Spartan Daily Vol. 160 No. 27

City council approves creek sweeps

City approves agreement to remove unhoused residents from Coyote Creek

By Alina Ta STAFF WRITER

San Jose city councilmembers approved an agreement on Tuesday to sweep the houseless population in Coyote Creek to continue maintenance of the area.

City and Santa Clara County District Valley Water representatives discussed with councilmembers on how to move houseless communities away from areas surrounding Coyote Creek.

Valley Water supplies water and flood protection while maintaining water streams to Santa Clara county, according to its website.

Valley Water has multiple flood management projects including the Coyote Creek Flood Management Measures Project and Coyote Creek Flood Protection Project, according to an agreement between the city and the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

The purpose of these projects is to prevent flooding around surrounding homes, schools, businesses and transportation networks, according to the agreement.

Bhavani Yerrapotu, deputy operating officer for Valley Water, said the organization is working on the Coyote Percolation Dam Replacement Project.

The goal for this project is to replace the Anderson Dam tunnel by 2024, according to a

Valley Water webpage.

Yerrapotu said the work zone for the Coyote Percolation Dam Replacement Project overlaps a nine mile stretch of area between Oakland Road and William Streets.

She said Valley Water estimates that there are around 120 to 200 houseless people currently living in those areas.

“So it is a pretty heavily encamped area,” Yerrapotu said.

She said this is why Valley Water is planning to collaborate

with the city.

“Valley Water is not a service provider of those types of services,” Yerrapotu said.

Andrea Flores Shelton, deputy director in the Community Service Division for San Jose’s Department of Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services, said the department will be assisting Valley Water as the organization continues to replace the dam.

Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services is the

department which helps support the community by supporting recreational services, social opportunities and outdoor spaces in over 200 locations in San Jose, according to its webpage.

“PRNS provides a range of services to encourage and enhance the cleanliness of the city,” Shelton said. “That includes the responsibility for conducting abatements of encampments of unhoused people under certain

circumstances.”

Abatements, also known as sweeps, are when encampments of houseless people are swept and removed from streets, parks and waterways, according to an audit of San Jose’s homeless assistance programs.

Shelton said the department will help Valley Water move houseless people away from the work zone next to Coyote Creek by doing sweeps and outreach

Trump arrested over hush money

By Enrique Gutierrez-Sevilla STAFF WRITER

Former United States President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Tuesday at court in Manhattan, New York.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump for covering up a sex scandal with adult actress Stormy Daniels and for paying her $130,000 to quiet their affair.

In a press release by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Bragg wrote, “the People of the State of New York allege that Donald J. Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”

There is evidence that from August 2015 to December 2017, Trump orchestrated a “catch and kill” scheme to hide his false business entries, according to the press release.

The term “catch and kill” refers to people of power eliminating any harmful information from being reported through newspaper and media outlets, according to NPR.

The press release also stated the American Media Incorporation paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman, who claimed to know information about Trump having a child outside of his marriage.

There was another instance where the American Media Incorporation paid $150,000 to a woman who alleged to have a sexual relationship with Trump.

Trump told his lawyer, Michael Cohen at the time, to reimburse the media company in cash, but instead made the payment through a shell company.

ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan presents a certificate to those recognized as Climate Smart Champions at San Jose City Hall Tuesday.

CITY

Expert explains French protests

By Bojana Cvijic ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Protests have erupted in France because of the government’s attempts to push through pension “reforms,” with the most infamous being raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64, according to a March 17, CNN News article.

The protests included multiple strikes from most labor unions in the country, leading to major disruptions in cities, including Paris where garbage continues to pile up in the streets. The protests have also resulted in public transport cancellations.

Mary Pickering, professor of history at San Jose State, said protests and actions by the people of France have always been common.

“They’ve been doing it I guess since 1789. So whenever, you know, they have a disagreement, they do tend to go on the streets, Paris, especially,” Pickering said. “The streets are very narrow, so you can make barricades out of the cobblestones [streets] and throw rocks at police.”

Pickering said other times in France’s history where massive protests occurred were during The Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Civil war broke out in the country, resulting in thousands of prisoners dying. Another massive protest was in May 1968, during an infamous period of civil unrest where citizens were fighting against capitalism, consumerism, American imperialism and traditional institutions.

Pickering said when she lived in France in the 1980s, millions of people took to the streets to protest against the government subsidizing church schools.

