Hola! Como esta? Me llamo es Cam! That’s almost the extent of my Spanish! I know I need to do better! It has been years since I’ve sat down in a class to learn Espanol. I took it in high school and college. With all those years learning the language you’d think I’d be an honorary Latina at this point. Not so much. Not even close.
In my college days I was pretty good. I was all set to take on the Spanish speaking world and WOW them with my mastery of their language. It didn’t happen quite that way. I didn’t have any need to speak the language and I lost my “mastery” of it. This, however, does not stop my husband from deferring to me whenever we are in Spanish speaking countries. Yeah, it doesn’t go so great! I really like the idea of effortlessly speaking another language. As much as we love to travel I’m sure I’d get some use out of my newly re-acquired skill.
Another language I’ve fallen in love with is ASL (American Sign Language). In my effort to learn the basics, I took a sign language class years ago. I loved it! I still remember bits of it. We learned to sign to songs. When I hear those songs on the radio, my hands instantly start moving. My “expertise” in sign language actually came in handy once. I was shopping at Target and had a question. The Target associate I asked for help happened to be hard-of-hearing. I was able to communicate with her to get my question answered. She seemed to appreciate my effort and I felt good about my little ability.
I’d like to one day perfect my abilities with both Spanish and ASL. Me and my lofty goals!!! My son is learning sign language at school and we try to re-enforce it at home. Next year he’ll start learning Spanish. I’ve already got the Little Pim DVD’s on order to get it cranking at home. My husband speaks a bit of French, so at some point the little guy will be introduced to that language as well. While the whiz kid will be perfecting his Francois, Espanol and ASL, I’m going to start looking into ways for me to brush up on my Spanish. Rosetta Stone, anyone? It’s going on the goals list – on more to add to my 40 before 40. Do you speak another language?
9 Comments on 40 Before 40 No. 8 (Hola!)
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I wish I HAD taken Spanish, but now your post makes me feel better. I think when we have kids, we lose a lot of precious learning from high school and college to make room for Mommy stuff. I don’t know…
I took Latin. LATIN! Who does this? Me that’s who. I did want to be a doctor once upon a time. {I’m not a doctor} Barely remember anything. I’m okay with that.
my high school buddy took latin too! you guessed it, she wanted to be a doctor!
Oh, wow. I was “technically” bilingual in college. I never used it again in the real world (except once while lifeguarding when a kid got injured) so I lost it. I can still read it & somewhat understand it, but I hate that it’s mostly gone.
I’ve thought about Rosetta Stone. I may start with the free podcasts via iTunes, though.
i didn’t know there were free podcasts! i’ll have to check that out. thanks!
Good goal! I took several classes to learn Spanish but I was too shy to actually practice it. Good luck on learning the new languages.
i guess i’ve been a bit shy too. speaking it is odd because i want to get it right and not offend – so yeah, i said nothing and it went away.
Ha! I don’t know either – but I have them both on my list of “39 before 40”. You and I migh be sisters and not even know it! – Sarah
that’s too funny! i like the “39 before 40”. leave it to my sister to be unique. 😉
Very cool! I took spanish in college but haven’t spoken it since. I’d love to learn sign language. I did a little with my kids before – but very basic stuff.