What is Spanish Club? UT Tyler Student Org Spotlight

Learning a new language is hard.  For Spanish students new to speaking, finding a low stakes space to practice outside of class can sometimes feel like a challenge.  Even fluent speakers may sometimes struggle to find a casual setting where they can share their language.

Which is why the Spanish Club was created.

This week, Dr. Ross and student producer Ashley Worley spotlight a newly formed club on the UT Tyler campus which is dedicated to providing a fun, lively environment for speaking Spanish.  Club President Isabel Viloria and Vice President Ivan Paiz join the discussion, sharing their stories of how the student organization has already begun impacting campus life.  Whether you're a native Spanish speaker or just started learning vocabulary words, this episode is for you.

Have more questions about the Spanish Club in college life? Email us at ADRquestions@gmail.com or leave a comment below. We'd love to hear from you!  

Transcript

Meet The Hosts And Guests

SPEAKER_03 0:04

Stay tuned to the Ask Dr. Ross Podcast. It's created to give you info to succeed at college. Our hosts are highly qualified. Dr. Katherine Ross is a member of the University of Texas System's Academy of Distinguished Teachers. She's also a popular professor of 19th century English literature. Ask Dr. Ross is a community service of the University of Texas at Tyler.

Isabel’s Journey And IB Prep

SPEAKER_04 0:31

So we like to start by having you introduce yourself. Isabel, would you tell us your full name and where you went to high school and how long you've been at UT Tyler?

SPEAKER_02 0:40

So my name is Isabel Viloria. I was born in Venezuela, but I came here to the United States in middle of my sophomore year. I started at Spring Hill and then I went to Lombie High School. That's where I graduated. I did the IB program. So it was like a really fun experience for me, and it was definitely challenging because I was like learning how to speak English and like trying to get good grades in my classes and like still adapting to like the whole country and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

Yes, and IB stands for International Baccalaureate, right? Yeah. And that's a very interesting and very prestigious program.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Yeah, it is a really good program. And I think it taught me a lot of things in like every subject, which I think is great because it really has prepared me for like the college experience. I am a freshman, by the way.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

First year student, alright. Yeah. So you're coming up on the end of your first semester then. Okay, well we'll be asking you about that in a minute about what it's like to be in college. But would you introduce yourself, Ivan?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Okay, I am Ivan Pies or Ivan Pies, however you want to pronounce it. I'm a senior year set to graduate this semester. I'm a transfer student from Guatemala. I've been in college for eight years now, changing universities and doing all the paperwork. That's extended my university time a little bit. But that has given me a lot of experience and enjoyable classes. I really have been enjoying my time as a student.

SPEAKER_04 2:08

Well, I've taught Ivan, so I know that when you're in class, you're always excited, you've got wonderful questions to ask, you're always very fully engaged. So I think it's working out pretty well for you. Now, all those years, what what were you studying? Would you tell us a little bit about how you changed? Because that usually is what makes it take a little longer, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yes. I think when I was in middle school, I thought about studying computer science. And then I took the how you call them the test that tell you about your aptitudes. And I ignored the test. The test told me mass media and music and being a teacher. Those were the top three contenders. And I chose system engineering. Didn't like it.

SPEAKER_04 2:48

Was that down in Guatemala?

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yeah. So the next year I changed to another university that was teaching mass media. And I enjoyed my time there. And through the mass media classes, I discovered that I really liked scriptwriting and reading and writing. And when I got the opportunity to study at UT Tyler, I decided to change my major to English to focus on that aspect.

SPEAKER_04 3:15

So how many years were you in school in Guatemala then? In college?

SPEAKER_00 3:20

From 2018 till 2022.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Four years, wow. Were you close to graduating by then? And you just had to come over here and start all over again, or how'd that work?

Why UT Tyler Over Bigger Campuses

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah. The difference is that even though I was close to finishing all my classes and finishing all my credits, in Guatemala, your undergrad has a thesis. So that will take you another year. It's different than here is on the graduate program that you start your thesis. So I was still two to three years away from finishing my career, which is the same time that I've been studying here at UT Tyler, so I didn't really lose time.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

So what brought you to UT Tyler from Guatemala?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

My family wanted to live in Tyler, in well, in Winona, which is close to Tyler. And then my stepfather and my mother told me that there was a university here and asked me if I wanted to apply.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

Now you came to UT Tyler partly maybe because you were already in Longview and so you knew about it.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Yeah, so I was originally planning on going to UT Austin, but it's very expensive and I didn't get any scholarships from there. So I was looking at UT Tyler and since it's like the same thing as UT Austin, they're very connected. And I came here for orientation and I just walk around and I discovered that I really liked it. I was originally in the CAP program to transfer to UT Austin after just to make it a little bit cheaper for me and my family. But then I realized like I love the campus. I love like a smaller campus life. Which I mean UT Tyler is huge.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

10,000 students. So that's a lot bigger than some places, but it isn't fifty thousand like UT Austin, is it?

