What goes around comes around - living la vida loca

[marklevoyageur]

Not long ago being bi-lingual (able to speak Spanish) was of little benefit to me and I wondered if knowing it would ever serve any purpose. In fact I rarely heard Spanish spoken and would actually get a little excited upon hearing it spoken in public. Who would have imagined the rapid change in all of that

Comments

[marklevoyageur]

I don’t blame them. You’re correct; they have every right to communicate in Spanish. I do think that they might try a little harder to learn English via immersion at least on the street. Despite having a cousin who is a bi-lingual education administrator in Chicago, I’m really opposed to the concept. Like my belief in Darwin, I’m a strong advocate of immersion where language learning is concerned. Absolutely, why drag out the process?

I had to sit for months in the classroom in Chile dumbfounded during lectures given in Spanish. Well, ok, I understood the Algebra and Geometry pretty well. Despite those initial months of anguish, I’m so happy I endured it as it allowed me to learn Spanish that much faster in the long run and communicate with everyone including my host family. During my entire year there, I had almost no one with whom I could speak English - all the better! I could have easily sought out other Americans or English speakers. I tried to limit my communication in English with those Chileans who asked me to speak with them in English so they could practice their English language skills.

Thank goodness, no one in my Chilean family spoke English. Otherwise, I might be totally lost today in Hispanic Atlanta.

[marklevoyageur]

Absolutely, three months right on the money