Yo Habla Espanol!

    Habla usted espanol? Yo hacer! I love to speak Spanish! Or should I say me gusta
Habla espanol?  When I first thought of learning a new language, it sounded exciting, but
intimidating at the same time. I chose to speak Spanish because it had always appealed to
me. When I first started to learn Spanish, I found that it was difficult. After practice and
lots of encouragement, I overcame some of the challenges that learning a new language
produced. Although it was complicated, I found learning a new language both fun and
challenging.
    For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to learn the Spanish language. I
cannot quite point out what appealed to me about it. Maybe it was just the concept of
speaking another language. It seemed that wherever I went, whether it was shopping at
the mall or eating at a restaurant, I would always hear someone speaking in Spanish. I
wanted to understand what they were saying more than anything. I also wanted to speak
to them and somehow join the world that they seemed to share amongst other Spanish
speakers.
     I started learning Spanish by watching people motion toward objects and then say
the objects name in Spanish. This wasn’t very accurate because sometimes people would
be motioning toward an object and be saying something different from what that object
was. For example, I was at the park one time and I was watching a Spanish mom play ball
with her son. Every time she pointed at the ball on the ground, she would point at it and
say patear lo.  I thought that this was the Spanish word for ball. As I became more
educated in the Spanish language, I realized that the mother was really telling her son to
kick it and that the Spanish word for ball was pelota.
    As my fascination for the Spanish language grew, my parents encouraged me to
learn more. They encouraged me to ask questions about what words were in Spanish. My
mom bought books that helped me understand more. I learned a lot from these books and
was able to learn basic phrases and greetings far beyond hola and adios. I would tell my
teachers and family things like buenos dias (good morning), buenos tardes (good
afternoon), and (good evening) buenos noches. I would also tell the cooks at some of the
Mexican restaurants, me gusta comer taco ensalada mucho! Although the books that my
mom bought did help me with the basics, they didn’t explain the grammar and how to
connect all the words that I had learned. So for Christmas, my parents surprised me with
the popular Rosetta Stone Spanish software! The program showed me that there were
similarities between English and Spanish. I learned that there were basic words like
chocolate, violin, telephone, guitar, and others that look and mean the same thing, but are
pronounced differently. There are also plural and singular forms of words. While learning
through Rosetta Stone, I found that Spanish grammar was a little difficult. There are
words that are masculine and feminine and those were hard to remember which were
which. For example, the word enferma (sick) means sick for a girl, but enfermo means
sick for a boy. Another thing that is hard about Spanish is that some of the letters like the
double l’s, the j’s, h’s and others have different sounds. It can be very confusing.
However, after months of learning simple phrases and more basic words, I am able to put
them together and make up sentences.
    One thing I love about speaking Spanish is actually surprising people by speaking
it to them. They usually don’t expect someone like me to be able to speak or understand
Spanish. Once, when my friend Tom and I visited some friends of his at a monastery, we
were offered coffee. The coffee the Puerto Rican monks served was really good so I
decided to tell them la café esta much bueno! They were so surprised!  Another time I
was Christmas shopping with my mom and she asked me to take the bags out to the van
while she looked at another item. When I walked outside, it was very cold and beginning
to snow. As I was walking to the car I passed a Spanish couple and I overheard them
exclaiming in Spanish about how frio (cold) it was outside. I know that it’s rude to
eavesdrop and to barge in on someone’s conversation, but I couldn’t resist turning around
and saying si, es mucho frio. I laughed to myself as they turned toward me with both
surprised and angry looks. I love those opportunities and find it worth it to learn a new
language just to put myself in those situations.   
    Although I wish that I could say that I have perfected the Spanish language, I still
have a lot to learn. I am always looking for people to talk to in Spanish so that I can get
even better. I also plan on taking classes at a local college as a refresher course and to
pick up anything basic that I may need. When I become a little better at my Spanish, I
want to take a trip to Mexico. I want to interact with the natives and view all the sights. I
think that everyone should have the opportunity to learn a new language, because it is not
only something to be proud of, but is a life skill that in some situations can be important
to know. I think that learning a language, whether its French, Gaelic, or Italian, is a fun
and challenging thing to do.  I am glad I can say yo habla espanol!   Has anyone else ever learned a new language?