She said a more recent group of protesters are the Yellow Vests, a group from Paris’ countryside who wear yellow traffic vests to protest the rise in gas prices.

The group conducts weekly series of grassroot, populist protests advocating for economic justice and later calling on institutional political reforms, according to an April 20, 2019 AP News article.

The movement quickly spread across the country among all political, social, regional and

CITY COUNCIL

Continued from page 1

to homeless communities.

generational divides angry at the way the French government is currently run by President Emannuel Macron, according to the AP News article.

Pickering said Macron is not seen as a strong leader and the French population view him as elitist.

The pension reform bill that raises the retirement age includes a requirement that retirees have to have worked for at least 43 years, and is highly controversial.

France has one of the strongest pension systems in the world, with 14% of its economic output going toward its pension system, according to France 24, a French news website.

The system has enabled generations to retire with a guaranteed state-backed pension, according to the France 24 article.

The French government currently states that the reforms are necessary, as life expectancy has risen in the country, and has currently left the system in a “precarious state,” according to a March 23, New York Times article.

Macron has tried pushing pension reforms during his term as president, with the first attempt in 2019, which was also met with large protests across France, according to the New York Times article.

The reforms were delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but have now been pushed through Macron’s government by his prime

Outreach services help give certain basic needs, including temporary housing, emergency health services, transportation, case management, financial support and more, to houseless individuals, according to the same agreement.

Shelton said outreach services is a part of Valley Water’s agreement to fund a team to do outreach services in the areas of the encampments.

She said the outreach group will collect the names of houseless people living in those areas.

“[This] will then give us a better idea of the housing and resources needed for the people in the area,” Shelton said.

Ragan Henninger, deputy director for San Jose’s Housing Department, said the kinds of services a houseless person will receive during outreach will depend on their individual situation.

Henninger said there will be multiple options available.

She said some of the services they will provide is family reunification and “diversion” services, which is a one time financial assistance.

Henninger said houseless people may also be referred to the city’s existing interim housing communities.

Shelton said if there are houseless people that are not willing to leave the area, Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services will refer them to an ongoing list of people who are available to continue working with them.

Omar Passons, deputy city manager for San Jose, said both Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services and Valley Water will have a public meeting near the work zone to directly inform houseless residents and to

minister, Elisabeth Borne.

Pickering said the French are used to having a state that has given them a quality of life which allows them a relaxed lifestyle.

“You know, the state gives the French all sorts of great things that we don’t get from [the United States] – number one health care system in the world is really pretty great,” Pickering said.

“You know, I gave birth [in France], and I was in the hospital five days, I was like, ‘Wow, here, you have like an hour, right?’ ”

The key difference between Macron’s pension reforms in 2019 versus now is that he did not include raising the retirement age of the country, a reform highly unpopular with the French people, according to the same New York Times article.

France has one of the lowest rates of pensioners in poverty in the world, because of the system it currently has.

Its pension system is built off a payas-you-go system, where workers and employers have mandatory payroll taxes that are used to build the pension system in the country.

Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT labor union, France’s secondlargest union, said in an interview on French television in January that the age of 64 isn’t possible.

Martinez and other opponents of the reforms say Macron and his

answer their questions to support open communication.

He said after the meeting, city officials will begin working to move houseless people from the work zone in May.

Passons also said the work will cost around $4.8 million.

Councilmember Peter Ortiz said it’s great to see the city working on flood management after the floods in 2017.

On Feb. 21, 2017, floods created an estimate of $100 million in damages in downtown San Jose, according to a June 20, 2019 Mercury News article.

Ortiz said he is also concerned that the work has too short of a timeline to be completed.

“I think looking at the numbers, we’re talking about between 120 to 200 people that will need to be contacted and in an attempt to build trust first initially and then get them to understand where they need to move and then find a location for them,” he said. “That’s quite an undertaking. That takes time.”

Passons said it is important to realize that the work will be done in teams.

Councilmember Domingo Candelas, who used to advocate for Valley Water, said he thinks the flood management measures are important for protecting houseless communities.

“I think these flood management measures are critical because it’s going to protect the communities who live along the creek that are largely historically disadvantaged from flooding,” he said.

TRUMP

government have exaggerated the threat of projected deficits of the French economy because of the pension system.

