(Essay)

I’m always amazed by how kids learn languages so fast. I actually  don’t remember how I learned English when growing up in India. In high school I studied in Hindi. At home we spoke Marathi. I remember going to see Hollywood movies and not understanding many words. But, somehow by the time I was a senior in high school I was somehow proficient in English and it was the my medium of instruction in college.

A few years ago, I was nearing retirement. A common advice for retirees is to learn a new language. I saw an announcement in a county brochure about a Spanish language class offered by the Fairfax County Adult Community Education organization. It offered two classes a week for four months at a nearby high school. The fee was very reasonable, and the classes were held in the evening. I signed up.

I persisted for three years and learned about regular and irregular types of verbs. For each type of verb there are rules about conjugating for first person, second person, third person pronouns and their singular and plural versions and the tense, present, past, future etc. Memorizing the rules is a long process. In addition to the verbs, I needed to master the vocabulary for other words and nouns.

A book called Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish recommends the best way to learn the language is by adopting a more global concept. The author claims there are thousands of English words that are similar to Spanish words. Instead of memorizing every word one should understand the pattern. For example,  she says English words that end in “ist” become Spanish words by adding an “a” at the end. “Dentist” becomes “Dentista.” English words that end in “ty” become Spanish words by deleting the “ty” at the end and adding “dad.” So “university” becomes “universidad.”

You can learn the rules of language over time, but it’s still a challenge to make conversations with other people. Often it is difficult to understand them due to their accents and the speed with which they talk. My wife Bharati says  I should eavesdrop when I am in proximity of someone speaking Spanish. When a cleaning crew visiting our house spoke in Spanish, Bharati would ask me to tell her what they were saying. I say I didn’t pay attention. That is not my nature.

When we lived in Fairfax, Virginia, Rosa, a lady from Argentina, cleaned our house. Her English wasn’t strong, so I spoke to her in Spanish. One day I showed her our family photo.

“Eso es mi hijo,” I said, pointing my son’s photo to mean this is my son.

I pronounced hijo as “heejo.” Rosa corrected me to say “eeho.” 

A few times I made small talk with painters, movers, and landscapers who had visited our house. They liked it and some expressed their frustration in learning English, which surprised me. Bharati says I know more than I give myself credit for, and that I am looking for perfection each time. She is right. An experience I had last year taught me that it’s okay to be imperfect as long as you are able to communicate.

For the Thanksgiving week of 2023 we decided to go to Costa Rica, a Spanish-speaking country that offered plenty of opportunities for me to practice. Our group consisted of nine people including kids. The Airbnb we rented came with the services of Maricela, who cooked breakfast every day, cleaned the house, made beds, and washed clothes.

One morning as we were having breakfast and someone noticed a colorful bird that we had never seen before.

“C’mon Dad, ask Maricela the name of the bird,” my daughter said.

Of course, I was supposed to ask her in Spanish. There was no way to get out of it. This was my chance to show off.

“¿Cual es nombre de parejo?” I asked, turning to Maricela, who was standing by the kitchen counter.

Her puzzled look indicated to me that I had made a mistake.

“¿Pájaro?” she asked for clarification.

“Sí,” I said adding, “¿Cual es de nombre?”

She told us the name. Something starting with N. I then realized that Parejo meant a couple and Pájaro meant a bird. I had asked what is the name of the couple. But, hey at least I communicated. There are many such words in Spanish. Take for instance “hair” which is “cabello” and “horse” which is “caballo.” It is easy to get mixed up.

We went ziplining the next day. We started high and then came down gradually over ten lines. Each time we waited at a platform for our turn, a lady with her husband and  ten-year-old son talked and joked with the staff in fluent Spanish. I could not understand everything she said.

“Did you grow up speaking Spanish?” I couldn’t resist asking her. She looked like she was from the United States.

“Yes, I grew up in Guatemala. I’ve spoken Spanish since childhood. Now we live in Colorado, ” she said.

I told her that I have been learning the language for a few years, but I am not fluent yet. Then I told her how I mixed up the word for the bird with that for a couple.

“Hey,” she said in an encouraging tone. “You won’t learn unless you make mistakes. Now you will never forget those words.”

That brief conversation gave me reason to keep on speaking Spanish at every chance I get without stressing out about being perfect. One of these days or weeks or years I will get there.

Like my son-in-law Ryan said to the lady: “How many people do you know who started learning a new language in their seventies?”