I’ve always felt a bit lame for being monolingual (my junior high latin classes didn’t stick), but the time I spent in France last week really brought it home. Sure, there were a lot of people that could speak english, but it was still really tough to get the basic things done like buy bread at the bakery or make it through a grocery checkout line. And there was also a 90 second wrong-number phone call where I couldn’t even explain that I didn’t speak French – the caller seemed to think I was pulling her leg.

While I’d like to learn French at some point, it doesn’t rise too far up on the practicality scale for a Seattle resident. Spanish, on the other hand, definitely does.

And as luck would have it, our new neighbors from Casa Latina are offering Spanish language classes starting Thursday May 8th. The classes will be held at the Japanese Congregational Church at 17th & Jackson.

And they have what sounds like a cool premise: the first half of each class will be spent with other english speakers who are just learning spanish, and then in the second half they’ll bring in spanish speakers who are learning english in their ESL class. So in addition to being emersed in the language, it’ll be a good way to meet some new neighbors and put some human faces to the controversy surrounding Casa Latina’s move to the CD.

The classes will be held once a week for 10 weeks, and all for the low low price of $100. ($10 per class is a pretty good deal, and they’ve got a sliding scale if you’ve got a financial need). To sign up or learn more, contact Emily Gaggia at [email protected] or (206) 956-0779 ext. 12.