You know how we all have things in our life we're not so proud to share? Well, here are 12 embarrassing things you probably don't know about how I *finally* learned Spanish.
1. Despite my mom's advice, I took French in middle school, high school, and college because it was romantic and definitely not practical.
2. I was a C student and couldn't get past the intermediate level because of the grammar. My accent was lovely though.
3. I took 2 days of Spanish my senior year of high school before getting into a class I really wanted that I actually did poorly in.
4. I tried to learn Spanish in my late 20s but chickened out after one day of Spanish class.
5. I spent more money than I had on Rosetta Stone CDs but never used them.
6. For years I could only speak baby Spanish, which I learned from my nephew.
7. I picked up tiny bits of Spanish working with Latin Americans in DC and San Diego.
8. My boss was sure I could speak Spanish in San Diego because I knew words for food.
9. I spent my first year in Peru hardly understanding anything, getting into the craziest situations at least once a week.
10. I only took 2 months of Spanish classes in Peru, but when I got back to San Diego for a short time, I took intermediate level classes at City College until I got lost with grammar thanks to the pretérito and imperfecto.
11. I went back to Peru again for two more years, determined to meet new people who only spoke Spanish so that I'd have to learn more.
12. I finally became fluent in Spanish after 20 years of trying.Â
Certainly, if I can learn after 20 years, anyone can when they put their mind to it.
