Ambassadorial Lesson
I like this story for so many reasons, it’s hard to pick one. First, the fact that an older United States Ambassador has become a bit of a novelty musical celebrity in the Paraguayan language called Guaraní. That’s pretty darn cool to start with. Very off beat and fun. Second, the fact that he’s got other languages under his belt already (apparently he’s fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian). Third, he tackled the new addition to his linguistic repertoire like a pro. He didn’t start studying Guaraní until his last month at his former post (Havana, Cuba). Yet, when he gets off the plane, he immediately delivers a 3 page speech in Guaraní. ROCK ON. Ha ha ha.
”I’ve never been to a country where I couldn’t speak the language,” Cason told The Miami Herald. “These words are very hard to retain. It’s pure consonants. You’ve got to just bang them into your head.”
In low-key Paraguay, the new ambassador showed hints of showmanship on his first hour on the job.
Upon arriving in December 2005, he stepped off the plane wearing the traditional hand-embroidered Paraguayan ao poi dress shirt and greeted local reporters in Guaraní, delivering a three-page speech. Not even embassy staff knew he had studied the language.
In Asunción, he recruited his third tutor and began watching Guaraní TV and filling his iPod with vocabulary lessons that shared time with the Beatles, Buddy Holly and Whitney Houston on his playlist. He soon discovered Guaraní music, translating 1920s songs about emigrants longing for Paraguay and Paraguayan soldiers who march into battle afraid their girlfriends will stray in their absence.
Singing in Guaraní did not occur to Cason until a few months ago, when his wife Carmen, an admirer of the ambassador’s Peter, Paul & Mary renditions around the house, recommended that he hire her piano teacher for voice lessons.
The trick to learn a language? Do it like 63 year old U.S. Ambassador James C. Cason. Get involved with the language, use it professionally and in your private life, and find things about it that interest you. And, optionally, become an unexpected pop star if possible. This is inspiring to me. (And hey, it’s not absurdly negative news / speculation for once! Yay!)
