A love of Spanish inspires new teacher

March 30, 2016

Teacher Makenzi Epps teaches AP Spanish 4 and believes there are many benefits in committing to a foreign language in high school.

Dea-Mallika Divi

Teacher Makenzi Epps teaches AP Spanish 4 and believes there are many benefits in committing to a foreign language in high school.

Learning a second language can look good on transcripts for college and give a student an advantage in the long run. Wingspan’s Prachurjya Shreya sat down with Spanish teacher, Makenzi Epps to talk about how majoring in Spanish may take a lot of work but can be worth it.

Wingspan: Why did you pick Spanish out of all the other languages?

Epps: “I picked Spanish out of all the other languages because when I was in junior high my mom went to study abroad in Barcelona and she took us with her. I remember standing there and listening to all the Spanish and I said ‘Spanish makes my ears want to dance.’ Ever since then, I decided that I love Spanish and that’s what I want to study.”

Wingspan: Why did you decide to teach high schoolers?

Epps: “I decided to teach high schoolers because I worked at the college level previously and all of my intro kids,my starting students, who were just starting Spanish in college told me that they had high school Spanish but they didn’t know anything so they had to start all over. My goal was if I could go back and see how a high school functioned and how that worked then maybe I could help at that point so there would be more Spanish majors or ultimately, more people fluent in Spanish.”

Wingspan: Why do you think students should take Spanish?

Epps: “I think students should take Spanish because it helps your critical thinking skills, helps you understand people differently and be more empathetic. It also helps you learn how to learn things in a new way and it helps you be able to communicate with a huge group of people that you otherwise couldn’t. And as a perk, most of the time if you’re at least minoring in Spanish, you get paid more.”

Wingspan:What are the requirements to be a Spanish major?

Epps: “The requirements to be a Spanish major are different in every college. Most of the time, it’s under the bachelors of arts degree so there are a lot of English classes, history classes, and other things that go with it. Usually, you have to take a certain number of higher level Spanish classes to get the major. The best way to do that is if you take all of the high school Spanish you can test out of most of it and you can’t actually finish your major early. I finished mine my Spanish major in three years, instead of four.”

Wingspan: How did going to Spain change your perspective on the language?

Epps: “Going to Spain changed my perspective on the language in that, I realized I would never be fluent and that was okay. That my idea of having to be perfect at Spanish was ridiculous and that the goal is communication, not perfection. Once I was able to let go of that, my Spanish got a lot better and I was able to communicate effectively with a lot more people.”

Wingspan: What is your favorite memory of Spain?

Epps: “My best friend flew out to Spain and we went to the theater because in Spain, they have this great program where if you’re under 26, you can get last minute tickets to the opera and the ballet and to whatever for like ten euros, which is ridiculous because they’re like 100 euro seats so she came in and we went to see The Ballet: Romeo and Juliet and it was amazing.”

Wingspan: How hard was it to always talk in Spanish?

Epps: “It was not that difficult to talk in Spanish all the time because I was surrounded by people that were only speaking Spanish. The only time it was difficult was when I had people that wanted to learn English that would want to speak to me. One of the apartments that was next to mine, there lived a person who wanted to practice their English so that was the only time that it was difficult.”

Wingspan: How does Spanish influence your everyday life?

Epps: “Spanish influences my everyday life in that I always see two sides of everything. Through learning Spanish, I started looking at words differently, thinking about the way people said them, and what it meant underneath the words. Thinking about how saying ‘hello’ in a different tone of voice means one thing to someone and something else to somebody different and how different cultures respond. It’s definitely affected my personal relationships. And I also can’t read anymore in English without seeing half of it in Spanish.”

Wingspan: While majoring, what were some obstacles you faced?

Epps: “Well I triple majored so mostly I just overloaded myself and that was the hardest part. I just tried to do too much at one time. The other thing was in Spanish, the better you get, the longer it takes to get a little bit better. I think when I got to a higher level of Spanish,  it was hard to see improvement until much later and that was difficult for me.”

Wingspan: What advice would you give to high schoolers that are pursuing Spanish all four years?

Epps: “ My advice would be to make sure to take the AP exam and prepare well for it. To really get into the literature of it because a lot of your Spanish classes in college are going to be literature based. The more you can read ahead of time, the better. There a lot of colleges that publish book lists and if you can get a head start on those, you’ll be in amazing shape. Also, make sure you’re placed correctly when you get into college and you do take all of the exams they require so you don’t end up missing out on credit that you could get.”

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