Silvana Martinez

1) Swahili has increasingly grown on me. The fruit song is as catchy as the "jambo jambo." Sometimes it flows through me, and my pronunciation is noticeably different from that of my peers, being filtered through my Spanish-speaking tongue positions. Jo says you are so incredible! You learn so fast! She is always so encouraging. I have always wanted to learn a third language, and hence I have flirted with French ever since the fourth grade. But after all these years I have still not taken a formal course, and with nobody to practice with, hence je ne parlais pas (I did not speak in French). A few Swahili crash courses and I was up and running. Practicing a language is such a big part of learning. It unravels world views and the things one takes for granted.

I have no energy for missing.