds like poor planning on their part. But it seems you found a way to make it work
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Yep, gov’t managers tend not to think before they make a decision.
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Brilliant post – very interesting! I was the same as you – speaking and learning English at school so that I could be proficient in written communication etc. But my Dad lived in Wales for 5 years as a child so he could speak fluent Welsh. As our whole family were great fans of Wales, I was keen, while still at primary school, to learn Welsh. So my Dad was merrily teaching me Welsh and we even spoke it in the house sometimes as my mother had learnt it too.
Then… I had to go to secondary school at 11 and had to learn French (ugh). The problem with this is that the nouns are almost identical to Welsh and so the teacher would ask me in class for the French word for something and I’d accidentally give her the Welsh word. To give examples of Welsh/French: church is eglwys/eglise, school is ysgol/ecole, window is fenester/fenetre (all of which sound almost identical but not quite.
So, unfortunately, I had to give up the Welsh – I’ve always regretted that. It’s quite hard to find any kind of tuition in it too.
I went on holiday to the Camargue in the south of France when I was in my thirties and tried to speak French to the locals. The longer I was there and the more I used it, the more it came back. But the southern French are really not very nice people. While I was trying to converse with them in French, instead of appreciating it, if I was struggling for a word they’d just fold their arms and drum their toe on the floor at me impatiently. I was never mad on French folk before but really didn’t like them after that!
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Your experience kind of reminded me of what my aunt told me. You see my aunt and mother are half Indian. They were being taught how to speak Hindu but she says that they didn’t want to learn it because they were being bullied for being bi-racial and they wanted to fit in..
I see the French people are rude and have no patience or even want to help you learn French. Even the off shoot French language of Carole which is spoken by Haitians. I briefly was studying how to speak Carole but got a similar attitude what you described from Haitians that I didn’t bother with it anymore.
Spanish speaking people like it when you take interest to learn their language and they will help you.
An Italian women even gave me some instruction to speak Italian. She said the only difference is that the words in Italian ends with “o” otherwise Spanish and Italian is the same.
I even learned some aspects of Arabic when I was in the middle East. The Arab speakers were nice and liked that you are learning their language
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Now Arabic is hard! Most cultures love it when you try to learn and speak their language to them – the French must be the only people who don’t but they always have an attitude problem.
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Thanks for sharing this great story True George, and congratulations on actually successfully learning another language well enough to converse, read, and write in the language; unlike me.
Spanish can get you far in The United States, South America, Spain, et cetera.
I am somewhat surprised that they did not have you learn at a Foreign Service Institute (FSI) school.
I have not tried a Berlitz Language method / course / school before, but I have heard of it before; their German course probably was mentioned in my research in the past.
Pimsleur is another that focused on listening and speaking.
Make sure to hold on to your knowledge of Spanish & not let it fade away.
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No problem, thanks for reading…
Indeed speaking Spanish can get you far especially in the western part of the US. One day I would like to take a trip to Mexico and some parts of South America.
The method that Berlitz teaches will get you to think on how to converse and give you the confidence to speak with every day people..
Nowadays you can accomplish the same thing with a good interactive computer software. Back when I was learning the language the language softwares sucked big time.
Yeah, a lot of effort was put into learning the language so I’m not going to let it fade away. Plus talking to those sexy looking Latino women will give me motivation to keep up with the language
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