INTERVIEW
2015 AMA HARE & HOUND CHAMPION IVAN RAMIREZ
P122
here than down there. When I moved in
with Kurt, that's when I had a big step
[forward] with my English. He didn't know
Spanish; I didn't know English. I could
barely communicate with him and he
could barely communicate with me, too,
so I had to learn. Just from listening to
English and being around people that speak Eng-
lish all the time, I got it pretty quick, I think. I'm
still learning English. There's things I say wrong
or something, but I've always been the kind of
guy if I say something wrong, I won't get embar-
rassed and I want to learn. I ask, "What does that
mean?" and keep improving. I still want to learn
one more language. I don't know what. I want to
learn three languages and learn to communicate
with more people. I love when Americans try to
speak Spanish and I try to help them. I like when
people want to learn more languages. There are
people that know seven or eight languages. I'm
like, "How do you guys do that? That's just crazy!"
Two for now is good.
Does anyone else in your family
speak much English?
My sisters, they do a little bit. The oldest
one, she speaks really good English and
Spanish and a little bit of Chinese.
What's the highest level of education
you've gone through?
High school [in Ensenada]. I was going to go
to college, but right after high school is when
Kurt asked me to move in. My dad, he wants me
to have a title (college degree) and a career, and
he asks when I'm going to go back to school. At
some point I have to go back to school. He's like,
"Before you go into the business, you have to
have your title and you'll be welcome." That was
one of the deals we did once I became a racer;
he was like, "Okay, I'll support you in whatever
you need. But you've got to get a title after you're
finished racing." I want to go back to school when
I have time. Like right now, I'm 100-percent fo-
Robbie Goolsby
(left) kept
Ramirez's bike one
piece throughout
the eight round
series.