“Let them visit a textile factory floor, or a slaughterhouse or the food-processing industry, and they will see what working conditions are like.” Martinez said in the Jan. 30 interview.

Another point of contention with Macron’s government is the use of Article 49.3, a provision in the French constitution which enables the government to push a bill through France’s national assembly without a vote, but allows a vote of no-confidence of the cabinet, according to a March 16, AP News article.

A vote of no-confidence means the majority of the government does not support a leader or governing body, according to the MerriamWebster dictionary.

Macron and his government ignored the protests of parliament to push through the deeply unpopular reforms, with Elisabeth Borne narrowly surviving a vote of no-confidence, according to a March 20 CNN News article.

Pickering said her French friends have not been happy about Macron’s use of Article 49.3.

“He’s not really paying attention that 80% of the people don’t want this rise in pensions,” Pickering

Continued from page 1

A shell company is a corporation that is out of business that runs financial assets to disguise business ownership from law enforcement according to investopedia.

“AMI, which later admitted its conduct was unlawful in an agreement with federal prosecutors, made false entries in its business records concerning the true purpose of the $150,000 payment,” according to the press release.

In a third instance, 12 days before the presidential general election, there was a $130,000 wire to an attorney for an adult film actress.

“In total, 34 false entries were made in New York business records to conceal the initial covert $130,000 payment. Further, participants in the scheme took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the reimbursements,” according to the press release.

Carlos Singh, a former federal prosecutor and current lecturer at San Jose State, has worked in justice studies for 20 years.

“Bottom line is he feared that if payments to individuals that allegedly he had sex with, for sexual relations with, would come out before the elections, that it would affect the election and he would not win,” Singh said regarding Trump’s court case.

He said the burden of proof in Trump’s criminal case is reasonable doubt.

“What the prosecution has to do is create enough evidence so it removes all reasonable doubt,” Singh said. “It’s not scientific certainty, but just legitimate reasons so the jury can then say you’re guilty versus not guilty.”

He said it is the first time in history that a former president is being charged with a crime.

“There’s going to be, obviously, a lot of publicity, we’re in the middle of beginning a national campaign for the presidency,” Singh said. “In the sense of the political campaign,

said. “There doesn’t seem to be any economic reason right now. It’s just he’s looking ahead. But you know, politicians don’t really gain by looking ahead.”

Protests have gained worldwide attention, with many on social media saying Americans can learn from how the French protest, referring to tweets with videos of the current movement in France.

Mass protests in the U.S. have been brutally suppressed by police, with a report from Amnesty International USA documenting widespread and egregious human rights violations against American protesters, medics, journalists and legal observers who gathered to protest during the 2020 George Floyd protests.

The U.S. has one the most heavily armed police states in the world, with nearly 90% of American cities with populations over 50,000 having SWAT teams, four times that of the 1980s, according to a May 18, 2015 Economist article.

The American Civil Liberties Union cites the excessive militarization of police in the U.S. as unnecessary and dangerous because of federal funding to local and state police enforcement agencies with tactics and weapons of war, according to its webpage.

Another reason for the success and action of protests in France is because of the makeup of parliament in the country, with nine political parties represented who are able to listen to the demands of people. This is more than the U.S., where the two main parties are the Democrats and Republicans, according to a Dec. 12, 2018 Time Magazine article.

“Democrats and Republicans, you know, aren’t really as different as in France, where you have Marine Le Pen on the right, and then the communists on the left and then three or four in between,” Pickering said. “. . . they still have their own newspapers or political organizations, so that makes a big difference to the people [who] can get others agitated and Paris is really the center of the country.”

he’s probably going to use it to garner support but it’s a wait and see game in terms of how the evidence plays out.”

Trump will have his next court case hearing on Dec. 4, 2023, months before the 2024 presidential primaries.

“As I understand, the defense has four months to the prosecution has to disclose what it’s called discovery,” Singh said. “In other words, all the evidence they have in order to prove the charges, and so they can disclose that so the defense has time to receive the charges and then file motions if they want.”

Hours after Trump’s trial, he addressed the nation on broadcast at Mar-a-Lago, a resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

“I never thought anything like this could happen in America, never thought it could happen,” Trump said in his opening statement. “The only crime I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.”

Trump said the federal case was brought to interfere with the upcoming 2024 presidential election and it should be dropped immediately.

