Dec

Heading South to Ecuador And North on Life Goals

by Bruce Goldstone on December 30, 2013

Bilingual sign in Ecuador, part of a language learning experience that caused a shift in life goals. (Image © Bruce Goldstone)

Take note: That’s not Señor Chancho and it’s not Mr. Pig.
© Bruce Goldstone

How I Started in on Language Learning—And Gained a Lot More

Twelve years ago, this Mr. Chancho sign would have meant little to me. But now, whenever I look at this photo, it reminds me that any journey is full of surprises, if you’re open to them. I started out on a language learning mission, and wound up shifting my life goals along the way.

Goal One: A Healthy Brain

In 2002, I signed up for Spanish lessons at the Cervantes Institute in New York City. My goal was to keep my brain shipshape.

Studies, such as this one by Ellen Bialystok (Lifespan Cognition and Development Lab, York University), show that learning a second language can help delay or prevent Alzheimer’s. They also suggest that it’s never too late to start building a bilingual brain.

Why did I choose Spanish? It was a mainly arbitrary choice, heavily influenced by two of my good friends, one from Cuba and one from Spain.

Besides, Spanish makes sense in New York City where I live. Here you can find opportunities to practice in the subway, on local TV, or at almost any corner bodega.

Sign in a New York City optician, showing that language learning opportunities and new life goals, are easy to find in the city. (Image © Bruce Goldstone)

Español is never far away in New York City.
© Bruce Goldstone

Goal Two: Be Less Clueless

On the first day of class, Jorge Gallegos, my new professor, started with one of his favorite quizzes—How many Spanish-speaking countries could we name?

We coughed up Mexico, Spain, and a couple of others and then started to run out of steam. I’m sure you can do better than we did, can’t you? (You’ll find the full list at the bottom of this post.)

At last, with a map and Jorge’s gracious cajoling, we finally arrived at a list of the countries where Spanish is the main language. By the end of class, I had already sensed my first goal shift.

Sure, I wanted to exercise my brain. But maybe this class would help me be a bit less clueless about the world, too.

The class was great fun, and I definitely felt it working brain synapses that were either rusty or completely untapped. We followed immersion methodology. That means that from day one, we spoke only Spanish. It sounds impossible, but with a terrific, patient teacher, you’d be surprised. At least I was.

Along the way, Jorge told us a lot about his native country of Ecuador.

Skip ahead two years.

I decided that I’d like to try a full-on immersion in a Spanish-speaking country. Ecuador was a logical choice since I’d heard so many fascinating things about it from Jorge.

So I went to Cuenca for a month. High in the Andes, Cuenca is an utterly charming small town of tile roofs, Colonial architecture, and a church on every corner (or so it seems.)

Cuenca, Ecuador, the site of a language learning experience that caused the author to shift life goals. (Image © Bruce Goldstone)

Clay roofs, the central cathedral, and the Andes in Cuenca, Ecuador
© Bruce Goldstone

While there, I took four hours a day of classes at the Centro de Estudios Interamericanos (CEDEI), lived with a wonderful local family, and pushed my brain to exhaustion and beyond.

Daily classes taught me the importance of speaking up, even when you don’t have a clue what you’re saying and, most importantly, making mistakes.

Goal Three: Explore Culture Through Language

After school one day, I was wandering through the lovely streets of Cuenca and found Mr. Chancho, the smiling bilingual pig. While I was snapping a pic, I heard a drum and followed it through the alleys.

Children's parade in Cuenca, Ecuador, the beauty of which prompted the author to shift life goals for language learning. (Image © Bruce Goldstone)

Small boys, big moustaches
© Bruce Goldstone

I came upon a group of small children wearing Spanish style adult-costumes, complete with moustaches for the boys. They were riding horses decked out in crazy collages of empty liquor bottles and candies.

In my broken Spanish, I asked a bystander what was going on. It was a rehearsal for the Paseo del Niño, an annual parade that takes place each year before Christmas.

Luckily for the horse, the bottles are empty.
© Bruce Goldstone

My brain was whirring with stimulation. Worries of Alzheimer’s felt years away as I watched the bright and beautiful children, chatted with their relatives, and admired the intricate handiwork of their costumes.

Watching this amazing parade was definitely an “Oh, I see” moment. I realized that my goal for learning Spanish had shifted completely.

What started as exercise for my brain had evolved into something much deeper and more intriguing—a deep craving to know more about Latin cultures.

My ostensible goal—to become fluent in Spanish—remains the same to this day. But the road I started is far from the road I ended up on. The journey has taken me from Ecuador to Spain, Mexico, and eventually Argentina, where I now spend about three months a year.

The more I learn about Latin culture, the happier I am that I started this adventure. Learning a new language is great, but stepping into new cultures is even better.

