| News | Sports | Business | Opinions | Columns | Entertainment |
| Science/Technology| Weather | Archives | E-mail Us |

Sunday, February 6, 2000

Best time to learn Spanish

Clara Barton was 88, so it's never too late

 

Port chairman Bill Dodge and refinery manager Shelley Hacker found out that they have something in common with Red Cross founder Clara Barton.
   Like Barton, they are learning Spanish long after their grade-school days. Only Barton learned Spanish at age 88, roughly twice as old as Dodge and Hacker.
   That inspirational bit of trivia was part of the daily Page A2 "No Kidding" list in the Jan. 24 Caller-Times. It did not escape the attention of Vicky Andrews, who teaches Spanish for Del Mar College.
   "Every teacher will say this, 'It's never too late to learn.' We all say it, preach it, and it's true. But how much easier it would have been had she learned it at an earlier age."
   Among Andrews' students are people whose business and professional interests led them to her classes, including Dodge, Hacker and state Rep. Judy Hawley, D-Portland. Andrews knew Hawley from their teaching days at the Gregory-Portland Independent School District.
   "There are quite a group of elderly folks who take it just for the fun of it - elderly being anywhere from 55 to 70.
   "You'll hear, 'I've always wanted to do this,' and they never did do it."
   Andrews says older students often are her best.
   She describes Dodge, at 46 a whipper-snapper compared with Barton, as one of her best, most enthusiastic students. He's among the many bankers who have come to her because they consider knowledge of Spanish a growing necessity.
   Dodge says he took Spanish both out of personal curiosity and professional necessity. He grew up in New York and was not surrounded by Spanish speakers, contrary to the many native South Texans such as myself who have reached adulthood without learning Spanish.
   Tapes on long car rides
   "I think personally the demographic here doesn't require it or dictate it," Dodge says. "But at the same time, speaking from a port perspective, we've just begun to deal with lots of folks on the border and in Mexico. And I think it would just be polite of me to be able to speak to them in their language.
   "I find myself in Mexico much more often than I used to be, and I find myself speaking to groups where it would be much more appropriate for me to speak in Spanish than in English."
   He doesn't feel confident yet speaking Spanish, he says, but he's still practicing and reviewing the material from Andrews' class.
   Hawley uses the driving time to Austin and back listening to Spanish tapes.
   "I think everybody in Texas should be bilingual. I think we all should be able to speak Spanish," Hawley says. "As a legislator, I represent a number of people who speak mainly Spanish. I'm really distraught that I didn't learn it as a young child."
   Hawley, who grew up in Kansas City, Mo., took Latin in high school and French in college.
   Business need
   Hacker, who grew up in North Texas and has German ancestry, took German in high school and college. It was an asset in some of his European assignments during his career in petroleum refining. But now he's in a predominantly Hispanic community and his workforce is heavily Hispanic, so Spanish lessons seemed like a no-brainer.
   "To me as a manager it would add to my credibility and help me in dealing with people in general."
   At 43, Hacker doesn't consider himself too old to learn.
   "I'm one of these guys who just because I went to college doesn't mean I stopped learning. This seemed like an interesting challenge that fit a business need as well."
   Comparing notes
   And, with a refinery to manage and with four children in the household, the oldest one age 6, Hacker doesn't consider himself too busy to learn Spanish.
   "As luck would have it, my 6-year-old entered first grade in September and by October they were starting to introduce them to Spanish words. And it was more fun taking him to school in the morning and comparing what we knew."
   Age also is no excuse for Hawley.
   "At 54, I know I'm not too old - as long as I don't have to start the Red Cross, too.
   "As soon as I learn Spanish, I'm going to take flying lessons."
  
  

---

Tom Whitehurst

| Talk about this story | Home |

---

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

---

  © 2000 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.