“Upper-class people wouldn’t look down on a person who speaks another language, because they travel a lot and know the importance of speaking two languages.”

The Spanish Language Center is currently teaching over 40 KGTV/Channel 10 employees how to speak Spanish in response to Channel 10’s recent partnership with TV Azteca. Channel 10’s new Spanish-language channel, Azteca América San Diego, debuts on Jan. 26.

The U.S. is changing, and what better city to lead the bilingual revolution than San Diego? Our unique position provides so many alternative avenues to Spanish fluency, there’s no reason to buy expensive software. For San Diegans who have heard it spoken all their lives, Spanish is almost more like second nature than a second language. Call it a language and a half.

That’s not to say learning Spanish is easy. There is only one way to truly learn any language: thrust yourself into awkward conversations in that language with other speakers, rinse, and repeat. There are Spanish linguists aplenty in San Diego, and a student’s success or failure depends on his or her ability to eschew the comfortable English-speaking world for the world of a foreign culture and language. Here are some options.

Get a part-time job with Mexican immigrant co-workers.

They’ll speak Spanish to each other; you’ll feel left out. You may not learn how to put a grammatically correct sentence together or how to spell the simplest of words, but you will be able to limp through the average conversation. Nothing motivates quite like the one-two punch of humiliation and failure. If you can’t get hired by someone who speaks the language, hire someone who speaks it. For example, a babysitter who only speaks Spanish will have both you and your children on the fast track to fluency.

Only date Spanish speakers.

Insist on speaking with them in Spanish. Bilinguals often assign languages to different people in their lives, so if you slip over to the English side, you may never come back. Those with Spanish-speaking significant others will inadvertently pick up some vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation cues. Once you get Spanish-speaking relatives and family involved, it’s only a matter of time. To reach full fluency, aim for 25 years of marriage.

Pay someone or trade skills.

Face it: If you’re still learning the names of colors and farm animals, most fluent Spanish speakers won’t consider you the wittiest of conversationalists. Willing tutors abound on Craigslist for about $10-20 an hour, and there is the occasional offer to trade expertise with Spanish-speaking ESL students for free. One ambitious student hands out cold beers to Mexican landscapers in exchange for a 30-minute chunk of conversation. Of course, there are also Spanish language schools on both sides of the border, ideal options for committed students.

Go South, young man.

Baja California is the obvious destination for the aspiring Spanish speaker. Not only are people speaking Spanish everywhere, many of them are speaking only Spanish, which means cheating is out of the question. Substitute a Tijuana trip for a predictable bar, club, mall, or restaurant outing, and you’ve guaranteed yourself a few hours of Spanish practice, free of charge.

The easiest (and cheapest) option? Take a page from both the high schooler enrolled in Spanish 1A and the President of Human Resources at Home Depot—make friends with bilinguals.

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Janice Fitch is a freelance writer living in San Diego.

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