I took two years of high school Spanish and another 2 semesters immediately in college. Three straight years of learning and I can’t speak it at all. I read a few words and stumble over a couple if I need to, but this helped me very little with my latest technology snafu.
My husband and I currently follow two TV series on Apple+. We don’t have a smart TV or an Apple TV box, so we watch everything through a Roku. This is not the ideal way to stream said platform, I have now been told. It’s very hit or miss whether the shows will stream for us or not. One day it works great, the next we get an error message.
When we get the error message, we pinch hit by pulling out my laptop to cast the show to our television. This worked for a while. Until one day, the airplay was in Spanish! When I stopped the cast to bring it back to my computer – the actors spoke in plain English. I cast it again, and they hablo[ed] en espanol!
I tried looking up every setting I could imagine, but all showed English. We came back to it multiple days before finally calling a support person to help. Two different techs failed to find an answer and asked to give me a call back. I have received, so far, one call to let me know that they still don’t know. But they are working on it.
This puts quite a damper on our ability to finish the two shows. To fully understand – especially the murder mystery – I need to access it in my native language.
Why High School Spanish Matters
As silly as the scenario is, it put me in mind of The Seed Company and the good work they do. According to their website, there are at least 171 million people who lack a single verse of scripture in their heart language.
The Seed Company partners with missionaries and translators around the world to change all that. They currently work with 951 languages. And you can work with them too! Maybe you – like me – barely command one language, much less multiple. But their website makes it so easy to donate to this life giving work. And you can also sign up to be a prayer partner – receiving emailed updates and prayer requests.
I am in no way affiliated with The Seed Company, but admire their work and mission. Look into this exciting and important ministry work and get involved if God so leads!
And now for this week’s featured post from the link up.
Jennifer from Tea With Jennifer linked up a post from a year ago. I read it and found it charming then and it still holds up. Read Vintage Delights.
1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.
2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.
3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).
We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.
MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
LAUREN SPARKS
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
TAMMY KENNINGTON – Restoring hope. Pursuing peace.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
Now Let’s Link Up!
Sharing is caring! If you liked this post, do me the huge honor of using the buttons below to share it to your favorite social media accounts. And if you want to get these essays emailed to you once a week, subscribe! Lastly, my posts may contain affiliate links and I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy anything from one of these links, I will receive a few pennies to help offset the cost of this website at no additional charge to you. Thank you in advance for your help.
To find some great places where I might be sharing this post, click here.
Thank you Lauren for featuring my post that was a lovely surprise!
And we learnt French at school & I can remember very little!
Blessings,
Jennifer
It is my pleasure, Jennifer.
I studied foreign languages too and I can’t speak a word (other than numbers and common greetings) of any either. Why is that? What’s the point of studying it if we can’t remember it? Anyway, I can’t seem to find your link up.
Thank you so much for pointing this out to me. The link up is fixed!
I feel your pain with learning Spanish and not feeling like you’ve gotten anywhere. I keep telling myself I need to start watching tv shows and movies and listening to music in Spanish. One of our problems here may be immersion. I’ve heard if you want to learn a new language, the best way is to hear and speak it everyday. Most of us don’t really have that option in the US.
I think you are absolutely right about immersion. Years ago I wanted to learn sign language and took a class but realized unless I had someone to practice with I probably wouldn’t get very far.
Sadly part of the issue is how we teach it. We teach languages the way we teach children to read because by the time we teach them to read for the most part they can speak the native tongue. We focus very little on teaching children to speak another language we focus on teaching them to read and write it.
I took one year of what my German high school teach called oral German where we spent little time writing and all our class time speaking German. I remember more of that than I do of Spanish which I took all through Jr. High and High school. I’ve often wondered if I’d spoken more Spanish if I’d remember it.
I’m interested to see how these new apps that help parents teach their kids foreign languages in a more oral method do for helping kid retain another language.
Interesting. I never really thought of it that way!
Oh no! That must be so frustrating. I took a few years of French and while I remember a few sayings here and there I gave up on being fluent long ago.
Thank you for reading, Joanne.
7 years of French here between high school and college and I still need a major refresher course- I was fluent at one point- even dreaming in French and now life takes over and well you know how that goes…thank you for sharing your inspirational words as always
7 Years. Wow. Interestingly, it’s the same for me with piano. I took lessons for 5 years and can’t play a note now.
I can feel you, its a really struggle to watch tv show other than your native language you have one eye on subtitles and other on the show LOL
I confess I haven’t really tried since it was an assignment in my college spanish class!
‘there are at least 171 million people who lack a single verse of scripture in their heart language’
this reality gives cause for pause and prayer, Lauren.
I know. Hard to believe isn’t it?
It’s surprising to me to learn how many people in the today’s world still do not have access to the Bible in their native language. Thank you for sharing your post at Talent-Sharing Tuesdays Link-Up 10.
Carol
http://www.scribblingboomer.com
It was for me too, Carol. Thank you for reading.
I occasionally get messages in Spanish from my friends in El Salvador. I also two high school Spanish, but it doesn’t cut it for me either. 🙂 I can sometimes get the gist of the message (thanks to lots of Duolingo sessions), but not enough to depend on. So Google Translate does the translating for me! lol. But that’s only for written words. I have a real hard time understanding spoken Spanish unless it’s very slow.
You aren’t the first person to mention Duolingo!
I can relate. I have taken Spanish and American Sign Language. Also my step-mother is Pilipino, so I grew up exposed to Tagalog and could speak some and understand most as a child. The Spanish is lost all but formal greetings, the ASL is elementary level nd the Tagolog is gone. It makes me sad to know people in many countries are missing the gospel because of language barriers. We are called to go into all the world by any means necessary. Thanks for sharing this .
It makes me sad as well, Calvonia. That’s why I have committed to pray for this work.
My husband and kids are all using Duolingo to expand their foreign language ability — I should be…
I think that’s great!
That’s hilarious that your device was speaking Spanish! And I totally understand the frustration of not understanding. When my students’ family members speak Navajo, I’m completely lost. What a cool project! Thank you for sharing about it.
It was the craziest thing, Anita!
The Seed Company sounds like a great ministry. I took Spanish almost every year from 4th grade through middle school, a few years in high school, and then several semesters in college, and I’m still not fluent. I can read it and understand it pretty well, though! I will look into that ministry. Thanks for sharing it with us at the TFT party. Lauren.
They are a fantastic organization, Pam. You will be blessed by The Seed Company.