Hablo Espanol

Yes, I have been learning to speak Spanish for about 10 days now, and must say, it has been an extremely fun and exciting journey.

So why now, and why Spanish?

Interesting story, actually.

First of all, I have always been interested in learning a foreign language since the time, in my school days, when I saw my elderly uncle trying to learn German. I had been advised not to take French in school, and I always regretted it. When I started work for Bridgestone as one of my clients in Europe, we had a French class for my team, and stupidly, I skipped that.

I tried learning French a couple of times on my own, but never got beyond Bonjour and could never really wrap my tongue around the very different French pronunciations. A couple of weeks back, I found my French language guide, and tried to start again - and realized it was still just as difficult to get the pronunciations. And almost gave up.

Interestingly, just at that very moment, a friend of mine pointed me to www.duolingo.com, a beautifully gamified (free) site for learning languages, and to check out how it works (remember, gamification is my area of expertise and focus at work!), I took the first lesson in French. While I loved the way the site works, I still couldn't get the French flowing in my blood.

That's when it hit me! Why not learn Spanish instead? And there were so many reasons - first, we are planning a trip to Spain in May - and that gave me a full 4 months to really pick up the language. Spanish is also such a beautiful language - spoken by all the stunningly sensuous women in Latin American, including the oh so awesome Salma Hayek! Imagine bumping into her on the train and being ableo to say Lo Siento, Senorita! Mucho Gusto! By the way, Spanish is the second most popularly spoken language in the world after Mandarin, and ahead of English, with over 350 Million in dozens of countries speaking it. It is also pretty easy to pick up (and the fact that I can understand approx 25% of any movie's Spanish subtitles, and the song La Bamba and the Spanish parts of Senorita in ZNMD, in less than 10 days is ample proof of that).

But most importantly, for me, it has been the channeling of my emotional energy that's worked wonders. The beginning of the year has been pretty stressful, and the Spanish lessons (especially on www.duolingo.com) have proved to be an excellent way to divert my mind, keep it focussed, and get something positive out of what could have been a terrible phase.

As they say, life is what you make of it.

Hasta Luego, Adios!