I’m eager to reflect on my time as a conversational English teacher with my partner, Zachary Orlando-Milbauer, at Centre d’Autoaprenentatge de Llengüe at Universitat de Barcelona. As someone interested in pursuing a career in teaching, this role instantly caught my attention when it was announced by the UCEAP Study Center during the Study Abroad Orientation for Fall Semester 2023. I have experience working in the classroom, as a teacher, tutor, and summer camp counselor, however only for students between the ages of 5-14 years old; this internship was a chance to broaden my experience to include an older demographic, and I was interested to see what it would be like to teach students my age or even older. Additionally, given that I was also simultaneously enrolled in a conversational Spanish class, I resonated with these students’ journeys toward mastering a new language and already had a personal perspective on what activities would best facilitate conversational language learning. Being a year-long study abroad student, I thought this internship would allow me to connect with students from Barcelona and get to know them on a more personal level. I also achieved my goal of broadening my horizons as an educator by working with older students, the majority of whom were older than me.
In my role as a conversational English teacher in Barcelona, I was simultaneously enrolled in a conversational Spanish class. As a year-long study abroad student, it was a chance to connect with students from Barcelona and broaden my experience with people who were older than me.