I have come to the conclusion that I need to learn to speak Spanish in order to work more successfully as a technician. Many of our clientele where I live are Spanish-speakers it’s a hindrance when the only way I can communicate is by hand gestures. I just wish I wasn’t so stubborn back in 8th grade when Spanish was first offered as an elective: no, even though I knew it was a language that would come in handy seeing as how I lived in the Phoenix area, I wanted to learn French. So in high school, pig-headedness still prevailed and I took French for 3 years and another year in college. I was very good at French. Too bad I don’t live in France.
I’ve heard good things about Rosetta Stone and dh and I have talked for a couple of years about buying the Spanish (Latin America) version. But it’s got a high price tag for the 3 versions of it—$500—so all we’ve done is talk. Dh was going to buy it for my birthday, but read the Amazon reviews and there were quite a few valid negative reviews, so he took me to San Francisco instead 😀 . I don’t like the idea that RS can only be installed on 2 computers and that customer service is difficult to reach. Between the kids and us, we’ve got 6 working computers right now and *I* want to be the one to decide where *I* put the software *I* bought. But that’s a separate blog article methinks. Do you think there’s a Spanish language learning program that’s just for CPS techs? How handy would that be? Pre-translated phrases all ready to learn. Cool! Ah, but I’m dreaming.
So, any suggestions for me to learn Spanish at home? Keep in mind that I’m gung-ho to start projects but I tend to lose interest if they take more than a day to do—hmmm, I’ve currently got 3 going for CarSeatSite.com that I started weeks ago and 1 that I started back in May. Maybe if we started a support group . . .
I worked an awesome seat check event today in Detroit’s Mexicantown. We were lucky enough to have plenty of great translators – I can’t imagine how I would have explained how to use a locking clip or why I was using pool noodles without a translator. 😉
So true, Elaine :). There are such similarities between French and Spanish and that’s why I’m hoping I can learn it easily (ahem, not that I remember French all that well, but . . .). I can often read a Spanish phrase and get the gist of what it’s saying, unless it’s reallly colloquial.
Funny, I also opted to take French in high school even though Spanish is much more practical here in California. And DH & I got a good laugh when we realized this was something we had in common (we didn’t meet until we were both several years out of college). Our joke is that the only useful thing about 3 years of high school French is that we can understand more *written* Spanish than we could if we hadn’t learned French since a lot of words are similar.
Jennifer, a Dora special sounds like something that might actually work.
There must be a special license for libraries that have the Rosetta Stone, but my library system doesn’t have it. It does have something called Pimleur (sp?) that I hope to check out once I fix the problem with my library card. That’s interesting to hear there are special programs for med professionals and law enforcement! I’ll have to check around and see if there’s something available here.
Eh, my son took 4 years of Spanish, and still can’t speak fluently. He can at least read it though. I could book learn it, but never understand someone actually speaking…everything runs together. Maybe we could get Dora to do a car seat special…heehee
Rosetta Stone has several other downsides as well (for example, once you’ve finished with it, you can’t sell it), but Barnes & Noble has “Spanish for Law Enforcement” and “Spanish for Healthcare Workers.” You may want to look into those – I think they were $20 or $30 each.
You know, my community college has rosetta stone in the library- to check out. Maybe a public library would too?
We have a huge spanish speaking population as well and I WISH I spoke spanish fluently. We work with volunteer translators. Luckily our SK folks that work at the hospital are able to snag some wonderful volunteers to help us! It’s still not the same but it’s better than hand gestures:)
That’s not a bad idea, you know…Spanish for techs…our local college has a “Spanish for medical personnel” course…this is right along the same lines.
*I* happen to have a degree in spanish, LOL. So ya, je parle espagnol. Je parle francais aussi. But it’s not nearly as useful!