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Learning a new language has extra benefits
When I moved to California and started working as a HR manager at a large government agency, I had to adjust to a lot of new things. I got offered a great promotion with a county agency on the West Coast and was introduced to a way of life completely different from growing up in New York. Laid back people, lousy traffic, no public transportation, it wasn’t what I was used to. But I grew to enjoy my new environment.
However, for all their friendliness, I learned Californians can flaky and have short attention spans. They are always looking for the bigger, better deal. It was also difficult making new friends. In California, everyone is in their car all the time, and when they get home, they don’t really talk to their neighbors. I had an hour commute, so there wasn’t much time to interact with my co-workers. And after seeing all the human flotsam and jetsam we witnessed every day, most of us wanted to leave that at work.
I decided to take a Spanish class at a local community college. Speaking Spanish is a major plus in California, where almost half the population speaks the language. It would also help at the office, because I was working with a lot of families whose first language was Spanish. Going back to school was also a way to get me out of the house and interact with new…
