Spanish-English Conversation Hours are back for another year.. These free sessions are ideal for anyone who is in the process of learning Spanish and would like to practice with others. Participants will work in small groups with activities designed to stimulate conversation. Thad Eggen returns as the facilitator for the sessions. Eggen has an extensive background as a Spanish teacher and looks forward to helping participants improve their language skills.

Native Spanish speakers who are learning English are also encouraged to attend, and they will benefit from the reciprocal conversation activity.

These sessions will be held on the first and third Wednesdays of each month through December. All sessions will be held in the Library’s Wasson meeting room. No advance sign-up is required.

This program is a partnership between the Library and the Estes Park Learning Place. For more information about the sessions, call the Library at 586-8116 or visit EstesLibrary.org

Why Learn Spanish?

Who's learning Spanish these days? For starters, residents of the United States, a population not known for conquering monoligualism, are studying Spanish in record numbers. Spanish, too, is becoming of greater importance in Europe, where it often the foreign language of choice after English. And it's no wonder that Spanish is a popular second or third language: with some 400 million speakers, it's the fourth most commonly spoken language in the world (after English, Chinese and Hindustani), and according to some counts it has more native speakers than English does. It is an official language on four continents and is of historical importance elsewhere.' The numbers alone makes Spanish a good choice for those wanting to learn another language. But there are plenty of other reasons to learn Spanish.

Better understanding of English: Much of the vocabulary of English has Latin origins

Knowing your neighbors: Not all that many years ago, the Spanish-speaking population of the United States was confined to the Mexican border states, Florida and New York City; but no more.

Travel

Cultural understanding: While most of us can't hope to learn the languages of more than one or two cultures other than that of our own, those that we can learn help us to learn how other people learn and think.

Learning other languages: If you can learn Spanish, you'll have a head start in learning the other Latin-based languages such as French and Italian.

It's easy: Spanish is one of the easiest foreign languages to learn.