In progress

Some things I'm working on:

Spanish: This is one I work on with varying degrees of effort. Like most, I took Spanish in high school. I took two years there without discovering that I am a natural linguist. But I did discover that I loved the language. I loved the way it rolled off my tongue. I loved understanding what people said around me. Understanding came much easier than speaking unfortunately, and in college I sought to rectify the gulf between the two. I took 4 years of Spanish study. I listened to the language on the radio and lulled myself to sleep listening to the scriptures in Spanish. Probably the most helpful thing was reading an English and Spanish set of scriptures side by side. I even joined a Spanish-speaking congregation for awhile to try to 'immerse' myself in the language.

Unfortunately (desafortunadamente ;P) my slow progress was reflected in my poor grades. I was so devoted to the idea, however, of becoming fluent (and, thus bringing the world one step closer together, closing the divide caused by the language barrier, saving the world!) that I actually changed my major to linguistic studies with Spanish and Arabic as my focus.

I remember just one of the many instances that I tried to actually converse, I expressed my faith to a hispanic neighbor by saying, "Yo se, que el evangelio de Cristo es verde." He didn't say much, and I didn't realize until later that I had passionately told him that the gospel of Christ was green. (To be fair, true and green are pretty close in the Spanish language.)

So, I'm still working on this one, my major is still listed as linguistic studies, and someday I know I'll cross that language barrier myself and be fluent. It might just take a long, long time. Until then, Shakira cd, here I come!