“We are now a failing nation, we are a nation in decline, now these are radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement, we can’t let that happen,” Trump said.

“This is a persecution, not an investigation,” Trump said.

Singh said he’s interested to see how Trump’s supporters react to the case.

“Say, in the next two or three months, how that is going to affect his supporters, it could very well be that they don’t care,” Singh said. “Then the question becomes is he probably would have 30 to 40% of the vote for the Republicans, and nowadays in our elections, it’s a fight to get the independent voter and every voter can make up their own mind.”

PHOTO VIA ADOBE STOCK

A car is on fire during the protests in France earlier this year. The protests were over the retirement age being raised from 62 to 64.

Professor spits game on hip-hop

By Christine Tran STAFF WRITER

Many perceive all of hip-hop as a negative and even violent music genre because of artists’ word choices, vivid descriptions regarding women, gang violence and other topics.

But a professor at SJSU is trying to change that narrative.

David Ma, a music professor at San Jose State, was a graduate student at SJSU when he thought the university was behind on its recognition for hip-hop and its culture.

Today, he teaches an introduction to hip-hop class at SJSU.

Ma said he wants his students to examine all aspects of the music genre, including its history and the impact it has worldwide.

“I point out that it started as a peace movement that became a multicultural unifier,” Ma said. “There’s lots of misconceptions and we don’t gloss over them nor do we ignore that some of hiphop’s most important historical and musical figures have committed horrible things. It’s all a springboard hopefully for meaningful discussion.”

Aerospace engineering junior Riannon Regan, who took Ma’s class in the past, said the listening exercises were some of her favorite parts of the course.

Regan said the class listened to songs together while Ma and other students would express their feelings on them.

She said having Ma as a professor taught her a lesson for her personal life too.

“He was very clear during our class that you needed to take the historical elements of hip hop and place them into the time frame that they happened in,” Regan

said. “With this, you’re able to understand how hip hop evolved. Everyday interactions with people need to be thought of in this way as well. You need to understand where a person has been and what they’ve been through in order to understand who they are as a whole.”

Music professor Fred Cohen, who has been the Director of the School of Music and Dance at SJSU since 2014, said Ma’s Masters of Arts in Music project years ago was the initial version of the course he now teaches.

“David’s course traces the history of hip hop from its birth in the Bronx to its embrace of today’s conscious artists such as Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill,” Cohen said. “He engages the social atmosphere of the genre, and as importantly, teaches students to understand and appreciate the music itself as a holistic medium. Given the School’s mission to

social justice and music education, a course on hip hop is a must.”

Outside of the classroom, Ma is a music journalist, co-host on a podcast and co-owner of a record label.

The record label, Needle to the Groove, is named after a record shop with the same name on Santa Clara Street.

“We highlight local artists, as well as put out international stuff, weird bedroom projects, as well as stuff by legendary music veterans,” Ma said. “In addition to tapes and 45s, we recently just put out our 10th LP, and have an immensely satisfying roster of releases readied for this year.”

An LP is a regular size record and smaller looking records are called “45s.”

Ma said Needle to the Groove features local artists throughout the Bay Area for all kinds of music.

“It kind of started off kind of slow, but now we’re selling out

everything we put out, so we’re kind of stoked on it,” Ma said.

Ma said the label has worked with some legendary figures in the music industry such as Prince Paul, who produced for groups like De La Soul, Handsome Boy Modeling School and Gravediggaz.

“He was just at the shop last week. We DJ with him and we put out one of his records maybe about a year and a half ago,” he said.

Ma was born in Malaysia to Vietnamese refugees and relocated to Santa Clara at two months old, according to an article by Metro Silicon Valley.

“I think being Asian, we have the luxury of talking about this culture, from a participants’ point of view … when I write about Black culture, I treat it with a lot of respect, you know, and to be accepted as a participant,” Ma said.

He said it’s a pleasure to teach

one of the most popular courses offered at SJSU.

“Sometimes I can tell students are bored listening to some older material I play. Some of it sounded old to me when I was younger, so it must sound prehistoric to some,” Ma said. “But I also get to sometimes see minds being blown when a song is played and for them to understand specific art within its own unique cultural context is sometimes the best part of my day.”

Ma said he went from teaching 50 students to 150 students after the first semester.

“Managing so many can be challenging, but I think it’s a good problem to have,” Ma said.

