My Language Journey

It is astonishing how much enjoyment one can get out of a language that one understands imperfectly.

— Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve

Buenas tardes a todos! This is my first official blog post for my Tankard Tutoring blog. As I mentioned briefly in my last post, I am using this blog as a way to share my knowledge of the Spanish language, language in general, and tips to help guide second language learners. 

But first, I'd like to share my own personal language journey.

My language learning began in high school, and like most people, I retained almost nothing. I don't want to say that I had a bad teacher, but Spanish was definitely not my favorite class. I took Spanish all the way until the third level and then gladly dropped it from my senior schedule. 

The summer before college, I worked at MovieStop which let me "rent" movies to take home and watch for free. I started watching foreign language films and would think, "Man, how cool would it be to  know another language?". 

My favorite movie at the time was The Godfather (the first two movies; not the crappy third one). I fell in love with the Italian mafia and the Italian language. When I got to college, I registered myself for Italian 1001.

I took two semesters of Italian, and I guess I had a better teacher, because it felt like a light bulb turned on in my head. All those cartoons got it right. I finally understood what it meant to conjugate a verb and everything clicked. From then on, it felt like the floodgates had been let open. My language classes became my favorite classes to attend, and I would do extra work outside of class.

I then had a realization that Italian, as great as it is, wasn't very practical to put all my energy into. My mother was a nurse at the time, and she would always mention how they had patients that only spoke Spanish. There was only a handful of staff in the hospital who could communicate with these patients. That was my first window into the growing necessity of learning Spanish here in the United States.

I ended up falling in love with Spanish even more than Italian. I eventually signed up for a study abroad program to Buenos Aires, Argentina for three months. It was the perfect opportunity to immerse myself in the language and culture, and that was the catalyst that launched me into becoming fully fluent in Spanish.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

I finished my undergraduate with a degree in Linguistics with a minor in Spanish. I then entered into a Masters program for World Language Education. I learned a ton of great teaching methods and met a ton of fantastic people.

I taught elementary school Spanish for one year where I had 750 students. It was not exactly what I had envisioned for myself, so I decided to make the jump to high school. I was fortunate enough to work in a wonderful school for three years, but I resigned so I can start a family of my own with my new husband. 

I found the public school system a bit restrictive in regards to teaching methods. My experiences have shown me that there are much more effective ways to learn a language, and that is something towards which I want to dedicate my time and energy.

WOW! That was a lot more than I thought it would be and, if you made it this far, congratulations!

Make sure to check out my website and take a short placement test to get started with your own private Spanish lessons today!