So now I think of Mr. Chancho (one of my favorite street signs from Cuenca) and his best friend, Mr. Pollo, and remember that being bilingual doesn’t mean just knowing two languages. It means understanding two cultures, and being willing to follow the odd drummer, wherever it leads you.

Mr. Chancho’s best friend
© Bruce Goldstone

I’m sure my brain is the better for my language learning efforts, but the effects have reached far more than my physical brain and its unused synapses. My whole outlook has changed because I took aim at one of my life goals and then landed somewhere else altogether.

Spanish-Speaking Countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela. Plus Puerto Rico and, of course, the United States.

Spanish Lessons: My first professor, Jorge Gallegos, now runs Easy Español, a language school where you can take classes in person, on-line, or both. He’s a great guy (and a good friend). Tell him Bruno sent you (that’s what I’m called in Argentina.)

Comment on this post below.

Bruce Goldstone Comments

Becoming Bilingual/Crossing Cultures/Ecuador/Language & Culture

Dec

Aha Moment Maker: Battle of the Bubbly

by Your friends at OIC on December 28, 2013

CHAMPAGNE, 1668—A Benedictine monk named Dom Pierre Pérignon arrived at the Abbey of Hautvillers near Épernay. His tenure as the cellar master for the abbey’s prized wines began with a challenging assignment.

It seems that unexpected cold snaps in the fall when the wine was bottled had temporarily halted the fermentation of the wine. When temperatures warmed in the spring, the vintage began to ferment for a second time, producing excess carbon dioxide and giving the liquid inside a fizzy quality.

Not only was fizzy wine considered poor winemaking, but bottles in the cellar kept exploding. Dom Pierre Pérignon’s assignment was to correct the situation.

Over time, however, affinity for the fizzy wine grew. By 1697, Dom Pérignon had reversed course and brought the bubbles back. He learned from the weather-induced mistake and employed a second fermentation to develop the “French Method,” which is still used today to make champagne. As a result, Dom Pérignon became known as the father of champagne.

His paternal status was challenged, however, by a British winemaker’s discovery in the 1990s of a paper presented by Gloucester doctor Christopher Merret in 1662 (six years before Dom Pérignon arrived at the Abbey). It detailed experiments to create a bubbly wine, and included a recipe that resembles modern-day champagne.

The result is an ongoing debate across the English channel, and it’s not likely to fizzle out anytime soon.

What’s the aha moment you see?

Image © iStockphoto

Your friends at OIC Comments

Your Own Aha Moments

Dec

Memorable Paris Moments of 2013

by Meredith Mullins on December 26, 2013

Fireworks at the Eiffel Tower show life lessons and memorable moments in Paris for the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Celebrating at the Eiffel Tower
© Meredith Mullins

Life Lessons from The Year in Review

The end of the year inspires reflections, accolades, and lists.

The year in review. Favorite films. Important deaths and births. Mayoral gaffs. Best books. Rudest awakenings. Most inspiring quotes. Persons of the year.

I like these lists—for their role in examining what moments had impact on our lives and for reminding us just how much happens in a year.

I invariably say “Wow, did that happen THIS year? It seems like a lifetime ago.”

I look back on 2013 (another adventure-filled year in Paris) and offer ten of my most memorable “Oh, I See” moments.

These selections were all life changing—not in a dramatic way but in a way that still felt deep and long lasting, and made me continue to see the world from a new perspective.

The Silence of Snow

Snow at the Louvre, showing life lessons and memorable moments from the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

A transformative snowstorm at the Louvre
© Meredith Mullins

Snow is rare in Paris. When the flurries swirl, magic happens. Usually, the dusting of flakes is gone within hours. This January, however, the whiteness endured.

Like the voice of snow itself, the world was soft, muffled, and muted. Places usually familiar were transformed into graphic elements of white and dark, lines, forms, and textures. A new city was born . . . and it was simply beautiful.

Snow at the Eiffel Tower showing life lessons and memorable moments in Paris from the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

A rare view of the Eiffel Tower, simplified by snow
© Meredith Mullins

The Kindness of Strangers

Abdel, the owner of a tiny Ile St Louis grocery, was friendly to me even as a stranger. When I first arrived in Paris, he loaned me taxi money, without knowing who I was, and without hesitation.

Grocery owner waves in aisle, showing life lessons and memorable moments from Paris in the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Abdel, the nicest grocery owner in Paris, always has a smile.
© Meredith Mullins

Now, thousands of bonjours later, he is a friend, a neighbor, and one of the nicest people I know. He works from 6 am until midnight and always has a smile.

With Abdel, the memorable moments happen every day. The lesson I want to learn is how to be more like him.

The Rising of the Seine

The Seine is a constant source of memorable moments. It is the life pulse of Paris. It rises. It falls. It churns. It reflects. It breathes.

In February, with one huge exhale, it spilled over its banks and changed landscape into riverscape.

