It’s 2:00 pm on a Sunday and the Culver City Spanish Speaking Meetup is gathering. the group has been getting together every Sunday for the last nine months, rain or shine – in Culver City it is usually shine. Muy Bueno!
Sitting at the benches near the bike racks, people great each other and catch up on the past week, all at various levels of conversational Spanish. Some are there every week, others come when they can. None of them knew each other last September, and now they consider themselves friends.
Most learned a little Spanish in school, but never became adept at conversation. Carol Oblath considered “My Spanish improved when I taught middle school in South L A and I had to learn some key phrases to speak with the parents. In one unfortunate incident I divided the class into small groups and each group produced a name for themselves. Four clever little boys came up with a name I cannot write here, and each time I called on them the class burst out in hysterics. Sadly, for me, it took until the end of the week for the teacher next door to explain they had named themselves something akin to a sexually active donkey. My students were my teachers.”
Joanna Kotwis started the meetup after returning from a trip to Poland, her native country. While there she noticed three such groups gathering in Warsaw. Having traveled extensively in central and south America she has achieved a Duolingo streak over 1200 days, and her Spanish is solid. Born and raised in Poland, she speaks Spanish with a Polish accent.
Sam is a frequent participant when he isn’t jetting off to Taiwan and has been in the group for the last eight months. Besides learning Spanish and Chinese, he attends the French conversation group that meets at one of the nearby tables at 3:30. Très talentueux.
When asked, members characterize the group as “a very welcoming group for people of all levels.” Last week there was a native Spanish speaker who seemed very committed to both the Spanish and French group.
You don’t have to be multilingual to join. It’s a multigenerational, multi-ethnic, multi- social economic bunch that likes to have a lot of laughs while figuring out what we want to say to each other in another language. Conjugating verbs is a challenge. Google and the Spanish English dictionaries assist. We also play some games that force us out of our comfort zone and help us get to know each other.
Meet up at the picnic tables near the Culver Steps every Sunday from 2-3:30. They will be flying a little Mexican flag so you can easily spot the group.
There is also a Facebook group called Culver City Spanish Speaking Meetup.
Nos gustaría verte.
Carol Oblath
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