I need spanish lessons

The latino population is exploding around me and I can't get up! I always get by on the usual constuction lingo...simple tools, up, down, here, there, and the always popular lo sienta mucho, or I,m very sorry. Recently I have been working with an interesting sort of character, he speaks enough english to just get by, if you really want to understand him you have to really concentrate and ask him to repeat things, he is about my age and has some general carpentry skills which helps alot since he needs to work and can't comunicate that well. From some conversations with him I found out he is a Nicoraugoun and a veteran of the Sandanista army. He assured me he only shot at people that were shooting at him, anyway he was trained in Cuba as a pilot and actualy shook hands with Fidel Castro, he has quite a bit of contempt for his old army because he apparantly trained quite heavily in aircraft but the Sandanistas never could afford an airplane so they sent him off to do some jobs he never really signed up for. For a guy that doesn't speak fluent english he has a keen sense of American politics, he is familiar with all the candidates and their positions, more so than any of the Americans I work with. He explained to me Hilary may be to liberal and America is not going to elect a black pres. I guess all this isn't that unusual but its kind of ironic how much he knows, while the other guys on the job couldn't tell you who the vice pres is and they are Americans. Discussing the immagration issue with him was impossible, as he seemed to get a little excited and went back to mostly spanish, but continued to talk and look at me as though I understood exactly what he was saying. Besides all this he has a good jobsite temprament and everyone enjoys working with him.