San Jose State music professor David Ma looks through vinyls at the Needle to the Groove record store on Monday afternoon.

CHRISTINE TRAN | SPARTAN DAILY

FOOTBALL

Spartans kick off Spring football

By Nathan Canilao EXECUTIVE EDITOR

As the scoreboard clock hit zero at the football practice fields at South Campus, SJSU football players jumped, clapped and cheered as they had just completed their first day of spring football practice.

Head coach Brent Brennan, rocking a pair of black Ray-Bans, uttered five words:

“God damn that was fun.”

The Spartans returned to the field for the first time since their 41-27 loss to Eastern Michigan on Dec. 20, 2022.

SJSU lost some key pieces of last year’s team to graduation and the NFL draft such as wide receiver Elijah Cooks, cornerback Nehemiah Shelton, linebacker Kyle Harmon and defensive tackles Viliami Fehoko Jr. and Cade Hall.

However, some of the most impactful players from last season are back on the field.

Quarterback Chevan Cordeiro returns for his second season with the Spartans. Last season, the QB from Hawaii passed for 3,251 yards, 23 touchdowns and 6 interceptions while receiving All-Mountain West second team honors.

“It felt good to come back out here,” Cordeiro said. “I feel blessed to be able to compete against the boys and have fun with them. I feel it was a good first day.”

Even with the subtractions, the Spartans reloaded in key areas on the field. One of those key additions is quarterback Jay Butterfield.

Butterfield was a four-star recruit coming out of Liberty High School in Brentwood, California. He spent the last three seasons at the University of Oregon, where he played in just two games and completed just three passes.

He said he hopes to gain confidence through the spring practices.

“I just [hope to be] confident in myself,” Butterfield said. “I know my abilities, but sometimes I think too much about what the play is or what defense it is. I just gotta go out there, play my game and just really be confident.”

Butterfield is expected to play behind Cordeiro this season and will look to battle it out with returner Walker Eget for the backup quarterback spot.

Brennan said he believes that having a strong quarterback room can help the team going into next season.

“Chevan is our quarterback and we all know that,” Brennan said in a Feb. 1 press conference. “But I also think there’s real value in healthy

competition. I’m hoping they push the heck out of each other.”

Another big addition that was on the field on Tuesday was running back Quali Conley. He transferred from Utah Tech University this Spring.

Conley rushed for 1,095 yards and 8 touchdowns in 11 games for the Trailblazers last season.

The running back room expanded this season for the Spartans as they added four other players for the role while also retaining last season’s leading rusher Kairee Robinson.

Conley said he’s fit in well with the running backs group.

“They all welcomed me in and it just felt like a family,” he said. “They

truly genuinely want us to be here.”

One of the more noticeable aspects of the first spring practice of the season was the energy level on the field.

When the team got into live scrimmages, both offense and defense squads cheered loudly when they made a great play. There was also a good deal of trash talk on both sides of the field.

“The energy was there. We’ve been competing in our spring workouts and we’re already starting to talk trash,” Cordeiro said. “At the end of the day, we’re all brothers. We’re getting better with one another. We love the competitiveness.”

The team will have 13 more practice days before they compete

in the spring football game on May 6. The game will be a live-action scrimmage at CEFCU stadium, which will have the Spartans competing against each other in front of fans.

SJSU is scheduled to play its first regular season game on Aug. 26 against top-ranked University of Southern California at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

The Spartans are scheduled to play their first home game against Oregon State University on Sept. 3.

PHOTO BY NATHAN CANILAO | SPARTAN DAILY

Follow Nathan Canilao on Twitter @nathancanilao

Quarterback Chevan Cordeiro hikes the ball during the Spartans’ first Spring practice on Tuesday at the football practice fields at South Campus.

GRAPHIC BY JILLIAN DARNELL

Learning Portuguese is life changing

learning Portuguese seriously.

for word until my hands couldn’t write anymore.

Matthew Gonzalez

STAFF WRITER

My fascination with Brazil developed when I was watching the goldmedal game for women’s indoor volleyball at the 2012 Olympic Games on television.

The matchup was between Brazil and the United States.

And like a true patriot, I cheered on the U.S. but secretly enjoyed seeing Brazil come out victorious. Sorry ‘Murica.

Shortly after the Olympics concluded, as intrigued and dorky 10-year-olds do, I went on a deep dive into Brazil.

