Guest Author. As you know we write about national parks often . We won’t disappoint in this post. My undergrad college (1956-1960) roommate, Rick Smith, and I have maintained a close relationship over the years. I don’t believe we’ve ever shared a bad word. Rick learned from me that my reading recently has slowed, was concerned for us and our blog and offered to be a Guest Author as we’ve done in the past. I accepted his good words and kind offer. As you’ll learn from his below post, Rick credits his time learning good Spanish as a Peace Corps volunteer for being able to form friendships with Latin American Park Rangers during his thirty-one years with the U.S. National Park Service. His friendships with the Park Rangers in South America helped the Rangers be better at their jobs thus improving their own parks protecting (as does ours) culture, history and the natural world. As of August 2023, there were 493 national parks in South America. The photo below is of Rick & me (May 1997) on the Yampa River flowing northwest in Colorado through Dinosaur National Monument. I’m unsure whose or what’s remains we’re holding. Below is Smith’s Guest Author post:
Paraguay? The invitation to join the Peace Corps said “Paraguay”. Out came the World Atlas as I had no idea where the country was. And then I read the invitation a little more closely. Unlike most volunteers, I would be working in Asunción in the capitol city and teaching at the National University in the Department of Philosophy. It seems as if they offered a course in translation of Anglo-American literature. In addition to this course, I would be teaching Paraguayans who hoped to become English teachers.
We gathered first in Texas where we underwent 2 days of medical and dental exams and were given two days of “survival Spanish”. This was critical as they put us two at a time on a bus to Mexico City where we had to change buses to arrive in Toluca where we would undergo language training. Finding the right bus and a rest room with two days of Spanish wasn’t easy.
We then began 7 weeks, 6 days a week of Spanish training with no English allowed. Little by little, you could feel yourself becoming more comfortable with what at you said and heard during the day. It only took listening to the instructors talking among themselves to realize how far you were from fluency.
Luckily for me, we arrived when the University was on summer break. The Peace Corps hired an instructor for me and it was 4 more weeks of intensive Spanish
All the classes were in the evening, yet the first one now is clear as day. After the class, one of the students approached me and said something I will never forget. “Señor professor, continuing in Spanish, “it is clear you have the mind of a professor, but you have the vocabulary of a 4th grader.” Looked like more Spanish was in order.
About 4 months later, as I became more comfortable with the language, I received a note that terrified me. The Dean of the Department wanted to see me. In the Paraguayan university system, the Dean is something like the Dictator of a small country. I entered his office, sat down, and he said to me, “Señor professor, you are causing me problems.”
“How can that be, Dean? Unlike many of your professors, I meet all my classes. I am using notes that I prepared two weeks ago, not 20 years ago, and I let my students ask questions.”
“That’s the problem,” he said. “You have to understand that in our university, the professor is a well from which the students drink deeply.” I was sure that I misunderstood him and asked him to repeat what he had just said. That’s what he said.
Realizing that I was not going to revolutionize the university system in 2 years and since I liked my job, and the students, I made a deal with them. They could continue to ask me questions but they had to stop bothering the other professors. Surprisingly enough, the deal held for two years. The Dean even came to my going-away party.
Little did I realize the enormous benefits of those two years that would come my way when I began my professional career with the National Park Service. In the early 70’s, the NPS was still pretty much an Anglo organization. The number of Spanish speakers was small. When consulting opportunities arose in Latin America, I was almost always among those considered. In my working years and later in retirement, I worked in every Spanish-speaking country except Venezuela and in every country in Central America. I worked for agencies such as the World Bank, the United Nations, AID and others. Most of my work was designed to help rangers in other countries be more professional.
Alas, a lot of my Spanish has died from lack of use. I’m too old to run around Latin America now. The old saying, “use it or lose it” certainly applies to languages. But my two years in Paraguay changed my life. I don’t regret a minute of it except my meeting with the Dean.
Rick Smith