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Yeah, definitely. Which I really like. Like I like being something like more calm instead of like a huge city, especially since like I'm still adapting to college. I'd rather like go slow.

Launching The Spanish Club

SPEAKER_04 5:18

Well, so I'm guessing that my first question is what drew you to studying Spanish and being in the Spanish club. It's probably that you were already speaking Spanish and you wanted to have a chance to play with the language with other youngsters at the university, or is there a different reason?

SPEAKER_02 5:34

So for me, I really enjoy teaching people their languages. Like I enjoy like teaching myself things. I wouldn't say I'm like the best teacher ever, but I have found that people like the way I explain things. So I found this opportunity really interesting and like maybe like a new experience for me. And I've seen a lot of people here that are trying to speak Spanish and they can like get so confused. It's just learning it from English to Spanish can be really complicated because I know that because I experienced it learning the language when I was 15. So since I know the language, I feel like I know how to explain certain things in an easier way for people to understand, which is was pretty much my goal when I applied to be at the president of the club. And I will say I would like to think I'm doing a pretty good job because the people that are in the club right now, they seem to be enjoying our meetings or activities. And Ivan, him and I, and our secretary, we've been doing like so much work, so much fun activities for them to understand. And they all seem to learn and enjoy the experience so far.

SPEAKER_04 6:40

That's wonderful. So Ivan, tell us a little bit more about the club. What are some of these experiences that you leaders are doing?

Speaking Confidence Through Play

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Okay, so learning language is difficult. People don't realize it, but since you were born, you're learning one language. So English speakers have been learning language from being born till they finish high school. That's when you kinda stop learning English, unless you start going to college and then you start learning more about the language. So imagine doing it with another language in a country that doesn't speak that language as the main language. So from talking with other students that they know a little bit of Spanish, their difficulty mostly lies in speaking. They can write, they can read, they can understand if I speak slow, but they can't express themselves easily. So we were looking to make opportunities for them to speak. As simple as just a greeting or as just playing a simple game, over time can go a long way. So we were doing like board games and we have to play them in Spanish. Games like Uno, which are very simple, but just by doing the minimum Spanish speaking can help them just open up and just give it a try. If they make a mistake, we help them like correct themselves. That also motivates other students that are less proficient in the language to give it a try or to ask for advice. The best way to memorize things is by playing and doing it.

SPEAKER_04 8:14

Yeah, and you know, I think one of the things I love about what y'all are saying you're doing is that y'all are playing with each other. You're playing with your classmates. It's not your professor in there drilling you or something, it's you are playing and getting to know with people and having fun. And you know, one of the things we talk about a lot in college is we are always looking for ways for students to feel like they belong here. You know, that they have friends and connections. And it sounds like you've already started making some friends and connections with this.

Culture, Media, And Original Language

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Yeah, a little bit. I'm mostly of like a chai person. I've never been super social, but I love going to the club because like I get to like play so much of these games. Like I would I would think like, no, maybe like they're not as fun as they sound. Like it sounds fun in my head, but maybe they're they're not gonna find it fun, and then I see them playing the game and I'm like, can I join? And that's kind of like what we do in general. Most of the time, we all play in the game and like we help each other. Even some officers in a club, some of them don't speak Spanish, so they're like also learning with the students, which I think is great because we don't see a lot of people these days like trying to learn other languages besides English. And the fact that there's some people here in the club and we continue to have more people joining means a lot, at least to me, because the United States is such a big country with so so much diversity and learning so many other languages, it's so great in my opinion. And I'm all here for like helping other people to like do those things. And I'm also like in the process of learning other languages. I really like one of my goals in life is to learn at least three to four languages. I really, really want to learn Italian and maybe like some Korean or Japanese, like I'm between those two, because I also like to like watch anime. They feel like listening to uh stories in like their original language is better because like they show their expressions much better and there's like more depth meaning. And I think that goes with like mostly everything.

