Have you heard the old joke about speaking foreign languages?
Q: What do you call a person who can speak several languages?
A: Multilingual.
Q: What do you call a person who can speak two languages?
A: Bilingual.
Q:What do you call a person who can speak only one language?
A: An American.
I am an American, and proud of it. But I confess with some shame that I am not fluent in any language other than my native English. My wife, Norma, has me beat by a longshot. Growing up in south Texas, her first language was Spanish. She didn’t speak any English until she entered the public school system at age 5. Today she speaks English and Spanish beautifully. Me, I’m still struggling to learn the Spanish language.
In January 2008, Norma and I led our first evangelism trip to Costa Rica. It was a great trip, and I was fortunate to recruit several bilingual people in addition to Norma to join our team. To prepare myself for that journey, I decided to buckle down and work at improving my feeble Spanish skills. I searched the Internet for Spanish language products, and decided on Learning Spanish Like Crazy.
Learning Spanish Like Crazy consists of 30 audio lessons plus transcripts. The lessons are about 30 minutes each, and after the first couple of introductory lessons, they are entirely in Spanish. I really enjoyed working through these lessons. I have about a 20-minute drive to work, so I would listen to the lessons coming and going each day. I listened to each lesson 2 or 3 times, and then moved on.
Did those 30 Learning Spanish Like Crazy lessons transform me from a gringo to a fluent Spanish speaker? Hardly. But they did give me a good start.
Let me put it this way. You know the impression we gringos have that Spanish speakers speak way too fast? You know, that’s really not true — it just sounds fast to us because we can’t understand what they are saying. Learning Spanish Like Crazy has helped me to listen faster!
Joshua One Ministries recommends Learning Spanish Like Crazy. If you purchase the lessons here, the ministry will receive a commission on your purchase. Just click here: Learning Spanish Like Crazy.
Gracias, buena suerte, y Dios le bendice!
