Dear Friends,
By the time you’re reading this in the Comment and This Week, I will be at Middlebury College’s Summer Language School to study Spanish for seven weeks in a total immersion program. Middlebury’s program is one of the premier intense immersion language learning programs in the world. You can learn more about Middlebury Language Schools here or download their recent brochure here.
Thank you for the opportunity to attend. I want to explain why I am going. Last fall when I returned from sabbatical our congregation’s relationship with Danbury Unites for Immigrants (DUFI) was deepening as was the repression and injustice being visited upon the immigrant community by our federal government. I quickly learned that something intrinsically important to the work of immigration justice is multi-lingual communication. Although there are plenty of fluent Spanish and Portuguese speakers in our greater Danbury community and among the DUFI volunteers there wasn’t always someone available immediately to communicate to with someone who needed help, especially in the wake of an ICE abduction and kidnapping.
At that time, I had spent the previous six months learning Portuguese in preparation for, and then making a sabbatical trip to Portugal. I felt that learning Spanish was one way both I and UUCD could help the cause of immigrant justice. I felt that I have had a good preparation for a deep dive into accelerating a path to being conversational in Spanish because Portuguese has a 90% lexical similarity to Spanish and I studied Spanish for four years in college and passed a theological Spanish exam at Harvard Divinity School. It was a good head start, and I deepened it by attending an immersion program in Costa Rica for two weeks in February with financial assistance from the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Continuing Education Fund.
I applied to Middlebury and when accepted I was faced with the cost – just under $13,000 for classes, cultural programs, and room and board – not including books and supplies! I applied for and received a $5000 scholarship. Then I did a Faithify crowd funding campaign to raise the remaining $8000 and did so in just over forty-eight hours!
My Spanish ability is currently at A2 on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) which is the six level international standard for language proficiency. A2 means I can have basic short conversations – capable tourist Spanish. I can ask for and follow basic directions, order a meal, make a hotel reservation, tell people a bit about myself, my family, and my life, and so on. Most students at Middlebury see a two-level increase in CEFR during their summer program. For me, that would mean ending the summer at B2 which is an independent user – not fluent, but conversational enough to work in one’s field of interest and have the type of conversations that take place in the wake of ICE abductions and helping Spanish speakers with immigration issues. There is no guarantee. I might not make that much progress. But it will not be for lack of effort. And whatever progress I make, I will be that much closer to fluency and much more able to communicate with Spanish speakers than I am now.
There’s a lot on the congregation’s plate as a leave and I am available for emergencies and consultation while I am at Middlebury. I have cleared it with the school’s administration that taking occasional urgent phone calls or email from the congregation will not violate the language pledge to use only Spanish for seven weeks.
Our Sunday service schedule is set not only through the summer but through September in terms of Sunday musicians and through October in terms of Sunday speakers. I am looking forward to forming and working with a hiring committee for a permanent congregational musician immediately upon my return. A lot of gratitude to Carl Tichler and Cheryl Edelen for stepping up to make sure we have music through September and thanks to everyone who stepped forward to lead a Sunday service including Rev. Suze Shaner-Brodax, Dan Brodax, Annie Senol and Lisa Tancredi, Jeremy Stein, Stanley Heller, Dale Hill and Lynn Taboursak, and Steve Kennedy.
Espero verte en Agosto,
Rev. Tony
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UUCD will form a Hiring Committee to hire a Sunday musician upon Rev. Tony’s return from Language School in mid-August. Anyone wishing to be considered to be on this committee should be familiar with the following resources and contact Rev. Tony.
Resources on Music Ministry in UU Congregations
UUA / AUUMM MUSIC IN OUR CONGREGATIONS: A Handbook for Staffing a Music Program in UU Congregations
Other useful resources: