Back to College and Studying Spanish!

It has been some years since I began studying Spanish. I was thrown into it one summer after graduating from college, when I went to Costa Rica to help with a study of bat foraging behavior. I took along a book by Charles Duff called Spanish for Beginners, which was a lifesaver, and was given a worn copy of the University of Chicago Spanish-English dictionary. The staff at Santa Rosa National Park were natives of Costa Rica, so I had plenty of practise speaking the language. Also, there was this revolution going on in Nicaragua, 40 km away and it wasn’t long before the park was populated by large numbers of Costa Rica’s Civil Guard, deployed there to protect the border. So I had even more people to talk to. By the end of the summer I was doing pretty well. In graduate school that fall I took an intensive introductory Spanish course and the following semester took a conversation and composition course (I still have my paper on which my professor wrote “Su estilo es elegante!”). So, I have a good foundation, but I’m not fluent and since my goal is to do voice-over in Spanish as well as English, I decided to go back to school.

The college in my town allows non-students to audit classes, when space is available, at no cost. This is an absolutely outstanding resource. Taking a college course years after graduation is something I would recommend to everyone. When you sit at home alone in front of a computer for much of the day, your perceptions can get a bit whacky. You get very dependent on the internet for information and it’s really good to get away from it, back to people and books and writing with a pencil on paper. Sitting in a room full of 19 and 20 year olds can be a pretty humbling experience too. They certainly know a lot!

So, along with my voice-over work and family responsibilities I’m reading stories in Spanish, studying grammar, and writing compositions once again. I also try to tune in to Telemundo for a half an hour each day to listen to Spanish commercials and programs, and I pay attention to the Spanish pop culture that is available to me – which, thanks to the internet, is abundant. I’ve got a song running through my head right now called Mala Leche by the Cuban band Moneda Dura – following the lyrics is definitely a challenge. I’ve even been thinking in Spanish. I am so grateful for the opportunity to do this, and hope to do it each semester for a long time to come.