Pastor Evans trying to get his Spanish back

Participants in the one-week Spanish immersion program did Mexican paper cut-out art called “papel picado”. Among other things, they made little flags. Pastor Dennis Evans, center, waves his flags while music plays.

by Ted Escobar & Royal Register Editor
| September 15, 2015 6:05 AM

DESERT AIRE — Pastor Dennis Evans of the Riverside Community Church in Desert Aire did fairly well with Spanish at one time, particularly as a kid in California.

But he stopped practicing it and lost a good share of what he knew. Wanting to recover that because of the large Spanish-speaking population in this area, he participated in a one-week immersion Spanish course recently.

The Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church held a Spanish Immersion for Church Leaders at the Methodist Church in Toppenish the week of August 11-14.

“I attended even though I and my congregation in Desert Aire are Presbyterian,” Pastor Evans said. “Even though I’m Presbyterian, I was born a Methodist and I served the United Methodist Church in Kahlotus for about 20 years.”

To Pastor Evans, the overarching purpose of the course was “very wise and loving.” It was an effort to help churches reach out to a growing part of the local population and culture.

“For me, it’s a matter of showing respect, courtesy, and love to my neighbor,” Pastor Evans said. “Although I am never going to be truly fluent, I hope to be better than I am.”

Pastor Evans is a transplanted Washingtonian. He grew up in California, in school districts where Spanish was taught.

“In elementary school we had Spanish lessons, with homework, about three days a week from the fourth through the sixth grades,” he said. “Then I had Spanish class from the eighth grade through the tenth grade.”

Pastor Evans’s family usually had neighbors who spoke Spanish. He even played with some great grandchildren of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa.

Pastor Evans’s challenge has always been fluency: spontaneously understanding the spoken language as it is being spoken, and responding spontaneously.

“I used to be able to read papers and magazines without much trouble. But that is not the same as fluency,” he said.

As a kid, after moving to northern California, Pastor Evans did a few years of orchard and cannery work. He worked side by side with many people who spoke no English, and they would just start talking to him in Spanish. He knew enough to defend himself, but he struggled.

“Once I opened my mouth, they realized that my Spanish wasn’t very good, but we could talk together on a simple level,” Pastor Evans said. “That was about 40 years ago, and I have lost the ability to do even that.”

That’s what the pastor hoped to get back by taking the immersion class. Class members started with how to greet and welcome people and how to get to know them and help them know you.

“Hola!”

“Bienvenidos!”

“Como esta usted?”

“Como se llama?”

“De donde eres?”

“We learned how to ask and answer,” the pastor said. “Then we learned about common things like eating and addresses and telephones and so forth. There are so many things to say; so many words.”

The pastor has been practicing almost every day since the class. At Mattawa Community Days there were people who took time to work with him on his Spanish.

The pastor has spent almost every day online with a free internet site called Duolingo.com. He hopes to spend time with native Spanish speakers as much as possible.

“I have received promises of help,” Pastor Evans said. “The worst that can happen is that my mistakes will make them smile.”