PicoBlog

Disclaimer: I am not being paid for this article by Duolingo, however maybe I should be.

I’ve always been jealous of people who can speak multiple languages; this comes in conflict with my eternal fault: I’m lazy. I could go on and on about my type and level of laziness, but eh, I don’t feel like doing that right now.

The point is: I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish, but have never been able to commit the time to do so. When I was in high school, when most people take the opportunity to learn a language, I managed to find a way out of it, (I was really good at this.)

Here’s the setting:

I am not a good high school student. I do not graduate with a GPA that can be spoken aloud in polite company. I do the bare minimum as often as possible. (Jokes on me, as I am now eternally trapped in the school-based purgatory called teaching). Senior year of high school I am told that in order to graduate and get accepted into most schools I would need to take at least two semesters of a foreign language. I groan. I enroll in Spanish 1.

The semester comes and I am closer to the age of the teacher than I am to the rest of the students. I am lost and feeling lapped by 14 year olds each day. I learn to say that my name is Santiago (my chosen Spanish name), I learn to say “Where is the library?” And then I learn that because I have been in choir for four years, I have satisfied the language requirement to graduate, what’s more, the college I’ve primarily focused on getting into, an arts school, does not require a foreign language. Subsequently, I drop Spanish 1.

I do not look back, I have no regrets, that class seemed hard, and I am a senior, so I don’t wanna!

Years go by, I go to art school, I live my life, I go back to school to become a teacher, and then: job interviews.

Here’s the setting:

I am 25, I have finished student teaching and I am ready to dive into the world of salaried employment! I got bills to pay, I got loans to avoid, I got a childhood bed to move out of.

I know to set my standards low, cast a wide net, I am reminded again and again, it’s your first job, it doesn’t matter where it is, get the experience, learn from your mistakes, and then move on. I apply everywhere.

It was West Chicago, an initial phone interview, reality sets in.

“Hi, this is (name forgotten), I just want to let you know, this district has a very high Hispanic population, we are really looking for teachers who can also speak Spanish, can you speak Spanish?”

Shit. “No, I’m sorry, I don’t.”

“Ok, well, have a nice day.”

That was the whole interview.

This would repeat continuously through my first few years of teaching.

I come and go through schools, my lack of bilingualosity (let’s just pretend this is a real word), does not become too much of a burden. Then, I am teaching in a charter school in the South Side of Chicago, a predominately black school, but I have a few Hispanic students, one student in particular challenges this state of nonbilingualosity (just go with it).

Here’s the setting:

It is parent-teacher conferences and this child’s mother does not speak English, I do not speak Spanish, you see how this could be an issue?

You know who does speak Spanish? My assistant principal. If you have never been a teacher, ask one, “How would you feel about your assistant principal leading your parent teacher conference?” It’s not great.

I sit there like a dolt, slack-jawed while my assistant principal and this parent are rapidly conversing, about what? Me! (probably, I was a little insecure).

Here is an accurate depiction:

This revised my jealousy of bilingualosity (yes, I’m going to use this word, a lot).

Not long after, for many reasons, I begin working as a long term sub in a 3rd grade ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER classroom, I explained to the principal that I couldn’t speak Spanish, he didn’t seem to mind, or maybe he just really needed someone and certified teachers-turned subs are hard to come by.

To add a fun dimension to this story I start at this school in mid February, 2020.

I had one day to observe the teacher before taking over her class. In case you’re wondering, that’s not enough time.

Saying I had no idea how to teach a 3rd grade class of students is an understatement, and it didn’t help that there was a deficit in the communications department. But I decided I would try to embrace this. My students knew I couldn’t speak Spanish, and they were a group of sweet, hyper kids, so I told them their new job would be to teach me! We started each morning on our story rug, and each day a student would teach me a new phrase in Spanish. The kids loved this, and I pretended the phrases would definitely be remembered, as I made sure I used the phrase repeatedly throughout the day. (I don’t remember any of these phrases.)

Again, it made me jealous of bilingualosity.

So often students like these are treated like they’re not as smart or capable as other students. But when’s the last time you tried to learn two languages at once? Each one of these students have to be forced to be bilingual. As far as I’m concerned, these kids already have a leg up on everyone else.

Yeah that’s right, it’s a subject header now!

Fast forward a few years.

Here’s the Setting:

I am teaching 5th graders about The Rosetta Stone. I open the class with a discussion on how we learn languages. Why is it important to learn the languages of different cultures? How can we learn languages? What are some languages you’d want to learn?

Turns out 5th graders are all bilingual now.

“I’m learning Spanish!”

“I’m learning French!”

“I’m learning Japanese!”

Frickin’ Japanese!

“Ok, how are you guys learning these languages?”

“DUOLINGO!”

Alright, fine, my interest is piqued. “Is it free?” I ask.

They laugh, “Yes, do it! It’s awesome!”

Later as I set them working on a group assignment, I download the app.

One of the first lessons: Yo como manzanas! I eat apples. (This is true, I como muy manzanas!)

Wow, I just spoke Spanish. I could read that sentence, I know what it means!

It’s been 6 days now, I have binged through lessons and units, I can feel somewhat comfortable to read through basic (very basic) sentences in Spanish. I can joke around with my students in Spanish, (mostly jokes about apples), and they are genuinely excited that I took their advice, and am connecting with them about a shared interest.

I’m not bilingual yet, but I can feasibly see myself getting there if I’m able to stick with this.

Here’s the success of Duolingo, and why I am constantly hearing the dinging of Duolingo lessons during the breaks of my classes: It’s fun! It gives you practical uses for each new word, practicing it over and over again, but in new ways.

There’s a game aspect to it too, a competition with other learners. There are lessons formatted as stories, where you can connect words you do know, with those you don’t. You build context to phrases. Even when the phrases aren’t super applicable to my everyday life, like: “Yo necesito la boleta para Santiago.” (I need the ticket to Santiago.) It’s still pretty handy, just in case I do choose to travel to Chile someday, which would be nice.

Also, it’s kinda cool that I could even say it in the first place. Maybe the novelty will pass and I’ll start to see it as homework, but for now I’m really digging it.

Being able to speak multiple languages is cool.

I can wax philosophic about how we should all be members of the global community and learning languages is a key to that door to a wider world, and that’s all absolutely true. But the fact is, it’s really cool to be able to speak in languages that others can’t. This is the same reason why when we’re young we make up words and languages with our friends to “speak in code.” A gloobity blurg dorf, am I right?!? Also, as I say to my students all the time, knowing things makes you more interesting! (Unless it’s math!)

I also don’t want to have doors closed on me because I’ve been too busy to learn a second language. Nor do I ever want to have to have an administrator administering my conferences!

Duolingo makes learning languages easy, it’s almost like not doing it is lazy.

I’m still entirely a beginner, and only a couple steps beyond saying yo como manzanas, however, I could also tell you, “La supermacado es donde esta la manzanas.”(The supermarket is where the apples are.) But learn languages, have fun, be interesting!

Anyways, here’s a picture of me enjoying a manzana to wrap this all up.

You’re welcome.

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