Que?

Before we moved to California, I had an interesting discussion with my dad about diversity. Nothing against my neighborhood, or the areas I grew up in as a kid, but they lacked the diversity I knew I would find here in California. I jokingly told Daddy that I might have a great chance to get in touch with my roots out here, since California is so much more diverse population wise. I thought it might be a nice added changed to see other "brown people" like myself. While I have never felt out of place anywhere I went back home in Colorado based on my last name or color of my skin, coming to California, I knew was a chance to push myself out of my comfy zone, learn maybe a bit more about my culture, and expand my horizons.

However last night was a reminder of how vary apparent I am outside of that element. Here in California, hearing other languages is pretty much a given if you are out in public. Routinely at the mall, where I was last night, I can hear various degrees of Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, etc spoken. This is something that always struck me as really cool. So many backgrounds and cultures ending up in one spot to live and work, reminds me of why our country is so great. But it also points out a CLEAR example of one of my weak spots, I do not know Spanish :(

Yup, after 5 years of learning it in middle school, high school and college combined, I know very little Spanish, definitely not enough to converse at ease. I can watch the Spanish novellas on tv and understand about every 5th word. Wandering around the mall last night, I could gather a few words here and there from various conversations, but not nearly enough to feel comfortable. And it became much more clear why this would've been important last night as I was getting my hair cut.

Moving out here, I really wanted to find a decent place to get my hair chopped. I have such thick, frizzy hair, most places do not cut it correctly. And after being a cheapskate on how much I paid my hair for so long, a few years ago I decided that maybe if I paid more they would cut it better. 

So within the first week of moving here, I found a decent place in the Mall close to our house. And my hairstylist normally does a GREAT job with my hair and I am happy. Last night though, my lady 1/2 paid attention because next to her, was her co-worker, yapping her ear off, in Spanish.

This is where my frustration about not knowing any Spanish spun my haircutting experience into a bit of a disappointing and LONG experience. While my haircut lady was cutting my hair, the co-worker just kept on yapping..again and again and again, in a fast paced Spanish I just couldn't keep up with trying to understand. Sure I heard every 10th word, and understood it (remedial words like bibioteca, or novella), but nothing to get a clear understand of what was so important this co-worker had to tell my hair cut lady RIGHT then and there. So badly I wanted to turn around and say in my strongest and most angry spanish, "Can't you see she is concentrating on finishing my hair. I have already been here for over and hour and 1/2. Just let her finish and then you can talk her ear off after I leave."

I keep seeing advertisements for Rosetta stone, the company that has pricey CDs available to teach a person any language with relative ease. I am contemplating calling them this weekend, and getting myself on that soon. For now, I guess I will continue hearing and understanding every third word.