One of my goals when moving to Miami was to learn to speak Spanish. As a younger man, I was pretty decent at picking up languages. I won French-speaking contests in middle and high school. I spent time in the former Soviet Union and while there could speak Russian and read Cyrillic. Besides being a boy genius, languages came easily to me and I spoke them with glee.
Then I got older and my head no longer had room for all the things I learned, so some things had to be kicked to the side. My aptitude for language was one of those things. This was a problem as I wanted to travel to the Caribbean and South America, enjoyed eating latin food and had a metric ton of Latino friends who were pretty tired of translating for me when we went out to clubs, etc. Plus, it's always good to know when someone is talking isht about you. The time had come: I was moving to Miami and I was going to learn Spanish.
As with most (all) things, I turned to Yelp to find out where to go. Not finding a bunch of information, I made a short list and reached out to the various schools. Most never bothered to reply to me. One did but was fairly condescending (not a good look for a school/teacher). Then Peggy C reached out to me. Peggy is the founder and head instructor at Mind Fuel. She reached out by email and encouraged me to call her. Not only was she engaging and friendly over the phone, she seemed to have a genuine interest in why I wanted to learn Spanish and a determination in helping me to get there. I decided to come to the school and see what was up. When I arrived to the City Center building, I was impressed to find several small classrooms and many students speaking French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Italian, and other languages. With as many nationalities that make up Miami, it makes sense that a language school should be a modern-day Tower of Babel.
I signed up for my intro course and Peggy was my teacher. She led me through basic vocab, verbs, sentences, writing exercises, speaking drills, and other means by which to instruct me. Despite my lack of any Spanish ability, I began to pick up on things and before too long, I was having conversations, (slowly) understanding conversations and reading and writing in this new tongue. Like most skills, learning a new language is only going to be as helpful as the time one puts in to it. At the beginning, I relished my new school and studied as though I wanted extra credit. Things came quickly and easily. As class has progressed and the subject has become more arduous (how many iterations of last tense does one language REALLY need), so too have the requirements on my time. The breakthroughs aren't coming as quickly or easily right now but I take full responsibility for this. Peggy's instruction remains as clear and dedicated as it was on Day 1. I need to put the time in to make sure her instruction does not go in vain.
My greatest compliment to Peggy (and the school) is that she's never once made me to feel stupid. It's quite a vulnerable thing to put yourself out there to learn a new language. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to mispronounce things. You're going to be completely dumbfounded as to how to say things. You're going to be all these things. But learning how to overcome these challenges in a safe and nurturing environment is the difference between continued success and a past hobby. Thanks to Peggy and Mind Fuel, I plan on being a continued success story. read more
