From Latin to Spanish and Beyond
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.
In high school, I had part time jobs at a fast food place,
and as a janitor. In both of these jobs, I was surrounded by
Spanish speaking co-workers; so I picked up some Spanish
that I cannot repeat in mixed company. But in general, it
did help enforce the “proper” Spanish that 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.
Later, when I was out in the working world, I did self
self-study in French, Portugese, and Hebrew. I discovered
the Pimsleur system and the government FSI courses (this was
still 10 years before the internet!). I went on a couple of
trips to Brazil, where I spoke probably butchered my limited
Portugese with a lot of Spanish, but I could make myself
understood.
I got a consulting position in San Juan, Puerto Rico in
1995. If would have learned more if I would have lived with
a family, instead of living by myself. There were several
English-only consultants in my office, and speaking Spanish
really wasn’t required, but I tried when possible, and was
encouraged by my Puerto Rican co-workers.
After burning a lot of money on dozens of differents types
of language courses, I got a good feel for which ones
worked, and which ones didn’t. Eventually, I started
creating my own courses for Hebrew and Spanish, and started
building my own Spanish online learning center. We are
currently working with several native Spanish speakers from
different parts of the world.
Try our new learning center for free lessons at the Learn Spanish Online website. Click here for other unique learn articles.
