For our next interview, I talked to Reed, an ICPS poli-sci Spanish tutor. He’s a native Spanish speaker from Argentina, so read the interview for tips on practicing your Spanish and for movies and book recommendations! The interview was edited for length purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patricio: What do you study?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: I\u2019m an ICPS poli-sci major.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patrico: Are you minoring in anything?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: Potentially an econ minor, but they\u2019re changing the way the department works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: That makes sense. Getting a minor is sometimes tricky. How long have you been speaking Spanish and what made you want to learn it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: I\u2019m a native speaker. My parents are both from Argentina, so I speak it at home with them and with my whole family basically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: Have you lived or studied abroad in any Spanish speaking countries?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: I haven\u2019t. I\u2019m hoping to study abroad next semester. I\u2019ve been thinking of potentially going to Barcelona, but I\u2019ve lived in the US my whole life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: Is it hard for you to not forget the language being here at Reed?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: I don\u2019t think so, I speak to my parents and my family quite often so I get to use it a lot. And to me at least Spanish feels like a first language, so I feel like it\u2019s very engrained.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: Do you practice your Spanish in other ways or is it mostly just by speaking it with your parents?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: It\u2019s mostly just by speaking with my parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: Have you taken any cool Spanish classes at Reed?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: No, but I want to! I\u2019m waiting for Diego to get back, because I really want to take some of his classes, but I think he\u2019s been on leave and I don\u2019t know if he\u2019s coming back, but I hope so!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: Have you found a good Spanish speaking community here at Reed?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: I\u2019m actually living in the Spanish House, so that\u2019s very exciting. I really like talking to the language scholars, I feel like they\u2019re a really good resource for learning a language. I took Chinese in school, so I like being in the language house community and just getting to talk to everyone in all the different languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: I love the language houses. I lived in the Spanish House in my sophomore year and I had the best time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: Yeah they\u2019re really nice. We just now started having the weekly events, so it\u2019s just starting to pick up. I\u2019m really excited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: Do you watch any movies or TV shows in Spanish? And if yes do you have any recommendations?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: Yes! I watched Wild Hills for the first time a couple of weeks ago; I enjoyed that a lot. But two of my favorite Spanish TV shows are Los Simuladores and Community Squad.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: Oh interesting, I\u2019ve never heard of those. Where can you watch them?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: I think Community Squad is on Netflix, but Los Simuladores is free on YouTube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: What about books and songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: Julio Cort\u00e1zar is my favorite author. I love his short stories, they\u2019re fantastic. In terms of artists, I really like Bajo Fondo, but I don\u2019t think their music has lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: As a tutor, have you found some stuff that\u2019s particularly difficult about learning Spanish?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: The verb conjugations, because that\u2019s not something that\u2019s really that complicated in English, it can be a difficult thing for people to grasp and to actually use in practice. I think Spanish can also be a bit overwhelming because every country has slightly different grammar, accents and slang, so it can be a hard thing to get used to when you\u2019re coming up to a new faculty member or friend.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: Do you enjoy being a Spanish tutor?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reed: Yes it\u2019s fun! I like consuming a lot of Spanish media and literature so it\u2019s fun to get other people excited and help them out in their language journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricio: Thank you!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For our next interview, I talked to Reed, an ICPS poli-sci Spanish tutor. He’s a native Spanish speaker from Argentina, so read the interview for tips on practicing your Spanish and for movies and book recommendations! The interview was edited for length purposes. Patricio: What do you study? Reed: I\u2019m an ICPS poli-sci major.\u00a0 Patrico: … <\/p>\n