Precerpt from My 20th Language: L3 Spanish - Alejandra, My Mexican Pen-Pal
Alejandra, My
Mexican Pen-pal
When I was in seventh grade, I developed a strong interest
in other cultures. In the 1960s, about the only way for a farm girl to access
those cultures was vicariously—through pen-pal. I came across a pen-pal organization,
Youth of All Nations, I think it was called, and made full use of its services,
acquiring pen-pals in far-flung places, learning about so many different kinds
of lives and ways of living, and even began a stamp collection that gathered in
so many unique stamps that selling it when stranded for cash and out of work as
a young adult helped my young family make it through another few months of
struggle.
That is how I began an intensive correspondence with Alejandra,
a young girl my age from Mexico City. Her letters were vibrant—once I figured
out what she meant to say. Her photographs, cards, and even small cultural
gifts brought Mexico City alive for me, so alive that I wished that I could
understand everything she was talking about. Alas, her English at times became
enigmatic.
In time, I reached the conclusion that the only way we would
be able to communicate clearly was for me to learn Spanish. The bookstore in
the city where I went to school had a Spanish course, with books and records
(Remember, 1960s!) It cost $12, and I was lucky to have more than a dollar of
cash at any given time, built up from earning a dime here and a dime there
doing errands and chores.
My father, who had encouraged me with Latin, wanted to help,
but he was lucky to have even a dollar left after he spent his weekly salary
clothing and feeding eight kids, paying bills, and affording the gas for his
old car to get to work in the nearest city, a considerable enough distance
away. He promised, though, that he would save up whatever was leftover each
week—a dollar or a dime—until he had the money for the record set. Months went
by, and I continued to struggle to understand Alejandra, hoping against hope
that somehow my father would be able to get that record set. Then, one day, he
showed up after work with the record set in hand!
Eureka! I was off and running. I made quick work of the
lessons. First, they looked a lot like Latin. Second, I only needed to be able
to read and write. So, while I listened to the sounds on the records, I went
after the grammar and the vocabulary, and soon was able to read books, which I
could get at the library or pick up cheaply at the bookstore. That particular motivational
aspect seems to have dogged my Spanish study all my days: “I just need to X.” X
was always a programmatic goal.
So, with Alejandra, I just needed to be able to read and write. I stated writing to her within days of getting the language course. Among the lessons, I would find a phrase similar to the one I needed for writing the next letter, look up the words needed in the dictionary (One came with the course, yes!), and swap them in. It was very easy; unlike Latin, I did not have to figure out endings. Just words. I would use the syntax of various sentences and reading selections in the lessons as models in the beginning, then later, of course, I had classical literature as a model (though that did not always conform to contemporary, colloquial Spanish). Alejandra was delighted that she could write to me in her own language and did not have to struggle with English (which is kind of a crazy language when you think about it—it comes from so many different sources and is influenced by so many other languages). At my request, she would correct my letters and send them back to me with her next letter. The best teacher ever!
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