Flooded Seine bank, showing life lessons and memorable moments from Paris in the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

What was once land was now river.
© Meredith Mullins

While there were, sadly, many floods and tsunamis in the world this year that were far more disastrous, I was still riveted by the changing water. I watched each day as it rose and covered more land-based things. Inch by inch.

River barge with multiple planks to shore, showing life lessons and memorable moments from Paris in the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Each day as the river rose, a gangplank extension appeared.
© Meredith Mullins

When you live on an island in the middle of the Seine (as I do) or on a barge near the river, you pay close attention to those inches.

And you begin to ask yourself what is important to save from your home should disaster come. An interesting question to ask, flood or no flood.

The Year of the Pet

Parisians’ love of cats and dogs is legendary. Evidence of this love exists in many forms—from The Cat Café to fluffy pet heads popping out of Gucci handbags on the metro.

dachshund on a bus, showing life lessons and memorable moments from Paris in the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

The good life
© Meredith Mullins

Dogs strut into restaurants with their owners (no health laws here). Cats curl up in sunny window sills of apartment after apartment. Puppies provide warmth and companionship to the homeless.

In a city that could get lonely, dogs and cats offer way to connect— memorable moments that bring us closer together and make us smile, even when life gets tough.

Person walking a cat, life lessons and memorable moments in Paris from the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

The true meaning of cat walk
© Meredith Mullins

The Vibrance of Spring

It’s official—whether truth or perception: Every spring in Paris is more vibrant than the one before.

Perhaps it’s because the winters grow colder and grayer each year, making the long-awaited change in weather even more spectacular.

Pink flowers in a park, showing life lessons and memorable moments in Paris from the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

The flowers bloom with such force that you can see petals springing open if you pause long enough. The colors are so rich that, even in truthful images, you have to suspect a Photoshop dalliance.

The whole city comes alive to worship the sun, the gardens, and the fine art of café sitting.

And you think to yourself, could next year be even more beautiful?

Yes.

Flowers and trees of Versailles, showing life lessons and memorable moments in Paris from the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

The Americanization of Paris

What is so appealing about fast food, pizza delivery, vending machines with M&Ms, and Law and Order and CSI dubbed into French on prime time TV?

Those of us who came to France for the elegance of the culture and a deeper level of life appreciation are scared.

American culture is sweeping through Paris at an alarming rate.

Waiter with coke, showing life lessons and memorable moments in Paris from the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Admittedly, I am personally responsible for the pairing of diet coke (vintage 2013) with French dejeuner. (People frowned at first, but now it’s common practice.)

However, I have to draw the line.

Those of us who have lived through what will become Paris’s inevitable future know there is a price to be paid.

Dominos delivery motorcycles, showing life lessons and memorable moments in Paris from the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

The Importance of Elegance

Paris events are an art form all their own. Nuit Blanche, Fête de la Musique, Nuit de Musées, and hundreds of festivals and parades keep the city alive with culture.

My choice for “most memorable” event this year was the White Dinner (Diner en Blanc).

White dinner at the Louvre, showing life lessons and memorable moments from Paris in the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

I wasn’t invited, mind you. I’m not cool enough (yet) to be part of this clandestine club (even though there are 11,000 elite members).

But once the secret location is announced (minutes before the event is to start), it’s not hard to find thousands of people dressed in white carrying candelabras and champagne.

The key word is elegance—white garden party dress, crystal and silver place settings, white linen tablecloths, and the grace to welcome an uninvited guest (like me) with a glass of champagne.

The Celebration of Liberty

Fireworks at the Eiffel Tower, showing life lessons and memorable moments in Paris from the 2013 year in review (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Any time there are fireworks over the Eiffel Tower, it’s a memorable moment.

Combine that with the French Independence Day (Bastille Day), and the fiery explosions shake the very roots of liberté, egalité, fraternité.

Vive la France!

Exhibit of the Year

Salgado, Kahlo/Rivera, Braque, Karsh, Chagall, Boudin?

Who would have thought I would vote for a tower of street art as the best exhibit of the year?

Mirrored green eyes, artistic expression of street art at the Tour 13 (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

The Tour 13 was so creative and so provocative of place that I dreamt about it for weeks after seeing it.

Each street artist who was invited to create a part of the nine-story building (whether a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, or a closet) made the space his or her own, saying whatever they wanted in whatever way they wanted.

Great art leaves an impression long after the immediate experience. If my vivid dreams and strong visual memories of these installations are an indication, this was art of the greatest kind.

Running rabbits, artistic expression of street art at the Tour 13 (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

The Art of Looking Up

Oh, I see.

Often it’s just the wandering that offers the beauty and adventure. Walks through Paris in the changing light often left me sighing with sheer joy.

For me this year, the most precious moments came from the simple art of looking up.

World Views:

Topics

Monthly Archives: December 2013