Endings

This is my last week at my current job, and for the most part I am saying "good riddance."

There is one part I will miss dearly. The group of Latina women who meet in our school every Wednesday morning to knit, crochet, craft, and share coffee together. Obviously, I was drawn in by what these women were doing, but what has made me fall in love with this group has been their generosity, patience, and willingness to share.

Lately, two things have struck me.

First, and more profound, is how adults learn and share language. Today, several of them told me that my Spanish was much better than their English. To which I responded "¿verdad? no" so I suppose between that natural response and the fact that I have begun to dream in Spanish on occasion may verify that.

This got me thinking about how I have learned my Spanish. Two years of high school Spanish instruction can hardly be held accountable, yet I do think some of those fundamentals have stayed with me (like those crazy little verb boxes we practiced to memorize the conjugations). It got me thinking about privilege. These women need to be able to communicate in Spanish, but I am sure that whenever they have the opportunity to practice speaking the English just flies by them. Whereas for me, practicing my Spanish is a privilege. I have the spare time to look up words I am commonly searching for in conversation, or to look up words I can use when sharing a knitting technique. In the moment, those handy little iPhone apps do not help. In the moment, what bridges the gap is patience, relationship, and generosity that is shared between the two people conversing. It has also helped that I have the time to build my vocabulary and grammar away from this group.

The second thing that has struck me over the last few weeks are these gorgeous crocheted lace shawls. Honestly, I have been coveting them for weeks! First a lovely pastel blue and pink number with some shimmering white. Then today it was a red one, and I do not like red, but this lace pattern is just incredible. So I finally got the nerve up to ask about it, the pattern is called espuma del mar or in English sea foam.

Now the terminology in the knitting and crochet world is very different in both languages (luckily, in most cases a direct translation gets my point across). So I came home to explore my crochet books and find this pattern. To no avail! I didn't find it online, I found the stitch itself, but not the pattern they have been using.* What did yield results was searching for the name they gave me and the Spanish word for crochet (which is the same as their word for knitting).

I found some wonderful instructions, fully in Spanish. So I really do have the privilege of the time to explore the world in either language I choose. Though it makes me wonder about how others learn and absorb their second (or third, or fourth) languages as adults who aren't taking formal classes. These women tell me the free English classes are always too simple for them, and moving beyond the basics with support is a challenge.

Have you learned a new language as an adult? What was your experience like?

*These women also tend to have one sample item, and then reverse engineer it from the original garment. So I really do not know why I thought I would be able to find the pattern they were using.