Today we’re interviewing Bruce, our drop-in Spanish tutor! We chatted about what first motivated him to learn Spanish, and the amazing power of language tutoring at Reed!
Leilani: Hi Bruce! First, could you tell me a little bit about yourself, and for how long you’ve been speaking Spanish?
Bruce: My name is Bruce, and I’m from the Portland area. I started speaking Spanish, or at least taking classes, in seventh grade. And then I did it for five years. I did the IB [International Baccalaureate] program, so I did IB Spanish in my junior year. In my senior year, I wasn’t able to take Spanish because I had already taken the highest level my school offered. So I started again last year in college. I started at the intermediate level, and now I’m taking 321 [Theory and Practice of Hispanic Literature].
L: What initially motivated you to start learning Spanish?
B: I don’t come from a family that speaks Spanish at all, but it was the only language that was offered at my middle school. My brother was also a couple of years older than me, and he was starting to learn, as well. It was more so that I wanted to learn another language. Now, I’m glad I chose Spanish because it aligns with a lot of what I’m interested in. I’ve been really interested in Latin American politics, art, and history. When I first started to learn, I didn’t have that reasoning. But now I’m really glad I chose to study Spanish.
L: Just out of curiosity, what’s your major?
B: I’m a Comparative Literature major, so Spanish is pretty important to learn.
L: Oh, I’m also Comp Lit! What has been your experience as a tutor? Do you think that it’s helped you learn more about language learning?
B: This is my first year doing it, so I haven’t had many people come into drop-in at the Language Lab or individual tutoring. But I’m also a writing tutor, and I work with Hum paper nights and individual tutoring. For me personally, helping other people through their problems helps me with writing and Spanish. I remember last year, I had a friend who was in beginner Spanish. I wasn’t a tutor, but I had helped him with it. Going through it and helping someone else was really beneficial to me.
L: What’s one resource that you would recommend to people learning Spanish?
B: If you are enrolled in Spanish class here, make sure you save the PowerPoints that the professors make. Not only is it what’s likely to be on the test, but for verb conjugations, which make up learning Spanish grammar, there are different examples. To have a PowerPoint that goes through each category of why to use a certain verb conjugation is really important, I think. Aside from that, use Spanish DICT. That’s what I recommend to most people. It displays all the verb conjugations in a very easy-to-learn layout. The conjugations are the hardest part of Spanish grammar, so having all of them laid out on one page is really helpful.
L: Yeah! I’m in intro Spanish right now, and we haven’t gotten to any of the conjugations yet, but I know that it’s going to hit soon, and it’s going to get a lot harder. We already touched on this, but in your opinion, what is the best method for improving or practicing your Spanish?
B: Last year, the main thing I would do was go to individual tutoring as a Spanish student. That was really helpful for my listening and speaking. It was also having somebody to go to and ask any questions I wanted. I did it basically every week, and I always looked forward to that, because when I went to class, I was always prepared. In my mind, I had the questions I needed to ask or stuff that I needed to review. Then I did two hours a week with a tutor. That was one of the main reasons why I wanted to do Spanish tutoring this year.
L: What’s one Spanish media that you always recommend to someone?
B: I have two films from the Spanish director Victor Erice. One is called The Spirit of the Beehive, in Spanish it’s El espíritu de la colmena. It was shown at one of the Spanish movie nights last year. There’s also a similar movie called El Sur, or The South. Those are two Spanish movies from 1973 and 1983. They are about Spanish history, especially the Spanish Civil War. Those two I really love. There’s also another movie from Cuba called Soy Cuba, it’s actually by a Russian filmmaker. It’s a collaboration between Soviet filmmakers and Cuba during the Cuban Revolution. It’s an interesting movie. It’s entangled in the Cuban culture, but there’s a bit of an outsider perspective of how the Soviets view the Cuban culture. I recommend everyone to watch.
L: What’s your favorite word or expression in Spanish?
B: I love saying chau, like “bye.” It’s a very simple phrase. You say it when you’re first learning Spanish, how to say “goodbye.” It’s one I’ve always stuck with, I just love saying it.
L: That’s really convenient, because my class was just learning about greetings, so I know that one! Last question, what is one thing you wish students knew about Spanish resources on campus?
B: They are always available! Last week I went to visit the intermediate-level classes about the resources, and I hope they were paying attention. When I first started taking Spanish at Reed, it had been a year or two since I was really in a Spanish classroom, so I knew right away that I needed help getting comfortable with speaking and listening. At least coming into Reed, I knew that there were tutoring resources available. That was something I didn’t have in high school. Now at Reed, tutoring is available, it doesn’t cost any money, you can fit it into your schedule, and there are different tutors to choose from. It’s encouraged by the professors. I think if you asked my professors from last year, they could tell that I was improving at a pretty fast rate because I was going to tutoring and felt comfortable with the conjugations and the language. By the time we had essays or tests, tutoring made it much easier to do those. Just an extra hour of practicing a week is really important.
L: I definitely agree! Taking advantage of all those free resources is very important.