~ The Journey to Middle School Spanish - Part 2

Marilyn Gorgas-Cahill

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Chant de l'Escalade

Schweizerpsalm

Le Vieux Chalet

View of the Saleve from Confignon, Geneva

People often ask me how I ended up teaching Spanish, particularly as I was born in New Jersey, with a Danish, Greek, and PA Dutch ethnic heritage.  Well, here's the journey....  Part 2

Part 1 Part 3 Part 4

From the first "Bonjour," it took about three months to become fluent in French.  That's not studying it from a book in a classroom, though.  That's going to school every day where you can't speak anything else.  That's having NO friends who speak English - only French!  That's every time you want to go to a store or take a bus or talk to somebody, you HAVE to speak French.  No studying vocabulary lists - I talked to myself every day walking to and from school.  I must have looked really strange!

Anyway, coming back to the good ol' USA was more of a culture shock than going over to Europe.  I was in middle school - 7th grade.  Life seemed so fast, kids seemed so rude, hard, and sophisticated in Chatham where I lived.   I missed speaking French, and signed up for every language that was offered, both in Middle School and High School.  I took Spanish, German, French, and Latin.  I also spoke a little Italian from an immigrant babysitter who had worked in our house in Geneva, but didn't bother studying it anymore.

6th grade graduation École de Confignon with Jocelyne, Jacqueline, and my little sister Grace (This was the day before we left Switzerland)

June 1975 - High School Graduation Chatham High School, Chatham, NJ

After high school I sort of defaulted into an international banking job in New York City (somehow I thought everybody worked at international banks in New York City), but quit after a couple of years to go to CCM.   I started  majoring in Criminal Justice, but switched to Social Science and graduated with a 4.0 - not bad after my lazy years in high school.  Unfortunately, though, I was out of money so I had to go back to work and gave up on further education.

Back in the Good Ol' USA

My ability with languages as well as my own life experience continued to steer me toward international business and I ended up temping at a Swiss pharmaceutical company - Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis).  I planned to temp forever, enjoying my freedom, despite offers of a permanent position, but one day I noticed the Swiss flag flying outside the administration building there, and felt I had "come home".  I stayed with Ciba (Novartis) for 10 years, moving from an administrative assistant to a clinical data coordinator in the Clinical Research division.  Monitoring drug trials was fascinating, but even more fascinating was being called upon to make all the international phone calls and meeting all the Swiss doctors.  The best part of my job was the international exposure and opportunity to speak other languages! When clinical trials started in Venezuela for a pain drug, I had the opportunity to translate the medical protocols and consent forms into Spanish, and concurrently took a summer course in scientific translation at NYU.  In about 1987 the company  solicited volunteers to teach English as a Second Language at the local YMCA.  I jumped right in.  One thing led to another and I began tutoring regularly in various places.

Part 1 Part 3 Part 4

Continued....