My Spanish Transformation

If you knew me back in the day, you'd know I was the biggest French snob in all of central Pennsylvania or northern Ohio. I never had an iota of interest in learning Spanish. As I've learned with many things, from Africa to forestry, that lack of interest was born of ignorance. Now that I'm studying it, I'm adoring it. It's fairly easy, fun, and everywhere! I picked up three free newspapers in Spanish today. Notices about work on the Metro are in Spanish possibly more than in English. There are scads of places to learn, practice, and read Spanish on the web.

Possibly the greatest advantage to learning Spanish? The ability to watch 1970s Mexican masked wrestler vs. vampire princess movies in their original form (Santo, I'm looking at you). I would have had to watch a badly dubbed or subtitled version before this, but now I can stumble through, understanding at least the gist. OK, I probably could have gotten the gist without a word of Spanish, but it's much more gratifying to feel that I'm studying while watching this. I can also watch anything on TV, as long as it's in, dubbed into, or--at the very least--subtitled in Spanish. Comisario Rex, the German detective-dog series? Thank you, I believe I will. Star Trek? Planeta Feroz? Flight of the Conchords? You name it. HBO does a great job of dubbing many of their movies, even beyond those on HBO Latino. Then there are the 8 or so Spanish stations available here, including one that's all programming from China (but, yes, in Spanish). Those poor people who are learning Vietnamese, Turkish, or Arabic must feel guilty when they turn on the TV. I also discovered that a good 10% of the DVDs I brought have a Spanish track and maybe half have Spanish subtitles. Who knew "But I'm a Cheerleader" was also "Pero Yo Soy Porrista"?

And then there's the immersion program. Many of the language students have the option to do a two- to three-week immersion program once they get to an intermediate level. So about 15 of us are going to Quito, Ecuador, in March! Those poor Arabic students? Dearborn, Michigan. I believe the German students can go to North Carolina. OK, the French students are going to Nice. Figures... Still, I'm very excited to go to Quito. Will stay with a host family and get 4 hours of class every morning, followed by reading groups or other activities in the afternoons. Apparently we won't become instantly fluent during those two weeks (darn!) but should gain a lot of confidence. And we're to pinky-swear not to speak English at all, not even in groups of just students, even in the evening. Yea! I hope my host family has a TV too so I don't have to miss out on Comisario Rex episodes.