Hola!

(True bilingualism: Bakery La Mejor bakes "cookies para Mama")

I decided to take my Spanish-language skills beyond “queso” and “Hola! Que tal?” I was tired of my own helplessness and of speaking about cheese and corn quesadillas. I wanted to be able to have a real conversation with the flower lady at the Mission/24th Bart stop who invariably hollers “Rosas! Flores!” when we walk up the stairs that bring us back above the ground. Also, my Spanish conversations with my Mexican-American colleague Gus were a little dry and short. And it wasn’t Gus’s fault. Every morning, before switching back to English, he gently continued speaking Spanish for a couple of sentences to teach me some new words but invariably I stared back at him with an uneasy smile.

So I got myself a book and a DVD and I downloaded a couple of episodes of Coffee Break Spanish on my phone. To bolster my argument when people ask me why I learn Spanish, I looked up how many Californians speak Spanish as their primary language. According to US Census Bureau data, it’s more than one third!

At night, I read my little dialogs out loud. Every word is new and exciting. I feel like I am in first grade. And clearly, that is exactly how I sound. I chew every word slowly and carefully and I say it out loud to make it stick better in my brain. “Venimos a ver el apartamento.” And then again “Bveh-nee-mohs ah bvehr ehl ah-pahr-tah-mehn-toh.” And again. And so on. Annelien overheard me practicing the other day and she started groaning after a while. She gave me a sweet but very clear look that said "No more Spanish practice in our living room, I am trying to read a book." And before I knew it, my RosettaStone and I were exiled to our home office.