PRESIDENT Dr. Irfaan Ali, at the opening of the Good Hope Secondary School recently, said one of his regrets was that he didn’t seriously learn Spanish while in high school. And it was at that event he announced that his government would be making Spanish compulsory in schools. Little did I, or anyone else for that matter, know the President meant that Spanish would become mandatory in schools in a matter of weeks. However, we are seeing schools and the Ministry of Education working out the kinks to make this happen.

More recently, there has been much conversation about Guyana’s plans to seemingly mainstream Spanish, with the Guyana Police Force printing “policia” (the Spanish word for Police) on force vehicles. President Ali also told the latest batch of Guyana Defence Force recruits early this month, that they are required to learn Spanish within their first year of service.

I’m not exactly sure what exactly will be done to help more people learn Spanish, but I will say I think this is a good move. I also regret not seriously learning Spanish in school.

I studied Spanish and French until fifth form, and when I sat the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examinations in 2016, I wrote Spanish. Honestly, I wasn’t serious about the subject, so my Grade Two pass did not surprise me. When I went into sixth form, I practically forgot everything I learnt, but it didn’t bother me too much because it wasn’t like I was doing Spanish at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) level.

It wasn’t long before I started wishing I was more serious about learning the language in school.

In 2017/2018, I began volunteering with a local non-governmental organisation that focused on providing support to Venezuelan migrants in Guyana. I was good at packing boxes and snapping photographs, but the language barrier was significant. My conversations were extremely limited, and I depended on a bilingual friend to help me communicate with some of the migrants we were trying to help. Around that time, I did a story on Guyana’s changing business landscape with the influx of Cubans at the time. Then, it wasn’t uncommon for stores to seek bilingual salesgirls and porters, and I even interviewed some of the Cubans busy shopping on Regent Street (but with the help of a friend who is a secondary school Spanish teacher). I wished I could speak Spanish then.

Last year, when I attended the IX Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, I felt as though I was missing out a lot. The Summit took place in the city with the largest Hispanic/ Latino community in the United States, and I stayed in an area where conversing in English was hard. If that wasn’t eye-opening enough for me, the first official event I attended featured the US Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Brian Nichols. At the end of that event, journalists approached him with questions, and they all spoke in Spanish. Mr. Nichols also replied in Spanish, and there I was, clueless about what they were saying until a friend could translate for me. This year, I travelled to India with journalists from Latin America and the Caribbean, and again, I barely had a clue what my Latin American colleagues were talking about half of the time- even though, I will admit, many of them were kind enough to speak slowly and translate for me. Suddenly, telling overseas colleagues that I am from the only English-speaking country in South America didn’t feel like much of a boast.

So, since then, I have been trying to learn the language. I downloaded Duolingo, an app that helps you learn foreign languages, hoping it would help me (currently, I’m on a 230-day streak and my progress is extremely slow). I continue to encounter people who speak Spanish, and my inability to speak the language makes it hard for us to communicate effectively. Two weeks ago, I travelled to Region One to report on a conservation-focused story; again, many people spoke Spanish. I also want to go backpacking across South America someday (soon) so I figure I should really embrace the language.

For what it’s worth, I think getting more people to learn Spanish or any foreign language, is a good thing. However, I don’t believe it is an easy undertaking. We will have to spend quite a bit of time figuring out how exactly all of our learners can be exposed to the language and how we help grown folks, like myself, learn it effectively. Maybe this venture demands more specialised teachers or support from bilateral partners until we are capable on our own. I hope those with much more authority than me figure all of this out because, like I said, I think it is a good thing.

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