Learn Spanish for Good

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 with a deep and enduring value you must practice more than once, or twice to learn and have a facility for the language.

2. Understand that as you learn, others may envy you, and try to dissuade you from learning. Its the crab theory. Imagine a cage of crabs (after a long day at Newport, Oregon), and one crab tries to make its way out of the cage, the others will simply pull him down. Its simple, don't mind the critics.

3. Commit to seeing your progressive learning through. There is no greater sigh of relief, or pride when you've reached the finish line. And, in learning a second language the finish line is entirely up to you.

Again recognize, understand and commit.

Learn Spanish for Good
Learning Spanish can be financially difficult. Not everyone has a couple grand to invest. When I was an intern at the Institute for Central American Studies where I wrote for their international publication, Mesoamerica, I got to interact a lot with their language school students. One of which I met was Kevin. He was fresh from Michigan and knew some Spanish. By the time he and I left the country months later, his Spanish was pretty good. Now learning Spanish while being immersed in the culture, day in and day out, living and breathing in one of Latin America's safest and what I thought beautiful countries is one thing--its another to be able to afford it. If you can, three words: go-for-it! And, visit Tortuguerro while your at it.

Others will choose their local community college. And, it might take them forever, or they may pick it up pretty quickly. But in an technologically connected environment where Wi-Fi is in abundance, learning from your Mac or PC may sound odd, but considering the options, why not.

My friend Clay at Speak Shop connects people from all over the world with tutors (trained teachers) based in Latin America. And, you do it at your own convenience (in coordination with the tutor), you develop a tailored program (learn what you want to learn), and its affordable. Its worth a try!

I'm starting to think more businesses/organizations like the idea of expanding their demographic outreach, and recruiting more bilingual talent is the way to get to there 300m mark (remember human talent is the heart of any organization). What do you think? Do you think being bilingual has any merit at your workplace? Are you being encouraged for knowing a second language and are you using this second language to grow your organization/unit?

We'd like to know. As always, we'd like to hear from you. Send us your thoughts at, info@bilingualhireco.com.
-David Molina