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STUDYING SPANISH
For about a quarter of a century, we have been studying the Spanish
language. It’s been a haphazard habit. We’ve taken college classes,
studied with tutors, spent time with textbooks, CDs and tapes, read short
stories by Hispanic authors, and subscribed to a monthly Spanish-language
magazine. But, after all this time and all that effort, our language
skills are only good enough to greet a friend, order a meal, or get
directions to someplace close at hand.
Why, after all our educational effort, are we not fluent in that lovely
tongue? There are probably many reasons. The two most obvious, however,
are that we started our studies too late and we lapse from them too often!
The forty year old brain doesn’t grasp new knowledge as quickly as
the four year old brain, or even that of a person half our age! So, we
find ourselves having to go over words and phrases we thought we already
knew. Verb tenses we thought we had mastered get lost again in our
cerebral caverns. When we try to speak, it takes so long to recall the
appropriate word that the conversation moves on to a different topic
before we can find it! Advanced age is not the prime time for language
learning!
The second obstacle that blocks us from fluency is lack of practice.
Living in an English-speaking society, it’s hard to practice Spanish. We’ve
tried to find classes or tutors but that takes time and effort. Even with
each other, it’s easier to speak English because trying to recall
Spanish takes too long! So, unless we are very determined and willing to
take the time, we slip back into our first language and communicate in
English!
At times in our studies, we’ve done immersion study in various
countries. We’ve lived with a Spanish-speaking host family near a
language school. We’ve tried to learn the language by using it and the
culture by being in it. If we lapsed into English in our frustration, we
were met with blank stares and had to try again, a la Spanish! For us,
that’s the only effective way to learn: to be immersed in the language
without having an English escape hatch! But, after a few weeks of this
high-powered learning, we have always returned to our comfort zone in the
English-speaking world!
Reflecting upon our language-learning adventures, I realize how much my
growth in faith is like my Spanish struggles! I began quite early in life
to learn to love God. Excellent teachers modeled – rather than told –
me the path toward spiritual maturity. They are gone now, and on my own, I
wander.
But, like my Spanish studies, my spiritual growth is daily delayed by
my lapses from the language of the spirit back into the world of "Me,
first." When gratitude and praise are replaced with "I want to
do it myself!", I have again reverted to my native spiritual language
– self-centeredness!
So what would immersion studies in faith be like? Life in a convent or
monastery? Taking a private retreat? Or is faith immersion those crises in
life from which we can no longer return to what we used to know? How and
where could we learn the hopefulness of speaking in future tense? The
bondage of getting stuck in the past? The encouragement of learning to
speak in terms of ‘what might be’? And the freedom of resting in the
Word and the Speaker?
I don’t know. But it’s clear to me that I am just as slow – and
just as persistent – in spiritual study as I am in language-learning!
4/18/2008 - mshr
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