Embracing Spanish Learning in My Eighth Decade: A Testimonial to Lifelong Curiosity by Sarah Shadbolt

Back in 2019, approaching my eighth decade, I decided to seriously study Spanish, mainly in order to keep my aging brain active. I made the best decision of my life and enrolled in Spanish 101 at the University of the Fraser Valley. The long-suffering professor was Teresa Arroliga-Piper she helped me to overcome my hesitancy about being a dinosaur in the classroom. But I should not have worried; the other students were delightful and accepted me completely.

Due to other commitments, I was only able to take classes in the Spring term, so the following year I enrolled in Spanish 201, again with Teresa. Then COVID intervened, and for 2021 I took Intermediate Spanish 11 online with Professor María Eugenia de Luna. The class in 2022 was cancelled due to a lack of participants, but in 2023 I doubled up and took two classes – Advanced Spanish Oral (with Maru) and Advanced Spanish Composition (with Teresa).

It is amazing to have such a high level of education available so close to home, with small classes and very committed professors. Being a senior citizen (nearly 83 at the time of writing), I am fortunate that due to government benefits, I do not have to pay tuition, but I still pay the annual $200 UFV enrollment fee, and of course, I buy my textbooks like everybody else.
The Spanish Program at UFV is excellent. Right from the start, there is an emphasis on the different cultures of Latin American countries and other hispanohablante areas of the world. Overseas opportunities to study and work in Spanish-speaking areas are often posted. I wish I were young again; I’d take one of them in a flash! I was, however, inspired to visit various places in Spain in the fall of 2022 and do a one-week homestay with a Spanish family, and I am now tentatively planning a solo trip to Mexico. I am now comfortable moving around in Spanish and can read Spanish novels and newspapers.

I highly encourage any seniors to take language training as a wonderful way to keep the brain active and to mix with delightful young people on a regular basis. The counterpoint of my (sometimes jaded) worldly wisdom and their (sometimes naïve) youthful enthusiasm has been an added benefit on all fronts.