Uno, dos, tres. Rojo, azul, verde. Alto, bajo. Every young Spanish speaker learns the words for numbers, colors, and directions before they can even read. The adult students in Georgina Snyders’ Spanish classes got started a little later. “I can say ‘My name is …’ and ‘I speak Spanish only a little,’” says Maryann Chwalek, a La Honda resident who enrolled in Puente’s Spanish class, taught by Snyders, this fall. Chwalek, a speech language pathologist who works with schoolchildren, helps many young people whose primary language is Spanish. Very often their parents don’t speak much English at all. So she signed up for a beginner Spanish class to gain some competency and comfort around the language. She also loves languages in general. “I think it’s nice to help build a bridge to another person by trying to speak their language. It’s nice to put kids at ease a little bit in their language,” adds Chwalek. “I’m just interested in languages. It’s fun.” Puente began offering Spanish classes in La Honda two years ago, when Program Director Rita Mancera approached Snyders, a native of Chile, about teaching. Until this year, classes were limited to a small group of beginners. But this September, more than a dozen students enrolled in the 12-week class – enough, in fact, that Snyders now teaches two … Continue reading La Honda students learn Spanish the Puente way