¿Cuándo vamos a utilizar esta?

Without fail, a seven-letter phrase will elicit a sigh from an educator as students struggle with a difficult concept or subject.

"When are we going to use this?"

Admittedly, there are some subjects in high school and undergraduate learning students will never touch again after graduation, such as diagramming long grammatical clauses or solving x in advanced algebra.

Not so long ago, I found myself saying that same dreaded phrase, but it was something more like, "¿Cuándo vamos a utilizar esta?"

But, like most good teachers do, our Spanish III instructor gently reinforced the fact that Spanish was a useful skill to have, as the language becomes more commonplace across the EE.UU.

As high schoolers in a 97 percent white north central Iowa county, we thought we knew better. Outside of the classroom, the only time we had used our second language was to order from native speakers during a field trip to a Spanish restaurant. So, naturally, we scoffed at our instructor, causing many eye rolls.

In hindsight, that type of attitude was quite foolish. More than once recently, I have caught myself wishing I had kept up with the language I worked so hard to learn. My once-polished second-language skills have been reduced to picking out a few familiar words from conversations overheard at the grocery store.

As much as I hate to say it, my teacher was right.

Based on information from the State Data Center of Iowa, Latinos made up a quarter of Buena Vista County's population last year.

From 2000 to 2011, the Latino population in Iowa increased by 91 percent, with an estimated 158,014 Latinos now calling Iowa home, making them the state's largest ethnic minority, constituting five percent of the state's population.

Woods and Pool Economics have estimated Iowa's Latino population will increase to 430,344 by July 2040, contributing nearly 13 percent of the state's total population.

But there is some hope for those of us who have lost our second languages. Storm Lake Public Library patrons can now take advantage of Powerspeak, a free online language course that can be completed from home. Language options include Spanish, French, German, Mandarin or Ingles, for English Language Learners.

¿Habla usted español todav'a?