Learning Español

I always assumed that I was too old to learn a new language.  It's been empowering to realize that this isn't true. I realized that I was missing a key skill--the ability to speak Spanish.  I grew up in a California, a state where roughly a quarter of the 38.8 million people living here speak Spanish; yet, until recently didn't know much beyond "hello" and "goodbye."  I've been using a mix of Rosetta Stone, which my former boss generously covered the cost of for her staff, and Duolingo.  A year ago I finished all the lessons offered by Duolingo and then later spent a month in Spain. While travelling in Spain was an amazing opportunity to practice the language skills I’d been working on—amazing in other ways as well—it made me realize that I have a long ways to go until fluency!