I've been interested in languages for a long time. My parents spoke a mixture of English and Yoruba to each other, but only spoke English to my siblings and I, so I learned English and learned to understand some Yoruba, but did not learn to speak it. To this day, however, I can still understand bits and pieces of Yoruba whenever I happen to hear it, even though I wouldn't be able to say more than a handful of words even if you offered me a million dollars.
However, back to Spanish! Well, I became interested in it way back in grade school, when I'd watch episodes of I Love Lucy and want to understand what Ricky was saying whenever he spoke in Spanish. I ended up taking half a year of Spanish in the 8th grade, and don't remember anything from it. However, I then took it for four years in high school and learned a bit more. Of course, I still didn't learn enough to hold a conversation, read a book, or do much of anything in the language. This was where I discovered Shakira, however, whom I still enjoy listening to more than a decade later.
Then came college, and I spent some time self-studying Spanish then, including spending lots of time listening to a Mexican City radio station online and discovering artists like Jorge Drexler, Juana Molina, Federico Aubele, and Natalia Lafourcade. I also watched a bevy of Spanish-language movies, including several directed by Pedro Almodovar and several starring Ana Torrent. However, I started and stopped frequently, and wasn't very focused; I even took a French course for kicks instead of a Spanish one, as I also was self-studying French at the time, and found that language more inspiring.
Enter the married stage of my life! To put it mildly, I met the love of my life, Brenda, in the midst of a not-so pleasant graduate school experience. However, we got through things together, got married, and decided I was meant to become a teacher of young children. Around this time, she suggested I start learning Spanish as a potential aid in my eventual job hunt. Eventually I took her up on it, and two years later, I am on the verge of becoming a bilingual preschool teacher. Along the way, we decided to have a child, and after much discussion, decided to raise her in Spanish and English. And here we are!
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