Claudia Battaglia’s mother was born in France and spoke French to her when she was a child, which both piqued her interest in foreign languages and helped Spanish come easily to her.  Four years of high school Spanish gave me an excellent grammatical background, but like most people, she could read and write well, but not speak fluently.  But numerous visits to Mexico and numerous Spanish-speaking friends over the years gave her extensive opportunities to practice, and eventually became fluent. Recently She studied Arabic, so the frustrations of trying to learn a language are fresh in her memory! In the past, she has taught Spanish in the SUNY Language Immersion program, and as an adjunct at SUNY, translated a web site for Jen Metzger, and presently, she works as an interpreter for Ulster Immigrant Defense Network. (UIDN).