As I already mentioned, I am of Puerto Rican descent. As you may know, Puerto Ricans play a lot of baseball. In fact, I had the opportunity to teach English to one of our more famous Puerto Ricans, Javier López, catcher for the Atlanta Braves.

One thing I remember about baseball tryouts was that the coaches always "assessed our abilities" at the beginning of each season. They wanted to see how well we could throw, field, run, and hit.

It is a good idea BEFORE you begin a Spanish learning program to assess your true abilities for learning a language.

Many people believe things about their learning abilities that simply are not true. I have had people tell me they are great language learners when, in fact, they are not. Others are more humble and say, "I am terrible at learning languages." The fact is many of these same people are great language learners!

We can accurately say that a proper assessment of your ability to learn should be done before you begin a learning course.

There is no way a teacher or program director can know how to meet your learning needs if he or she does not know what type of learner you are. This is critical. I am totally 100 percent opposed to someone signing up to learn Spanish before taking a Language Learning Aptitude Assessment. If you already speak some Spanish, you should have a professional evaluation of your existing skills so you are properly placed into a Spanish learning program.

Where, you ask, does one find such an evaluation? I am glad you asked. Bilingual America offers free evaluations on our web site. The address is: www.bilingualamerica.com

Now, to the meatier issues of an Aptitude Assessment…

What exactly are we assessing?

Six Things:

1. Learning Personality
2. Learning History
3. Communication Skills
4. Non-Verbal Skills
5. Memory Ability
6. Logistical Considerations

I will not go into a lot of detail here about "how" these Assessments are built because, unfortunately, there are some unscrupulous people in this world who would actually take that information and copy it. Basically, there are values that are placed on many different questions and scenarios that allow us to get a very accurate understanding of your ability to learn language.

We can actually tell you before you begin a course of study how well you will learn. The Assessment Process is based on a 10-point scale, 10 being the "perfect" learner.

If you score 9-10, you are an Outstanding" Learner.
If you score 8-9, you are an "Above Average" Learner.
If you score 7-8, you are an "Average" Learner.

If you score below 7, we may need to have a private conversation about your needs. Historically, our data show that:

• six out of 10 people are "average" learners.
• three of 10 are "above average" learners.
• one of 10 are "outstanding" learners.

What are you?

Just visit our web site at the following address to find out:
http://www.bilingualamerica.com/assessment/a.html

For those with Existing Spanish Skills:

At the end of the Aptitude Assessment Process there is a question asking, "How would you describe your present level of skill in Spanish?"

If you say, "high basic" or higher, you will be given an option to take some evaluation exams online. These exams are in correlation to our Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Levels of our Spanish training course. They are objective and they are accurate.

Please do not study before taking these exams as the results will be skewed by your recent "cramming." Gracias.

Please continue to the next chapter where you will learn about "The Fruit and The Root."