Central vs South American Perspectives

SPEAKER_00 10:15

I like to watch content from all over the world, and I've noticed, for example, the differences between English and Spanish, and I've watched some shows in both languages, for example, shows made in English, and then growing up, I will watch the dubbed versions for Disney movies, and even in Disney movies, which are very simple, there's still differences that you can't properly tell without using the original language. All languages have differences and different ways of expressing also the cultural background of every single country. Knowing more languages opens your eyes to more cultures and to get more out of the content that you consume. And there's still content that is not totally translated, like from everywhere. For example, like talking with other Hispanics here at Utitalor, especially from like Hispanics that were born in the US, they don't know many of the Latin American shows and movies. And they're super fun.

SPEAKER_04 11:14

Now you're from Central America, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

And you're from South America. Yes, ma'am. So you're bringing those are two different cultures too, really. I mean, they may be Hispanic languages, but there's a lot going on with both of those countries. So are you able to share your cultural heritage with your classmates?

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Oh yeah, I love doing that. Like when I was in high school, it was really fun because my parents, they were born and raised forty plus years in Venezuela. So my household is very Hispanic. So every time I have friends coming over, I'm always like, Okay, do you wanna eat arepas? Because that's like a very traditional thing for my country. And so it's like a really fun way, especially for food and stuff. I love sharing food because it's so delicious. I think it's great to like have other people from like those countries to talk and say a lot about their culture because I feel like in the United States we know that their culture is there, but we don't know about it. So do you think in English now, Ivan?

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Yeah, I think in English.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Do you think in English yet? Yes, I have, but like it's a very complicated thing because sometimes I just like switch back and forth. And it's something that you learn over time. I did a lot of like watching videos in Disney movies, and especially my favorite ones. I'm like a big fan of the Tinkerville series. So that was the first movie that I watched in English, and I was so proud of myself when I like watched it completely and I understood. That kind of thing, like that's what helped me, and also forced yourself to just think in that language to get better at it. I think that's a big, big part of it.

SPEAKER_04 12:47

Yeah, and I think being immersed in the language, and the more you talk it, speak it every day. Ivan, who started this club?

Building Community And Events

SPEAKER_00 12:54

This club started this semester. Professor Goodell wanted to create uh the club last semester, but he didn't find enough people.

unknown 13:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

So now how many people do you have?

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Five officers, both members, uh registered like I think it's like ten people.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

A little bit more than ten. That's a good number. Especially for the first year. We usually meet either on Tuesdays or Thursdays. We don't like doing it too late, maybe like a little bit after class so that we can make sure that people are available to go. We usually meet between 5 30 until 6 30. It's a great time so people who can have time to attend the meeting, have some fun, and then if they have to go home, they go home later and study.

SPEAKER_04 13:35

You want to play a little before you have to get buckled down to your homework, huh?

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Yeah, definitely. Usually we play music, Hispanic music, and we really want to play a movie at some point. We're trying to like let people know a little bit more about the club and like have more fun activities and teaching them. And then we want to start like doing more complicated stuff to like get them to know more about culture and the language in general. As I said, like I think movies are a great way to learn. And since everyone like loves those childhood movies, I think everyone will love the idea. So yeah, that's like one of our plans for the future.

SPEAKER_04 14:14

I thought I'd ask you a couple of questions just about your college experience too, besides the Spanish club. And so I was sort of wondering, were you surprised by what life was like at UT Tyler, Isabel?

SPEAKER_02 14:24

So there's a lot of things that surprised me because like I was very used to a system in my country and I was I shouldn't have, but I was expecting it to be kind of similar. I didn't know how much that the classes that you take in high school matter. So I just went in high school and I took whatever. I took environmental sciences, I took some like regular math, whatever. I didn't know it mattered that much here, so that kind of like surprised me. So now I have to take a lot of classes that I did not want to take, but it's okay.

SPEAKER_04 14:55

What about you, Ivan? You spent enough years in college down south that this was it a big surprise, a big difference too, or?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Yeah, total difference. The way college courses work, at least in Guatemala, you don't choose your classes. You just choose a career, and then the faculty will take care of all the courses that you will take each semester. So you don't really have a choice, and you only stay in one faculty your whole career. So if you study engineering, you're gonna just have engineering classes. That makes it so if you want to change careers, you will have no credits. That's what happened to me. My first year in engineering didn't allow me to have any credits for my mass media. Gladly, my mass media translated to a mass media minor here at UT Tyler, so I didn't lose most of my classes. But yeah, that happens. And I think that's a good opportunity that Americans have in this type of system, because there's some people that really know what they want to do since middle school or high school, but there are others like me that needed a little bit of experience and a little bit of time to try. If this was my first university, I would have probably chosen engineering, and probably after the first year I would have discovered, hey, I like English, I like mass media, and I would not have lost so many credits.

