The Most Fun Way to Learn a Language

Until a few years ago, I couldn’t speak Spanish without sounding about half a century older—and much more religious—than I am. The language is the first one I learned, but I was taught it primarily by my Dominican grandmother, a woman so pious that she routinely brags about her prayer regimen bruising her knees. Consequently, I wouldn’t say I was going to the grocery store without a compulsory “God willing”—si Dios quiere.

My grandma helped raise me in the Dominican Republic, but I moved to the U.S. as a child, where I mostly spoke English. So I wasn’t aware of how I sounded in Spanish