Building Global Connections through FIUTS Virtual Language Exchange
Learning Spanish with Juan
by: Simran Miglani
Simran Miglani, FIUTS Virtual Language Exchange participant.
Hola! My name is Simran and I am an incoming graduate student at Foster School of Business. Hailing from a multi-cultural land, I have always been very enthusiastic about knowing and learning different cultures. I have stayed in various cities of India, where each city has a different language, unique history and relishing cuisines. And it is quite overwhelming to learn multiple dialects, since, I believe, along with cognitive benefits, it widens the scope of thinking and most interestingly- it deepens our connection to other cultures.
Along with knowing Hindi (my native), English, Punjabi, Malayalam, French and German (ein bisschen), I had an ongoing interest in learning Spanish (interest credit goes to binge watching shows on Netflix). I was introduced to FIUTS in the beginning of our course during the virtual orientation, and the sessions were undoubtedly too cool to not miss any of it. I followed their Facebook page and I came across so many exciting events that I wished I would have been in Seattle for the first quarter. Amidst my disappointment of everything being remote, I got to know about the FIUTS Virtual Language Exchange program- wherein we would get paired with a fluent speaker of the language we want to learn. I expressed my interest in learning Spanish, and FIUTS has given me an amazing opportunity to be introduced to Juan Moreno- my friend from Chile.
Join the FIUTS Virtual Language Exchange Program! More information available here.
Juan is an alumnus of UW and he is currently working as a teacher. We both connected over Zoom as soon as we got introduced, and we have come a long way! We have had 6 sessions, each around an hour long, where I learnt basic phrases, numbers, alphabets, days of the week, months of the year and root verbs conjugation. Juan is an excellent educator; he teaches with his whole heart and soul. He has efficiently explained me the basics and the roots of the language. He has patiently rectified me at all times of my blunders in pronunciations. He has put in time and effort to perfect my dialogues in Spanish, send tutorial links and prepare our class notes. Our Zoom meetings are a lot more fun; we are not just bound to learning Spanish, we exchange ideas and share stories. I got to know his life experiences, his culture, his native, and some fun facts (like Chile is world-famous for fine wines). He currently lives in Santiago, which is now an added place to visit in my bucket list.
Learning with Juan has been very comforting, and I would like to thank FIUTS for introducing me to a friend and a mentor. The language program has succeeded in brightening my day up, and is an absolute indulgence for all those who are willing to open the windows and connect to the world, especially in such uncertain times of remote operations.
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Learn more today about the FIUTS Virtual Language Exchange Program (ages 18+) and our newly-launched FIUTS Virtual Language Exchange Program (ages 13-17)! See below.
Questions? Please contact Vy Chuong, Student Programs Coordinator, at vy@fiuts.org.
Guest posts on the FIUTS blog represent the experiences and views of individual writers. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FIUTS or any organizations or institutions affiliated with our programs.