Human beings never cease to fascinate me, and the languages they speak equally so. That's probably the most important reason that I became a World Language teacher: to share that joy and fascination with other people.
The beauty of cultures and languages and points of view, in all their variability, have always been compelling to me, and I love to learn as much as to teach. From a young age, I have sought connections with people who may, at first, have seemed quite different. Far from fading with time, this glowing seam has remained constant throughout my life, and perhaps even grown as I experience more deeply the vast sameness within the diferences that is essential to who we are as human beings. A famous Czech proverb says that if you know only one language, you live only once, but that you live a new life for every language you speak, and I’d like to live as much (as well, as deeply) as possible.
The beauty of cultures and languages and points of view, in all their variability, have always been compelling to me, and I love to learn as much as to teach. From a young age, I have sought connections with people who may, at first, have seemed quite different. Far from fading with time, this glowing seam has remained constant throughout my life, and perhaps even grown as I experience more deeply the vast sameness within the diferences that is essential to who we are as human beings. A famous Czech proverb says that if you know only one language, you live only once, but that you live a new life for every language you speak, and I’d like to live as much (as well, as deeply) as possible.
As a young person, traveling and studying languages seemed inevitable. In my 20s, I lived a year in India, six months in Sri Lanka, and then two years in Puerto Rico. In between, I dedicated my time to teaching English as a second language in Southern California. When I married and my daughter was born, I sought stability in a pretty unexpected place: Chattanooga, Tennessee. And though we remain settled for most of the year, my family and I have tried to take advantage of every break to travel and stay connectected to the world beyond.
Now, I find myself in my fourteenth year of teaching Spanish Language and Culture at Baylor school, and my third as Chair of the Department of World Languages. Through this work, I have had the opportunity to share with my students the experience of learning another language and culture. Every time a student decides to push beyond her comfort zone to really explore the world on her own, I feel a sense of satisfaction and joy in my work. My hope for each student is that she be inspired to dive deeply into the language and culture and to make biculturality a central part of her life.
I, myself, have not stopped traveling or learning. A decade ago, I decided that I wanted to improve as a professional. I went to Salamanca, Spain with the support of the school to study an MA in Spanish Language and Culture over the course of two summers. Through this experience, I got a chance to be a student myself for the first time in a long time. I was hooked again.
Since then, I have taken every opportunity to travel on my own and with students. I completed graduate work at the University of Granada as well as the University of Cádiz. I have led student trips to Spain three times as well as to Costa Rica three times, to Guatemala twice, and once to Perú. This November, however, I will be traveling out of my own comfort zone in an unexpected direction: to France.
I decided to enroll in an adult French language course at the Chattanooga School of Language and to encourage my peers to do the same as well. I chose CSL because it is such a unique and special place. Claire Vassort, my French teacher, is a native speaker who really understands the language and culture deeply and does far more than grammar exercises--she really helps us to learn the most relevant material for our use as adult language learners. The other day, for example, we acted out a restaurant scene, where one of us played the part of the employee and the other the customer in a typical French café. This is exactly the kind of language that I hope to be able to put to use in the real world in November!
My colleagues are really enjoying their experiences as well learning a new language, and our department picked up the costs of the program because we see so much value in the experience of becoming language learners once again ourselves. We now have a Chinese teacher learning Korean, a German teacher learning Spanish, and another Spanish teacher learning French. To put ourselves in the position of language learners (rather than in the role of "experts" that we are more accustomed to) has been a powerful professional development opportunity, in addition to stimulating the intrinsically motivated language learning that lives within all of us. I couldn’t be happier. After all, une nouvelle langue est une nouvelle vie.
My colleagues are really enjoying their experiences as well learning a new language, and our department picked up the costs of the program because we see so much value in the experience of becoming language learners once again ourselves. We now have a Chinese teacher learning Korean, a German teacher learning Spanish, and another Spanish teacher learning French. To put ourselves in the position of language learners (rather than in the role of "experts" that we are more accustomed to) has been a powerful professional development opportunity, in addition to stimulating the intrinsically motivated language learning that lives within all of us. I couldn’t be happier. After all, une nouvelle langue est une nouvelle vie.
