A Little Time and a Keyboard: Parlez-vous français?, ¿Hablas español?

Parlez-vous français?, ¿Hablas español?

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

On childhood trip to Niagara Falls, I met a young man from Denmark who spoke five languages.  I was more amazed by his ability to learn languages than I was by the beauty of the Falls.  It is fascinating how such chance meetings and occurrences can leave an impression on your life!  From that moment on, I was determined to learn more than one other language.  Throught my school career, I focused on French.  Now that I have a little more time on my hands, I am working on learning Spanish. 

I have attempted to learn Spanish before through several online courses.  However, I never felt that much ever sunk in.  With my daughter's growing independence, I have found that I have more time to focus on myself so I enrolled in a face-to-face Spanish class at Harper College. 

I have taken several Continuing Education courses in French at Harper College throught the years in order to refresh my French.  I have found that the courses are a cost-effective way of maintaining my language skills.  The classes were small so, there was plenty of time for each student to speak.  My instructor allowed the curriculum to be driven by the needs and skill levels of the students. She made the classroom a place where all students felt comfortable speaking in the language.  She also made sure that we had time to have conversations in French every class.  It was a really fun experience and a great way to improve my language skills.

I have had such a great time with my French classes that I am very excited about the Spanish class.   I am hoping that it will build upon the small amount of knowledge I have from the online courses and that I will be able to speak a little Spanish without having to second guess myself!

No matter what, I will enjoy the challenge and the time to work on something other than parenting!  I will keep you posted on this class and compare it to my past experience!

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