This past summer while visiting a friend in D.C. (she's originally from Oregon), her daughter came home to practice her part of a play (a small part). This wasn't an easy playwright either. I was floored to hear her Spanish, so refined, impeccable and every sentence, every word perfectly pronounced. She's 10. It embarrassed me, I'm certain others in the room as well, because of her strong grasp of the Spanish language, but I also swelled with pride. Mind you, her grasp of the language was poor when she was in the Oregon schools. Her mom recently exclaimed, "David, you have no idea how pride I am of her!" Environment, quality of the teachers, the encouraging atmosphere? What I do know is that when your young you can easily pick up, two, three or more languages. I'm certain when she picks up French, and Japanese the doors of opportunity will be opened even wider.Learning Spanish is too easy. Just follow these simple steps:1. Recognize, that being bilingual is valuable. Like most things … [Read more...]

As a 3rd grader at Washington Elementary in Mount Vernon, Washington, an exchange teacher from London once asked, "are you bilingual?" I thought, well I do translate for the family at the hospital, car dealerships, ordering food and the occasional telemarketer phone call. Sound familiar? For anyone calling the house, my family would always say, "diles que no estamos aqui" [tell them we're not here!]. I told the London teacher, "yes, I do know Spanish, but I must confess, I have some difficulty." At home, our Spanish is different than the Spanish usually heard on Univision. Much more broken. The teacher was quick to remark, "that's wonderful, my dearest David, that you're bilingual!" She told me, and the other 30 in the class that in her country the Europeans usually speak more than two languages. Some three, or four. She empowered me, "don't ever forget Spanish, not tomorrow, not ever." From that day on, I was determined to hold onto Spanish despite the opinion of others.The Sad … [Read more...]