Spanish Lessons in Seattle

Moving to Seattle has been a blessing. Before coming to this town, my knowledge of it was very limited. I always associated this metropolitan area to grunge style music, you know, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains. And of course, the Space Needle, what building is more distinctive than that? Not very many. But now that I live here, and I'm taking Seattle Spanish Lessons, I know Seattle, WA is much more than a big city on the Northwest of the USA. It is a vibrant community with a lot of cultural idiosyncrasies and much diversity.

I am fortunate to work for a great company that allowed me to come to this place. I have to travel all over the city everyday. From the sometimes hectic Downtown, to Belltown, to Capitol Hill, it is a great privilege to be here and to be part of the town's culture. I have met people from Spain, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Japan, Australia. This is a big agglomeration of cultures that has enriched my life greatly.

I had decided before coming here that I needed to improve my Spanish. The market is asking for more specific products everyday targeted to Spanish-speaking communities, and the emergence of the latin-american market has open roads for American products like never before to that area of the world. Yes, it is important in a much globalized world to study foreign cultures and languages.

I've heard lately, with good reason, that Americans have to begin learning other languages. Long gone are the days when speaking only English was sufficient. If you want to be successful in any high-paying job in the future, you want to be able to communicate in at least a second language.

The hispanic community is growing tremendously, and in twenty years about half of the population is expected to be able to conversate in English and Spanish, which half do you want to belong to? If you already know a second language, congratulations!, specially if that language is Chinese, Spanish, French, or German. It's never a minus to know another language but let's face it: Spanish and Mandarin are the big two.

Chinese presents a lot of difficulty for a person like me, over 30, and raised in an English-speaking country. Plus, my job deals mostly with the American market so the decision was easy when I came to Seattle; I immediately signed up for Spanish lessons. My kids are already fluent in Español thanks to their playmates and nanny. They are about to tackle Chinese. We will see how that goes. Like I always say, nothing bad about speaking a third language.