For a Language Lesson, Oprima el Dos

The janitor at my athletic club liked my Spanish—to a point. He shut me down after several minutes and switched to flawless English. Tutoring wasn’t on his to-do list, apparently. He was from Puerto Rico and effortlessly bilingual. Some Spanish-speakers think I’m patronizing, and some think I’m terrific. You never know.

Hispanics make up a little under 7% of the population in metropolitan Cleveland. I can go days without hearing Spanish. I sometimes approach non-Latinos—like many of the employees at the corner upscale bakery—and say “buenas tardes” and “cómo estás?” just to exercise my chops. I chatted with Emma, a 20-something baker who had vacationed in Spain. She knew the Spanish words for most bread ingredients. She once gave me a brownie (point) when I used compartir (to share) in a sentence. Nora, another baker, studies on Duolingo.