Poverty like this makes you cry.
I‘d made friends with some poor Mexicans. Very poor! They invited me to their house in Tijuana for dinner.
The neighborhood was cut into the side of a hill that would never get building approval in the first world.
And the houses…
It took me back to childhood seeing them.
Not that I ever lived in a house like that. The chickens did.
That’s what the house reminded me of… chicken coops. Strung together with bits of scrap and wire. Foundations made of old tires.
Mi amigo David is very hard working and industrious. He is rising above that circumstance. His house doesn’t look like a chicken coup. It’s still rugged but his house is the best in the neighborhood.
He is making a better life for his kids. They are delightful.
One day his daughter, Sandra, was showing me her homework from school.
It was like a flow chart of steps in a sequence.
I asked what it was for, she said, “Computación” (computer studies).
Just one problem: they don’t have computers in the class.
She was studying how to use a computer on paper. She had to make diagrams on how to use programs like MS word and Excel.
Futile.
How the heck can you learn anything about using a computer by writing on paper?
You see a lot of vain efforts like that in Mexico.
It’d never happen here.
We don’t do stuff like that.
Our society is more advanced.
Really?
Check out the language classes at the local high school. They are almost as pointless as Sandra’s clase de computación.
They are trying to learn something alive with a method based on studying something that’s dead.
The methods come from the days when Latin was a compulsory subject.
Studying Latin was an academic exercise. The classes weren’t designed as a way to speak to people in their own language. After all, have you met any ancient Romans lately?
Kids in high school don’t have a choice. They are forced to endure this archaic style of language classes.
You have a better option.
You can choose speak a vibrant living language with 420 million native speakers.
You can break free of the living dead zombie class.
You can stimulate and develop you mind to new levels. You can speak two languages and move confidently and freely anywhere Spanish is spoken.
You can make friends, travel, do business or live in a Spanish speaking country.
All the tools and methods to get you there are literally at your fingertips. Use your fingertip to click below and start speaking a living language today.
Living Spanish Beats Dead Latin
Saludos
I like your courses’s and am a subscribed member, however I don’t like your connection to your email reference to the poverty situation and the link to your classes. Don’t get the connection to ” Poverty makes you cry” and and a link to your classes on line where you make money from your classes. Maybe if you suggested a contribution to the school educational needs in Mexico might have been more appropriate?
gracias!
Fergus O’Toole
I contribute to the Milagro Foundation. They work with children in the areas of education, health and art.
Here are their details.
http://www.milagrofoundation.org/
Hello! I want again to buy your courses ! Please send me a password very correct!! Because I had a very trouble with your password! SORRY FOR MY BAD ENGLISH .
THANK YOU TEACHER MARCUS. SOLEEN.
Marcus,
I signed up 15 months ago and because I drive a lot I listen to Bola De Nieve and Advanced Concepts
I am goin to Spain next month on holiday and booked some lessons with a Spanish teacher and he was amazed at my level of grammar & vocabulary and he said Iwas up to A level standard.
Thanks,
Noel Gallagher
Hola Marcus,
I signed up quite some time ago, but I am now getting around to learning Spanish. Is my account still ok? I am ready now after going thru a lot of changes, but now live in Ajijic and love it here. My name is Lew J. Snyder on my debit card. Thanks for the wonderful story. Here I always say Hola to some folks that are in a similar set of circumstances. One is this autistic guy and after months he finally said Hola to me. i have the password here some where. Everyone needs to be acknowledged and I make no exceptions. Street folks, poor folks, rich folks, it’s all good.
Hope you can find my sign up. At least 6 months ago. Moving to Mx. for good, was a bigger challenge than I realised. Please let me know, I am ready to learn more Spanish!!! Saludos, Lew
Hi Lew,
I just send your course access details to your email.
All the best in Ajijic.
Marcus
Yes, this is how we teach it too at Habla Language Services. We use YouTube, Univision, and conversational practices. I also teach grammar and give you my insight from living in three Latin American countries and working with immigrants here in the U.S. Language is meant to be lived! Not studied for a test. Get out there and converse – don’t worry about perfection. Only your high school Spanish teacher cares about perfection.
Here in Uruguay each child is given a computer which they use for their schooling. University is free .
Some of the schools are quite modest and kids only go half days but they start at age four and from next year this is being lowered to three years.
Uruguay is much more expensive though but I am happy if the money is being used for the good of the whole population
I read with great interest your introduction to ‘Chicken Coops, computers and Spanish which took me back to my school years while attending a Catholic Christian Brothers all boys school in Liverpool, England at the time. A long time ago since I am now 78 and doing well with your instruction and Synergy Spanish and Bola de Nieve.
During my years at Grammar/High School we had no choice but take Latin and French, no other language was offered and at 15 years old when first introduced to Latin I knew at this age that apart from our Sunday Mass nowhere else was Latin spoken, except the Vatican City. But we had to go through the verb conjugation and all I remember outside of the Latin used at Mass was how to conjugate the verb ‘ager’. Had the teacher explained that Latin is the base for all the Romance languages and from ‘Ager’ we get words like agriculture and others Latin would have been interesting and a foundation for a greater English Vocabulary. This was never explained.
