"If you switched from French or German to Italian, Russian or Spanish, we could make you a lower offer." So started my "Spanish" journey aged 17 and which has still not come to an end 58 years later.
[Wikipedia]
I was at interview for a place at university to study languages when Professor Juan Sager made me this offer.
I chose Spanish and in that moment my journey commenced.
Off to university
I achieved the grades required and in October 1968 our crash course in Spanish began.
Designed to get us to A-level standard in a year, it was taught by Ken Mason, a grammar school teacher, "requisitioned" for that specific task.
Sadly, Sager and Mason are no longer with us and nor are some of my peers.
University of Salford [Wikipedia]
I floundered to start with. Eight classes a week, the pace was relentless and I struggled to keep up. Everybody else seemed much better than me (I later discovered that they were also finding it tough!)
In the Part One exams after a year I passed in Spanish but failed the Linguistics paper. I took a year off!
When I returned, having satisfied the powers-that-be regarding Linguistics, I was in year 2, but obviously with a different group of peers.
After two more terms of high-speed Spanish tuition it was time for our year abroad - Easter 1970 to San Sebastian, Spain.
Six months in Spain
We flew to Barcelona and stayed in the catalan capital for a couple of days and nights.
Well, what a shock! Blatant prostitution, everything at full pelt, including spoken Spanish, noisy and grubby, but ridiculously cheap and so, so exciting!
[YouTube]
After a road journey across northern Spain to San Sebastian, which took all day, we arrived in darkness and immediately found ourselves in-at-the-deep-end linguistically.
Thank God for Miss Pickering who had done A-level Spanish and was much better than the rest of us. She "picked up the baton" and sorted us all out with digs.
San Sebastian by night [Alamy]
Our stay in San Sebastian
The plan in San Seb was three months on a course at the university (EUTG), after which we were left to our own devices. Some went travelling, but a couple of us found jobs in the town.
As for the course, I found it enlightening and my Spanish started to improve.
[Civitatis]
My job was with a local tour operator, DORFE, which involved dealing with the company's various suppliers: coach company, drivers, excursions, hotels and their staff, etc. After a while I was promoted from the office to being a tour guide/rep which gave me even more opportunities to practice my Spanish.
In those three months my Spanish came on a treat, because, basically, it had to!
Back at university and off to college
After six months in Germany it was back to uni for four more terms.
Degree in hand, off I went to Sheffield City College (now Sheffield Hallam University) to do a PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education).
[APS.org]
Career in Education
A year later (1976) I started my first teaching job as a Spanish Teacher.
Two schools later, having been appointed Head of Spanish in my second school and Head of Modern Languages in the third ..... I left the classroom for a career in the local education authority (LEA).
I worked for two Merseyside boroughs, first St Helens for six years and then Sefton for 10.
With responsibility for Modern Foreign Languages and Europe, I had plenty of opportunities to keep my hand in with Spanish.
[Alamy]
Highlights included EU-sponsored study visits to Jaca (Aragon), Oviedo (Asturias) and the European Parliament in Brussels, as well as working trips to set up and monitor a Work Experience project for post-16 students in El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona).
On a personal level, the family were regular visitors to Spain and her islands for two decades. In 2000 my wife Jeryl and I celebrated our silver wedding anniversary with a parador tour of Andalucia. The following year we bought an apartment in Ronda (Malaga) and two years after that a house.
Early Retirement
In 2005 I and several other advisors were made redundant. Jeryl divorced me around the same time. I suffered a nervous breakdown.
After three years "in the wilderness" I emigrated to Spain to be with my new girlfriend, German Rita, who had moved to Spain a couple of years before.
Rita and I married in 2010 and I've now clocked up 18 years as a resident.
Wedding in Maulbronn, Germany [HMR]
I speak Spanish on a daily basis; read the Sunday papers in Spanish - AS, Malaga Hoy, SUR, XL Semanal; watch the Spanish news on TV every day; and listen to Spanish radio in the car.
I also dabble in translation and interpreting from Spanish into English. Yesterday I had an interpreting job from German into Spanish and back again.
[EL PAIS]
Endpiece
I reckon my Spanish is better now than when I sat for my degree finals, despite the shaky beginnings.
The important points for learning a language to a high standard are:
- be in a conducive environment;
- work at it every day;
- do a course (face-to-face, not online);
- seek contact with Spanish people - eg a coloquio or just in your local bar;
- have a go.
[Ideal]
¡Suerte!
© Paul Whitelock
Pictures:
Alamy, APS.org, Civitatis, EL PAIS, HMR, Ideal, Wikipedia, YouTube
Thanks:
Paul Whitelock, Wikipedia
Tags:
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