Lingua franca et al

Jayne and I wrapped up the first semester of Spanish class Tuesday night with the final exam. It's been a long time since I sat down behind a desk for a 130-plus question test.

This is the third language I've tackled.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me a verb

I took four years of Latin in junior high school and high school. The junior high class was a challenge because I didn't work well with the teacher's approach to the class -- memorize, decline, conjugate, memorize more, no context, write it all on the blackboard. If you've seen Monty Python's "Life of Brian," specifically the scene in which Brian tries to grafitti Jerusalem's Roman forum and gets caught by the Roman soldier, you know what I mean ("It says Romans Go Home," says Brian. Responds the soldier, "No, it doesn't. It says People Called Romani They Go The House"). That learning style of humiliation and repitition didn't do me much in those formative years and, I think, really hurt my desire to learn more languages.

High school Latin helped revive the desire to learn a little more. We translated Caesar's "Gallic Wars," historical writings, letters of Cicero (I wish we had tried some of Catullus' dirty little poems!) and that put the language in context.

What is to be done?

In college, I tried learning Russian. This was entirely new -- new alphabet and sounds, to begin with -- but I was inspired by the professor and his pure dedication to the language.

I could use what I learned to read Pravda that the professor received and better understand basic slogans and writings of the Russian Revolution. I had plans then to go to Russia and study the revolution, but things change.

Estudio de la Universidad

So, now it's Spanish. There is a practical side to this -- my daughters have friends who speak Spanish and their parents speak only Spanish, so I thought I should try to communicate with them. Also, I live in the "Hispanic" section of Allegan County (Really. The county has made this the minority district) where many people's first tongue is not English, so I need to communicate at stores or just walking down the street.

The instructor -- Jenanne Voss -- does a wonderful job teaching. She incorporates different learning styles, is interactive, respects the students and knows the language inside and out. Though my brain has grown crusty over the years, I started getting into a groove and looked forward to class at Davenport University in Holland. Classes were Tuesday and Thursday nights.

The only bad part is that I missed several classes. I attended one of daughter's holiday programs and the other two misses were because of work. My boss made it clear that work came first, not Spanish, so I had to stay at the paper and miss the key interaction of my classmates. This hurt my comprehension.

Well, I didn't do well, but I think I passed the class (I'm awaiting my grades). I plan to take the next level starting in January so I can cement some of the material I've picked up already.

Thought: Maybe the next language I learn should be English.