What a crazy week this has been! The digital marketing agency where I work has been crazy-busy since the start of the year and even more so this month. Just love it! I have to admit though, I’m really pooped. I’m supposed to be studying for a Spanish exam I have this weekend but all I want to do is get some shut eye.
As written in my manifesto, by the end of the year I want to be fluent in Spanish. In truth, I dream of taking an extended trip to a Latin American country and be able to blend in completely, especially if I travel alone… What a triumph that would be!
I signed up for Spanish lessons last month at the downtown Montreal YMCA’s language school. I had no idea how evolved the program is and it’s totally comprehensive (9 levels of conversation/grammar courses). My teacher is a wonderful woman named Monica. Boy! is she patient with us. The class is 3 hours long and entirely in Spanish. If we don’t understand what she is saying, we tell her so and she explains again… but in Spanish. Talk about learning to swim by getting tossed in the pool! It’s really great. Mind you, after my first class, I had a splitting headache ;) Monica told us that one of the reasons why the class is only conducted in Spanish is that she wants to break us of the habit of thinking in our mother tongue… I am totally guilty of doing that. I flip from French to English in my mind trying to find words that sound similar to the Spanish words I’m hearing… Takes too long.
Living in Montreal, it occurred to me how lucky and privileged I am for knowing two languages. I have a hard time relating to people who only know one and who are closed at the idea of learning a second. They are really missing out on something special! My friend John is truly lucky. He speaks 5 languages. Thanks in part to a Greek-Canadian Mom and an Italian-Canadian Dad. I remember one time when he returned from a business trip in Toronto where he had a meeting at his company’s headquarters, he regaled me with an incident that occurred when one of his colleagues laughed during his presentation when he mispronounced an English word. He just stared at the guy and said “I’m sorry, did that amuse you? Tell me, how many languages do you speak?” the guy said one. John quipped back “Well, I speak English, French, Italian, Greek and I’m learning Spanish… so forgive me if I flubbed one English word… otherwise, I think I’m doing pretty good, don’t you think?” I was dying when he told me this. So him to say that. All his colleagues around the table giggled and the guy blushed and sat back in his chair.
So all this to say that it’s never too late to learn another language. No matter how old you are, it is possible. If you have kids, introduce them to a second language… they will soak it up like sponges, I promise you. As toddlers, my sister and I learned French and English pretty much at the same time. If only my Mom still spoke her mother tongue back then… Dutch would have been a really interesting third language to learn :)
Are you learning another language? I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment here or write me at melissacthibodeau [at] gmail [dot] com!
Filed under: Growing up, Just One Thing, Travel | Tagged: class, course, English, Fluent, French, Greek, Italian, language, Latin America, lessons, manifesto, school, soak it up, Spanish, sponge, toddlers, YMCA
