This week in the STU:

• Student story: how learning Spanish impacted one student’s life
• Teaching internationally: a path you could never have imagined
• Around the web: Florencia’s list of language teaching podcasts and more  

We asked non-native Spanish speakers how they learned their second language.

Our favorite response highlights how 2nd language learning can extend far beyond the classroom. Tina’s journey changes her life and the lives of those around her.

“I first learned Spanish traditionally in high school. And I picked up salsa dancing as a way to learn the dancing culture and to practice my Spanish outside of school. Continued my way through college with a Spanish minor. I could understand it fluently through traditional classes, but my speaking was not that smooth.

I ended up going to medical school in Mexico as a way to better immerse myself in the culture and really learn how to think, dream, and speak Spanish every day and understand the healthcare system in a different country. I was stationed in Chicago for clinical rotations to help the underserved communities, and my Spanish-speaking skills helped immensely.

I am currently dating my significant other from Guatemala, and he’s been so supportive with my passion to learn Spanish”

– Tina (via Facebook)

Teaching internationally isn’t just a “nice thing” to do for a year: it can fundamentally change who you are and what you inevitably do in the future. I’m going to tell you my story – not for the sake of telling you, but as an example to see how taking the first step to teach internationally could lead you down a path that you had never imagined.

I left the United States in 2013 to work as a Physics instructor in Cartagena, Colombia at a bilingual school. The sea, the heat, and the salsa music immediately.. continue reading

🎙️ Florencia’s list of language teaching podcasts

🌾 Kansas public schools need more Latino teachers

✉️ One writer sends a thank-you letter to the Spanish teacher who inspired him.

🙌 At a popular school in Woodland, Washington students learn for half the day in Spanish and half the day in English.

🤗 A teacher shares a brilliant display of radical empathy on Twitter.