Language Learning Experience

I took two years of Spanish in High School because I was so involved in other activities that I only had time in my schedule to take the minimum requirements. However, I enjoyed my high school experience very much and decided to pursue it at Luther College, again to fulfill a requirement. I had started my path in elementary education by junior year. When I chose to study abroad, it became obvious to me that I wanted it to be in a country where I could understand the language and build upon my own skills. This is when I made Spanish my second major. It all just sort of fell into place as I fell more and more in love with the language and culture even before studying in Granada, Spain my junior year. I lived with a host family for 5 months and dove into the culture. I knew by the end of my junior year that I wanted Spanish to be a part of my career. That summer I was a camp counselor at El Lago del Bosque, Concordia Language Villages. I lived with native speakers from many different countries all summer and learned so much from them and from the immersion experience of camp!

After college I wanted to continue improving my language skills and saw teaching abroad as a great opportunity to do just that. I took a job teaching English in a private bilingual school in Torreón, Mexico. While living there, I was immersed in a community where not much English was spoken and I learned a lot from navigating daily life and befriending many native speakers. Immersion at the elementary level was so incredible to me. I had learned about child development in my elementary education courses and then I had seen the way they could pick up a second language (L2) and switch back and forth easily. I wanted to be closer to home, but new that I wanted to continue teaching in a setting like this one.

I got a job in Minnetonka, MN, teaching Spanish immersion to 4th graders. The following year I taught 4th and Kindergarten immersion. It was incredible how much my language skills grew when I forced to speak it all day long with my students. 100% of my output was Spanish with these native English speakers. It was amazing to watch their minds soak it all up and expand like wet sponges! My language learning experience will never be over...because there is always more to learn. I look forward to bringing a foreign language to my students and helping to grow interculturally competent young minds!