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Worker retraining: Easier said than done

I've got to leave work a little earlier than usual today. Actually, this is nothing new. It's been going on for about 12 weeks.



I started taking a Spanish class—Occupational Spanish 101 to be exact—at a local community college in the hopes that I could beef up some conversational skills when I visit Mexico in support of the Spanish-language version of The FABRICATOR.



Well, I wish I can say I'm much better at speaking Spanish than I am. But that's really my own fault. The instructor stresses to engage Spanish speakers in conversation to strengthen my own conversational skills, but when I greet the cashier at the grocery store with "Buenos dias!" in a Southern drawl, she just stares at me.


I have picked up some basic phrases and an understanding of how the language works, which is a huge improvement over my complete ignorance only three months ago. Un perro viejo puede aprender nuevos trucos.



But fitting a class into a busy schedule can drive anyone loco. Try explaining to your wife that you want to go out for a beer with the guys after spending two nights in a community college class. And that doesn't take into account soccer practices, teacher meetings, traveling for work, unexpected illnesses, and all the other little things that test the holy sacrament of matrimony.



I really don't see how many people do it, particularly those on shift work. About two years ago I was writing an editorial on the availability of scholarships from the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association and attempted to contact a welder who had won a trade school scholarship to continue his welding education. I called at 4 p.m. in the afternoon and was told by his wife that he was asleep because he had just come home from school and needed to be at work in four hours. Did I mention she was trying to feed her two kids at the time of the phone call?



Then there's the whole issue of being an adult and going back to school. I'll be honest—doing homework for the first time in 18 years wasn't a habit that's easy to pick up again.



Back to school was fun only for Rodney Dangerfield. For many others, returning to campus with students who are likely half their age is both awkward and intimidating.



So as states pledge to beef up the college ranks and invest in more job training programs, more nontraditional students will be heading back to the classroom. Good luck to them.



Meanwhile, I still need some. I'm leaving early today to work on my final class project with three teenagers in my class. We have to come up with a four-minute skit that covers a Spanish conversation in a restaurant. The one student who is really good at speaking Spanish is going to be the waiter. She's also a female and leaves us without someone to play the role of a girlfriend or wife. So I stepped forward to play the role of father to one of the 19-year-olds. As my "son" said, "It would have been weird if we were supposed to be friends."



Things are weird all over, son.

About the Author
The Fabricator

Dan Davis

Editor-in-Chief

2135 Point Blvd.

Elgin, IL 60123

815-227-8281

Dan Davis is editor-in-chief of The Fabricator, the industry's most widely circulated metal fabricating magazine, and its sister publications, The Tube & Pipe Journal and The Welder. He has been with the publications since April 2002.