This entry was posted on 10/7/2008 10:03 AM and is filed under uncategorized.
was born and raised in Miami, Florida. I remember beginning in the first grade, every morning started with the Pledge of Allegiance and then a Spanish lesson. So, everyday from the first until the tenth grade I took Spanish lessons and I should say that half of my friends were Cuban. I didn’t learn anything except how to say hello and goodbye. When I was a junior in high school, I took beginning Spanish and flunked. As a senior, I took it again and flunked it again. I was the butt of many jokes among my friends. I gave up.
About three years after graduation, I went into the Air Force. Once I got to San Antonio for Basic, all of us were taken in and told we were going to be tested to see how our linguistic ability was. I laughed out loud. After the test, which consisted of grammar and spoken evaluation of some made up language, they had people taking each person in and privately reviewing the results. When they called my name, a nice young man led me to a room and pointed at a chair. He flipped through some papers and looked at me smiling. All he said was, “Do you even speak English?”
I guess I should be happy I can even speak English.
