Learning New Languages

 

Al and I are trying something new this year! We have enrolled in a six-week conversational Spanish class through a nearby senior center. The class is only one hour each week and is designed to promote cognitive health as well as give some beginning instruction in Spanish.  

I had been wanting to learn Spanish for years, but never seemed to find the time to take a formal class. It would have been useful while living and teaching in the central valley of California. Many of my students were non-English speakers, making it difficult to communicate without the help of a teacher’s assistant or other children in the class; but they learned quickly.

Al was a good sport and agreed to sign up for the class with me. He had taken Spanish in high school and still remembered some phrases, like “In a closed mouth, no flies can enter!” His teacher, Señora Rowe made sure that her students memorized that phrase!  He also remembered singing “La Cucaracha!”

On the first day of the class, we were delighted to meet Señora Bartlett, an attractive young woman, who had been teaching Spanish in high school and Adult Ed for thirty years!

Señora Bartlett introduced herself in English, sharing her background of having a father who spoke Italian and a mother who spoke Spanish! She grew up speaking both languages, in addition to English.

 Our class of fifteen seniors was taught how to introduce ourselves first to those at our table, then to the entire class. Al and I were sitting with a man named Ray who had stayed in Costa Rica for several weeks so that he could be immersed in Spanish. But that was a long time ago, and he wanted to refresh his memory.

Thus far, we have begun to learn the names of colors, how to count and have made a list of some of the things we enjoy doing. According to Señora Bartlett memorizing more than seven new words at a time overloads the brain! We’re taking small steps for sure!

However, she also asked us to spend five hours a week listening to the news or watching cartoons in Spanish. I haven’t made the five hours yet, but found that reading a psalm in my Spanish Bible or listening to a familiar worship song on You Tube while doing the dishes has been doable—and enjoyable too!

What is required in learning a new language? Well, we have to hear it, practice speaking it, read it and mull over it. Of course, full immersion by living in a community where that language is spoken is the best way to become fluent.

 The apostle Paul yearned for people, Gentiles and Jews alike, to learn a new language—God’s language of love. Paul desired that they would not only be rooted and established in God’s love, but that as one body in Christ, they might know the fulness of His love for them. He wanted them to be fully immersed in it, like a sponge in water, soaking it in until God’s love easily flowed out to those around them.

So how do we immerse ourselves in His love? By getting into His Word, learning scripture, letting it sink into our hearts until it changes us and the way we live. Being part of a community with other believers and attending church worship services, prayer groups and Bible studies also help us learn God’s language of love.

 As we Christians learn to love each other in spite of differences or disagreements, to forgive, encourage and support each other, we are empowered to consider all people our neighbors and love them in the same ways we love ourselves.

 Learning the language of love takes a lifetime! Ready to start?

 

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all of the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all of the fulness of God.”

Ephesians 3:14-19 NIV