I’ve been taking lessons in America’s most useful language

Few things are more important to a journalist than the ability to communicate with the person you want to interview.

Fifteen years ago when I first tried to learn Spanish, it seemed like a handy addition to the toolkit of a reporter working in the United States. Today, it is more useful than ever.

Shifting demographics mean that “Latinos” – an admittedly controversial term the government uses to refer to people of Latin American origin, as many prefer the gender-neutral “Latinx” – now account for 60 million people of the country’s population of 320 million, and are the second largest group.

The group is not monolithic, and nor does everyone of Latin ancestry necessarily speak Spanish. Yet by 2050, it is estimated the US will have more Spanish speakers than any other nation.

Contrary to the accusations of some on the right, very few Spanish speakers do not also speak English. Even migrants who come to the US without documents in search of work – or especially these people – realise that speaking some English is essential.

At the same time, being able to speak Spanish has never felt more useful, or more exciting.

That lengthy introduction is why now, twice a week, I log onto Skype and speak to a Guatemalan woman called Martha. Martha is a language teacher and graduate student in the city of Antigua.

In contrast to the raucousness of the capital, Guatemala City, Antigua is beautiful and elegant. Over the years it has established itself as a hub for students from across the world, but particularly the US, who want to learn Spanish, and who join immersion classes, studying and living with a local family, for months at a time.

Right now, many of those are closed because of the coronavirus, and the tourist dollars are being sorely missed. Yet students are still being taught online, me among them.

Twice a week, for 50 minutes, and in the absence of major breaking news to which I am obliged to attend, Martha and I talk about things – about the thesis she just submitted to her university, about life in Seattle. We talk about music – her tastes more so than mine — and about Donald Trump.

In just a few weeks, we’ve discovered we both share a love of coffee served strong and without milk. She has a dog who often barks during the lesson.

We also talk about the coronavirus pandemic – el contagion – and how the world’s richest country has the highest number of infections.

At some point, I would like to know more about her country’s history, including the 1954 coup carried out by the CIA to oust the left-leaning elected president, Jacobo Arbenz. The action was one of the many such covert operations launched by Washington in Latin America, and Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala is essential reading for those who want to learn more.

At the same time I was first trying to learn Spanish, Thomas Friedman suggested skills such as those possessed by people such as Martha, combined with the internet, would help make the world “flat”.

Standing on the campus of a tech company in the Indian city of Bengaluru, which provided back office operations for international companies, he predicted the world would become flatter and more equal through “compassionate globalisation”.

So far, that has not really happened. Countries like Guatemala remain desperately poor, and inequality between nations appears largely entrenched.

There are some exceptions; nations such as Brazil, Mexico and India are moving forward and creating their own middle classes. Others appear to be moving backwards.

Martha is super smart. The lessons cost a fraction of what they would in the US. I would be staggered to think the sessions being taken by people such as myself make up for the shortfall of all those thousands of absent students.

Yet as the pandemic has dragged on, and it has become apparent that maintaining one’s mental health may be a bigger challenge than we had assumed, I’ve become ever more committed to studying with Martha and nailing this Spanish.

It’s fun, it’s interesting, and I don’t want to let her down.

Yours,

Andrew Buncombe

Chief US Correspondent