Two of the things that attracted me to the country were its national flag and language.

The yellow, green and blue color scheme paired with the white stars mesmerized me as a kid and is still my favorite flag of any nation.

Brazil is also the only Portuguese-speaking country in South America, and that stuck with me.

As I got busier –“busier,” meaning worrying about which toy I wanted from Target or who I was going to have a playdate with – my affinity for the country faded but never fully escaped me.

It was in August of 2022, at the age of 20, when I decided to pursue

Like many other language learners, my first step was downloading Duolingo, a language learning app that offers free courses in numerous languages.

As I perused various platforms such as YouTube and podcasts for bettering my skill set, I quickly found out Duolingo was not a highly effective tool for achieving fluency, as the app didn’t offer real-life examples of communication.

While studying, I would tell myself that 10-year-old me would be proud of how far I’d come.

After the first month of studying Portuguese, I started to immerse myself in lighthearted content.

This is when my love for the language was superseded by my passion for Brazilian culture.

I will never forget the first time I heard the song “Garota de Ipanema,” a classic bossa nova song that has been

When you genuinely enjoy learning and consuming content in whatever new language you choose, it becomes a hobby rather than a chore.

I have found some of my favorite shows, movies and music that I would have never come across had I not taken up learning a new language.

Learning another language can also prove to have great benefits.

Being bilingual makes a positive lasting impression on potential employers, and heightens

million in the U.S, while Portuguese and French are the official languages of a combined total of 38 countries.

While romance languages may be more digestible for native English speakers, learning a completely new tongue is still a daunting task.

Some common fears include lacking the necessary commitment and fear of speaking in front of native speakers of other languages.

While both of those anxieties are completely valid, there are ways to

validate my progress.

Devoting enough time to your studying is not as intimidating as it may seem.

Commitment does not mean dedicating your life to your target language.

When I wasn’t studying Portuguese for two hours every day, I felt like a failure which catalyzed a toxic relationship with my learning journey.

In reality, consuming just 15 minutes of media a day in your secondary language is massively effective.

Spread out your time how you see fit, you don’t need to spend hours of your day in the library having a meltdown because you don’t recognize every word you read or hear.

It’s also important to remember that there’s always more to learn in any language, even your native one.

Instead of using the program as a main source of material, I began to use it as a timeline.

Duolingo offers a streak-keeping function, in which users can track the number of consecutive days they have studied their target language.

This supplement allowed me to put things into perspective, and set realistic goals based on how long I’d been studying.

For months, I dedicated a minimum of one hour to sitting down and intensely studying the language through YouTube lessons.

I would literally write down transcripts word

covered by many artists.

The specific rendition I fell in love with was Lisa Ono’s.

Her soft voice combined with the tropical beat took me out of the concrete of Downtown San Jose and placed me in the sand of a Rio de Janeiro beach.

“Garota de Ipanema” was also the first fullyPortuguese song I was able to memorize and it holds a special place in my heart.

Milestones like these are what drive me to keep learning and immersing myself in this different culture.

Motivation is crucial in the language learning process.

your chances of getting hired according to an Aug. 17, 2017 article by UEI College.

Some of the most useful languages to learn include Spanish, French and Portuguese, according to a University of the People article.

These are all considered “romance languages” that are derived from varying forms of Latin, making them more approachable and less difficult to comprehend for native English speakers.

Not only are these vernaculars easier to learn, but they are also prevalent.

Spanish has over 500 million speakers, with 50

conquer them.

One of the most memorable experiences I’ve had with overcoming language anxiety came in the back of an Uber.

The driver picked me up and immediately I noticed a Brazilian flag dangling from his dashboard.

As the banner chaotically danced below the rearview mirror, I slowly gained the courage to ask if he spoke Portuguese.

Surely enough, within five minutes we were having a full conversation in a language I had been spending months trying to learn.

That was the exact payoff I needed to

As an English speaker, I still encounter words and phrases I’ve never heard before, it’s all a part of building my vocabulary.

Learning a new language can be an arduous process, but keeping your motivations in the back of your mind and developing a healthy study schedule are paramount in making it a pleasurable experience.

Learning a new language can be an arduous process, but keeping your motivations in the back of your mind and developing a healthy study schedule are paramount in making it a pleasurable experience.

Follow Matthew Gonzalez on Twitter @MattG2001