It's gotta come from the heart! Learning a foreign language

The most essential part of learning another language is practicing the language every chance you get.

If you have too much pride and you just can't bring yourself to take the risk of potentially making a fool out of yourself every time you practice, you're never going to be able to progress in the language.

Being willing to take the risk of figuratively getting your head chopped off every time you dare practice is an essential part of going from being able to say only a few words in any language, to being able to have a normal conversation in it.

If you see a bunch of tourists lost in SF, for example, obviously speaking Spanish (or any another language you're practicing) , but you don't approach them to practice, you've just wasted a prime opportunity.

If the phone prompts give you the opportunity to pick Spanish vs English, and you don't pick Spanish, another opportunity lost.

There are tons of such options available to you, the real question is whether or not you want to speak that language badly enough to take advantage of them.

Will it be embarrassing, hell yes it will be embarrassing, but if speaking that language is what your goal is, there's unfortunately no other way around it, you've got to practice the language every chance you get.

Will people think you're showing off, possibly, but you can't afford to worry about that, especially when in a few years time from now you'll be fluent in the language and they'll be wishing they had done the same.

Again, if you're too afraid of people thinking you're showing off, you're too afraid to learn another language. You have to accept the fact that that might happen and come to peace with it.

If you're doing it for the money though, forget it, because learning another language is way too hard and if that's all you have invested in it, $$$ signs, once you realize how hard it is (not to learn it necessarily, but to maintain it) you're likely to give up very quickly.

It's gotta come from the heart, and nowhere else!

"Yeah, I've got this great company for you in Scottsdale!"

So, for years I'm going to job interviews and according to my friends, "not selling myself well enough".  They think I'm crazy, for example, for not saying to employers "Yeah, I'm FLUENT! And DON'T ask me again!" when asked whether or not I speak Spanish or German well.  "Fluent" is the other "Expert" in my book, if not worse, and the mere SOUND of that word grates my soul like fingers on a chalk board, as I don't think you're fluent, unless you're almost indecipherable from a native Speaker.

So I'm at this interview talking to this lady at "this great company in Scottdale" (GoDaddy) trying to implore to her my potential for learning, by pointing out that I had learned to speak 2 other languages "fluently".

"Well!" she says to me in this surprisingly snotty, unnecessarily hostile tone of voice, "We've got someone here who can speak 7 languages!" - this is where they always add the famous word: FLUENTLY!  And she did ... and I cringed!

I immediately thought, "WTF... Did I run over this lady's dog on the way over here, or what?  What's with all the hostility?  Man, am I screwed or what!  This lady frickin' HATES me!"

After I composed myself ... "Wow!" I said to her, only feigning my amazement, as NO ONE I've ever met who's been described as such can do much more than say "No KAY-SO on my BOO-RI-TO!" in Spanish, and when I ask them "Wo hast du Deutsch gelernt?" they look at me like I'm from another planet.

As expected, I wasn't called back.

Now, I, and apparently every Tech Recruiter in Arizona thought I was well qualified for this job, and at least deserved further consideration for the position.  To that end, I proceeded to get called what seemed like every other day by some Recruiter trying to pitch me for this GoDaddy company.

Some really nice, really young, well-meaning Recruiter calls me in his best "I'm big now!" voice, "Yeah, I've got this really great company in this beautiful office park in Scotts Valley"  - "Let me guess!  GoDaddy!"
-"Yeah, how'd you know????"

"Yeah, I don't think the HR lady there likes me.  In fact, I KNOW she doesn't like me!  I wouldn't waste your time."

- "Are you SURE????  Are you sure it was GoDaddy???" - "Yeah, I'm sure".  - "Well, how 'bout if I just call them up! Maybe I can talk to them!" - "Knock yourself out dude!"

2 days, 3 days later .... "Uh, It's a no-go on GoDaddy!".  "Yeah, I know.  No worries.  Thanks for all your help!"

This happened so often over the course of time we lived there in AZ that it became a huge joke between my wife and I.  We'd laugh our heads off every time the phone rang!  "Honey, GUESS WHAT!! They've got a great company over in Scottdale for me to talk to!"

Hysterical laughter coming from the kitchen ... "OMG!  Let me guess!  GoDaddy!"

Finally, I knew that one lady had to have left as I started getting calls directly from GoDaddy's HR Dept.

I got an offer of employment the same month we were due to move back to Calfornia.