T<\/span>oday I had an impromptu lesson in Espanol. It should have come pretty easy to me seeing as I have had a total of 4 years of Spanish with 2 years in High School and 2 years in college. And yet, just about the only thing I can spit out with any confidence is to ask someone where the library is.<\/p>\n And THAT is my beef or carne I guess. I think I’ve complained about this a lot in personal conversations and certainly at work and in grad school. What I don’t get is why we are so hell bent on teaching languages, second languages, the way we do. Forget teaching participles and the proper use and spelling of possessive nouns. We would be far better off if we became a bilingual mono literate populous\u00a0<\/span>first and then worried about reading and writing the second language later.<\/span><\/p>\n Why did I land on this gripe today you may wonder? Simple. I went to the local Social Security Administration office. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As I sat there in the waiting area, or cattle chute as it were, I was comatose to the flat screen TV on the wall. It was looping on Social Security propaganda which, conveniently enough, was repeated every few minutes in Espanol to remind me of how much of a waste 4 years of education was for me. It NEVER mentioned La Biblioteca or where it was. Not once!<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, this adventure today was ripe with gripe. As a parting note and a tease for a future rant, did you know that the Social Security Administration office hours are M-F 9am – 3pm?<\/p>\n Wait, what? That’s better than banker’s hours!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" …better off if we became a bilingual mono literate populous… Today I had an impromptu lesson in Espanol. It should have come pretty easy to me seeing as I have had a total of 4 years of Spanish with 2 …<\/p>\n![\"do1\"](\"https:\/\/www.midwesternmeditations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/do1.jpg\")
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