Besides giving back, if in a minor way, to my host country, I had a goal of honing my communication skills during this internship. My task is to make unfamiliar language concepts familiar to my students. I do this through constant repetition and occasional translation; I try to show students the similarities between Spanish and English, and to give them memory techniques beyond memorization. Explaining large concepts or systems piece by piece, taking care to link the unfamiliar with the familiar—this is a skill that I’ll use in my professional life from here on out. My main professional interest is teaching English at the university level, where this kind of thinking is integral. This internship has been a unique and special way to develop this skill. To teach, I’ve realized, is to assemble a puzzle of familiar and unfamiliar knowledge.
Besides giving back, in a minor way, to my host country, I had the goal of honing my communication skills during the internship. The ability to explain larger concepts or systems, and take care to link the familiar with the unfamiliar, is a skill that I'll use in my professional life from here on. This internship has been a unique and special way to develop this skill.