Hablas Espanol

I wish I was a linguist. I have always wished I was linguist. In high school we could take either Spanish or Latin. My mother insisted I take Latin because that is what my older and smarter brother (he made better grades and was Valedictorian) did and that was what you were supposed to take if you wanted to learn all of the root words that would make you better qualified for college. So, I took Latin for two years. I can’t speak Latin and even if I could there would be no one with whom I could converse. Even the Catholic Church has given up Latin for mass. There is no country of Latin I can go to where Latin is spoken and understood.

In my freshman year of college I was more independent and could choose what language I could take. At that time you had to have at least two years of a foreign language to get a degree. I had three choices – Spanish (again), French or German. I pondered these options and eventually chose German. I thought it was a very masculine language with all of the guttural sounds and short, clipped delivery. I did pretty poorly. I could understand the structure of the language and could read and write it fairly well for a novice but speaking and understanding spoken German was a different matter. I think I was afraid of my German professor who, I swear, must have run one of the Stalag prisoner of war camps. In any event I quit that language when I transferred to another school after my initial freshman year.

I was faced with exactly the same situation at my new school. I had to have two years of a foreign language and I had the same three choices – Spanish, French and German. However, this school did not require the two years to be in the same language. After much thought, I decided to give French a try. It was a very romantic language and sounded so suave and sophisticated. Unfortunately, I had the same problem as I had had with German. I got A’s when it came to reading and writing French and F’s when it came to speaking and understanding it. In fact, I was even worse in understanding French than German.

Even with all of this failure I did not give up. After getting married and planning trips to Europe, my wife and son coaxed me into taking German classes before a trip to Germany and French classes before a sojourn to France. I did better because all I had to do was learn enough words to order from a menu and to find my way to the right restroom. Even with that, there were times when I was served things I had no idea I was ordering. Eventually, I got good at pointing to the plates of other diners who had what looked like mouth watering dishes.

My wife is not much better at being a linguist than I am but somewhere our son got the genes to be truly gifted in this area. He speaks French fluently and is proficient in Arabic, Hindi and Spanish. Ah, Spanish. The same goes for our daughter-in-law who speaks even more languages. Maybe this is because she is French and learned from early childhood that knowing more than one language is a good thing. I know that Geronimo knew this and he used it to his advantage in leading others. In Teaching #44, Hablas Espanol?, in my book, The Leadership Teachings of Geronimo, published by SterlingHouse Publishers I explain it like this.

Since Geronimo spent much of his time in Mexico it behooved him to know Spanish. Indeed, at times his very life depended on his ability to understand and speak Spanish. During the tragic massacre of the Apaches by the Mexican troops in which Geronimo and his band were trapped and forced to fight from rifle pits dug in an arroyo, Geronimo used his knowledge of Spanish to know, beforehand, the intent of the Mexicans. During the fighting he crawled undetected through the arroyo to within a few yards of where the Mexican general was meeting with his officers. Being downwind of the group Geronimo could hear virtually every word spoken. He later wrote that the general said, “Officers, yonder in those ditches is the red devil Geronimo and his hated band. This must be his last day. Ride on him from both sides of the ditches; kill men, women and children; take no prisoners; dead Indians are what we want. Do not spear your own men; exterminate this band at any cost; I will post the wounded to shoot all deserters; go back to your companies and advance.” ………

The Teaching in Geronimo goes on to explain that while English is The international language used by businesses around the world, it is still true that many businesses are run by people who speak only their own language or who prefer to do business in their language. The same is true of ordinary citizens of other countries. Learning and using the natural or preferred language of others gives one an advantage over those who do not, and any advantage in today’s highly competitive world should be captured.

This was again brought home to me when I was doing some consulting in Douglas, Arizona. Douglas is about as close to Mexico as you can come without actually being in Mexico. The company, in this case a school, had a large number of staff who spoke both English and Spanish. It was natural that a preference was given to applicants who could speak Spanish. It was not a requirement, the same as it is often not a requirement in a business transaction. But it was still a preference and a preference is an advantage. Geronimo knew this. I know this. Now, if I can only learn to speak and understand French, maybe I will be able to talk with my grandson who is learning that language as well as English from his multilingual parents. Maybe it is not too late for me.