Why Learn Spanish At Your Age

Well, It all started about three years ago when I was doing some volunteer work with an inner city Christian ministry that spreads the gospel of Jesus Christ through word and action by helping refugees and sojourners integrate into our society. The director and I were making some home visits and we went to a very small, very shabby apartment in south St. Louis to visit a young lady from Colombia. She had three children of her own and was also doing day care for three neighbor children. I believe that none of the children were older than five. Her husband worked ten hours to twelve hours per day, six days per week in a factory. On Sundays he went to the park with his amigos to play soccer and left her at home with the children. She had no car and was not within walking distance (with 6 toddlers) of anything - stores - parks - relatives. Although she could speak almost no English and we could speak almost no Spanish we did, with a great deal of difficulty, communicate at a rudimentary level. (She wanted a Spanish Bible, which my friend got for her the next week.) Her tears, however, spoke more about her condition than any of our verbal attempts at communication. As we were leaving her apartment, I decided that I was going to learn Spanish.