Of Statistics And Spanish

In college I majored in French and German. In fact, I was the only French major and the only German major in my graduating class. I took history, literature, and philosophy classes. I suffered through a year of required phys ed--well, not really, but PE was not something I figured I would be having to take in college. To complete my math/science requirement I took a semester of Calculus and a semester of Statistics. And Spring semester of my Senior year I took Spanish 101 in order to meet the minimum required credits to stay enrolled as a full-time student.

After graduating from Rockford College, I spent a year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying Comparative Literature. Then I moved back East and plunged into the workforce. I have had several jobs over the last 25 years. And what do you suppose I have used more than anything else I learned in college at each of these jobs? Statistics! Who knew? I took it because it filled a requirement without taking a lab science or a second semester of Calculus, and I liked the professor. Yet, professionally, it was the most beneficial class I took during those four years.

Even in my current job in Christian Education I occasionally need to use statistics. However, now I find myself using more and more on that one semester of Spanish I took 25 years ago. Who knew? Our office, and indeed, the Episcopal Church in general, is doing more and more work with the dioceses of Province IX. Province IX includes dioceses in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. There are Spanish speakers in the office, but they cannot always take time to help me communicate with our folks in Province IX. Because of my background in foreign languages, I find that I can understand the majority of what I read--enough to get by in most email communication. To write emails, I rely on Babel Fish Translation on line--it requires a lot of tinkering with the English to get the translation close to comprehensible Spanish, and a lot of apologizing for my bad Spanish. So far we have not run into any major problems. I also understand quite a bit of what I hear, if the person speaks slowly enough.

In preparation for my trip next week, I have been having conversations in Spanish with one of the women in another department. She is a native speaker, and I've learned a lot--including how to say that I don't understand and need to have it repeated or put into simpler words. Hopefully, those conversations will prove helpful when I get immersed in the language next week.

In the meantime, the piles in the small room continue to grow, and the suitcases and tote bags have been pulled out of the closets. I've packed most of what I need for my weekend trip, and tomorrow morning I will pack everything but the last minute stuff for Ecuador.

Peace,
Jeffri