We needed your approach to learning way back in the late 40’s and early 50’s.
Thank you Marcus you have made a Senior Citizen a young Student once again
Jim Rice
As a young man I recall Russians were taught Computer Science programming — without computers! There was a technology transfer embargo imposed by the United States back then.
I also visit Tijuana more than most from my country and you are so right!
I live, a Gringo retired in Guatemala. Mas Barato y la Gente!
Saludos,
– Chris (‘cris’)
I agree with you, Marcus. I find your lessons to be full of life. But how can I reconcile my feelings of guilt about making friends, travelling or living in a Spanish-speaking country when there are people there living in chicken coops?
Marcus, I have had many Spanish systems to try and learn from. I couldn’t I thought I was too old at 47 or to dumb to learn Spanish, then I bought your system. It was so easy it scared me. I learned so fast I was in a dream lol. So now I live in Monterrey Mexico with my Mexican wife. I see poor family’s here as well. Not as poor as the ones with the computer story but poor enough not to be able to give their children a chance to learn English. As you know English is important if you want to work in Monterrey, Mexico. So I began to teach English to the family’s who cant afford to send their children to English schools, and I am helping the students with their homework in English all at no charge. Thanks Marcus from me and all of my Mexican students.
Hi Marcus,
I started your course last year and am working through it every spare moment I have. I have moved to Venezuela to be with my husband. Last year I spoke almost no Spanish, now thanks to your course I can understand A LOT and speak enough to be understood. We have similar issues of poverty here and the standard of living for some is exactly as you describe in Mexico, breeze block and scrap houses piled atop one another on the sides of mountains…the struggles these people face everyday, makes the idea of me learning Spanish an very easy one, thanks to your help.
I too have experienced the same poverty in Reynosa, below McAllen, Texas. And, I too have made lasting friendships with some of the most beautiful and sincere people I have ever met. We, in the United States, have so much to offer, however; in some ways the Mexican culture can teach us a few things. Once you get to know someone there are hugs not handshakes. Their children know that they are loved because they get told and shown. One of the most remarkable things I witnessed in the city markets is that the young children don’t seem to whine, cry and complain like in the U.S. (Must be some discipline going on somewhere.) In spite of the poverty, they are a happy people, at the least the ones I met. Yes, we need to help them but we also can learn from each other. If you’ve never been, I invite you to visit the “real” Mexico. Their belief in family and faith is impressive.
Well said! I couldn’t agree more.
Marcus would you like to set up a fund to buy these people computers ( if they have the connection to use them ) I would be willing to start it off with a donation of £10:00 if you decided to do it.
Ian
I don’t know when I’ll be in Tijuana again. So I wouldn’t feel right taking money until I were sure I could distribute it. Nonetheless, it’s a great idea and I do want to give back.
Carlos Santana grew up in Tijuana and he has a foundation called Milagro. They help children with healthcare and education. It’s not just for children in Tijuana or even Mexico but children everywhere. I’m going to make a donation to them. If the idea resonates with you and you want to explore it further their details are on this page:
http://www.milagrofoundation.org/about.asp
Estoy totalmente de acuerdo contigo. La sistema tuya es lo mejor de todo. Gracias de nuevo y saludos.
Marcus, I subscribed to your Spanish language course, thoroughly enjoyed it, and yes at 65 (I started learning basic Spanish at 60 when deciding to move to Spain for my retirement), I love the fact that NOW I can travel around Spain and make myself understood enough, and I understand enough back to have fascinating conversations with local people who love to share their ‘life’s experiences’ and tell you about local interests. So a BIG THANKYOU.
I feel for the people in Mexico who still have to live an existence that we left behind with the ‘caveman’. With all the money that is paid to Charities around the world, why are these people not benefiting too?
The only thing I was impressed with, was that the school appears to have enough foresight to try and inform the young ones of what’s out there for their future and at least being familiar with Microsoft words (language) and systems (programmes) and what they do. It’s better than nothing. I was a programmer for a while in another life and that was how we originally started to learn about software. Considering now laptops have reduced so much (less than half the price) compared to 10 years ago, even one computer in a class would give them the visual information. So sad, what a world we live in eh!! Where’s the progress! Western World avarice. Hope you can make a small difference.
Your piece about Chicken coops, computers and Spanish was heart wrenching although there are many countries in a similar or worse condition. But, for some, there is hope most people will strive to better themselves and their surroundings like your amigo David and his hija Sandra.
Mine is so paltry in comparison, I’m striving to learn to speak spanish. I am english living in Spain, and there is an orphanage a few miles away, they want people to take the children for outings or overnight stays. I really would love to do that but without spanish…….
So thank you Marcus, although it is slow going (I am lazy) your lessons are the only ones that are actually getting me to speak spanish, if only a little bit at a time it is improving.
Poverty there sounds terrible. At 60 years old it still hits me hard when I hear of such things. Maybe as America learns the Spanish language it will apply its self to using it compassionately. I hope so. Thanks for your efforts.
Marcus,
I totally agree with you, that’s why I am studying with you!