Q: How long have you been teaching Spanish? 

A: This is my second year of fully teaching, but I’ve worked as an assistant teacher for about six or seven years before I was a full teacher.

Q: What is the difference you see from being an assistant teacher and being an actual teacher? 

A: I think the biggest difference is mostly the planning aspect, which I think is really fun because you can be creative in your classroom and kind of learn what your students like and go off to see what else we’re going to continue doing. Versus when you’re an assistant teacher, you have to go with whatever plan they tell you to do and just be there to help them. So the planning is the fun part of it.

Q: What is your favorite part of teaching Spanish?

A: When people piece everything together. Like with grammar, there’s a lot of steps and it gets really confusing, so part of the learning process is just being a little bit confused for a while. But then at the end when it finally pieces together, and you’re able to say “that makes so much sense, I finally understand how to do this,” that’s always my favorite part.

Q: What advice do you have for people who are learning a language? 

A: The biggest advice that I have for language learners is to just not be afraid to make mistakes. When I was learning Spanish, I was so afraid to speak at all because I was so afraid I would mess up, but your teachers know that that’s part of it. So be willing to practice and be willing to make mistakes. It’s not a big deal if you do.