I got a new attitude

I have finally begun to see the beauty of Hebrew, thanks to a conversation I had with a customer at work this evening. She was an older woman, probably retired and she came through my line asking me if I speak Spanish. I told her I do just a little bit and she then asked me if she could practice her newest phrase with me. Apparently her next door neighbor has been teaching her one useful phrase a week which she then puts into practice throughout her routine, and of course she wanted to use it on the cashier at the drugstore.

Here's the kicker: she doesn't need to learn Spanish, she wants to. Her reasoning is that she just moved to Austin last year and this is the first time she lives in a city with so many Spanish speaking residents. She said it feels strange to not be able to communicate with such a large percentage of her town and so she wants to learn Spanish. I was in awe of her and told her I too wished to learn Spanish but because I'm learning Hebrew I don't have the room in my brain right now. We then talked about my class and why I'm taking it. I told her it was required for my degree. She said that sounded too "glass half empty" and suggested that I look at it as a gift. How many people in this world get to learn the language that the Old Testament was written in? Not too many, especially now that there is translation software to do it for you.

When I got home tonight and began to study the 27 words that will be on our quiz tomorrow morning, it was as though I saw the language with new eyes. What was once scribbles on the page and then became a hassle and annoyance has now become a beautiful gift. I have no doubt that I'll continue to stumble my way through this class, messing up the translation quizzes every Friday. But from here on out I'm going to be grateful for this opportunity.