How many of us have taken Spanish in highschool and can't even count to diez? How is it that four years of Spanish pronunciation and vocabulary and we can't even listen in on the fellow shoppers speaking in Spanish? What's the problem? The problem is that we learn a language by immersion. If you lived in Spain or Mexico for a summer or a few years, you would sound a lot different. The constant exposure to the language, the living language, not those futile workbooks, throws you on your resources and forces you to engage and master the language. Well law is the same way. Sure, you're learning a lot of essential skills in law school. Few could handle the bar without it. But as far as being a living, talking, real life lawyer, you need to really speak the language: you need to immerse yourself in its culture. You need to join a bar association.

There are many bar associations that admit students before they have graduated and even give them discounts, so it shouldn't cost you too much. There are national, state, and local bars that offer you a wealth of opportunities to meet and network with lawyers, to participate in committees, to seek alternative education, to prepare you for your career path and align you with a job when you get out.

You will be able to meet and mingle with your kind of people, and also receive their publications, get on their mailing list, befriend them -- in short, immerse yourself in the culture you are hoping to join. So consider joining the American Bar Association or another Bar: it will help your law school education become a living part of your practice.