SPEAKER_04 16:12

What do you think is like the hardest thing about being a Spanish-speaking student at UT Tyler?

Challenges For Spanish Speakers

SPEAKER_02 16:18

For me, it's that I haven't found a lot of friends who like are from my own country. Sometimes I have like slang. So I have like my own words when I speak Spanish. And some people don't understand what I'm saying. And so that's kind of like a little hard for me. But yeah, like I haven't like I haven't felt like I don't belong here or anything because I feel like I have found so many people from the Hispanic community that it's hard to think, oh I just like I'm different in a bad way from any everyone else. Being a Hispanic speaker here, it's like it's great because I get to like when I go to work, like I see Hispanic people who are like struggling with English, so you can always help them out. That's kind of like the point of like working in areas where there are not as many Spanish speakers because you're there, you're there to help other people. I know like people like my mom or my dad, you have to see their faces when they find someone who speaks Spanish. Yeah, like, oh my god, oh my god, we we are family now, and they're just so happy, and I know there's so many other people like that around the country. So I don't think it's like the biggest hardship to like not finding as many people from my country because I still get to share my culture with What about you, Ivan?

SPEAKER_04 17:34

Is there anything really hard for you about being here?

Advice: Majors, Clubs, And Friends

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Besides the language period when you start speaking English day to day, I think it's just a slight difference in how people make friends here compared to Latin America. Because my experience across the Latin American countries that I visited, it's so easy to make a friend, you just go to the store to buy tortillas and then you make two new friends and they will invite you to their birthday next week. Here, people are a little bit more reserved about how like to make meaningful connections. So even though I was meeting people, it took me a little bit of time to actually start an actual meaningful friendship. That was the most difficult thing. But in general, the cultural duty titler has been so super great. Everyone here has been friendly and willing to share their experiences, their hobbies, their passions. I will say that that will be the easiest way to find people, like have a hobby and just look for people to share that hobby. Doesn't matter how niche it is, you will find people. It's been surprising to me that just a week ago, just by one conversation in Dr. Kelly's class, he just mentioned something about one hobby. And I just found that one of my classmates has that same hobby as me.

SPEAKER_04 18:50

Well, what would you like to tell classmates or just students out there, Isabel, about the Spanish club or life in college?

Goals For A Welcoming Language Space

SPEAKER_02 18:59

For the Spanish club, I think if you just want to have like a little fun time and like get away from like all the really technical things seen in your classes for Spanish, like, oh, you have to learn this pronouns and like there's a huge list of like a hundred verbs that you have to memorize. If you want to like try to learn it more gradually and more fun for you, I think the Spanish Club would be a really great way for you to do it because we do a lot of activities, both like writing and speaking, and we try to make it as fun as possible for everyone. So if you really are into those things, you can always come and join us. And our meetings are always going to be around the same time, 5 to 6.30, not too late. And about life in college so far, I will say, do not procrastinate. Get your work done on time. And if you want to enjoy, like in general the campus life, I would honestly recommend going to every single one of the meetings that the clubs have. And there's usually like things like colleges outside, like they play music. I have seen so many people play music. It's definitely amazing.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

I will say first, don't be afraid of changing your major if you don't like what you're doing. Don't be afraid to change because everyone has a different road. The road will always be bumpy, and you will always discover something new. So, especially if you're on your first two years, give it a try too many different things. Try to figure it out. Even if you're on your late years, if you really don't like it, you can go the long route and find your perfect path. And I will also recommend go to clubs, find a club, try to meet new people, because that could also help you find your way just by doing an activity. That's kind of how I discovered mass media, because I decided to go to a club in my first university that was a mass media club, and they were talking about how they were making a mock-up ad for a company. And just being in that meeting made me realize, hey, I like creating stories, I like creating publicity. And also you will meet a lot of people. It's best to find people through a hobby, some like interest than just your classes, because then you will get a new experience.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

Yeah, because you can get real worn down if you just do the same thing over and over again. But also I think just not being afraid to put yourself out there, you know. It is a little bit scary at first. And I will tell you, when you get out there in the big world, it's harder to make friends than you might think. So this is a good place to make friends. Friends that will be your friends forever.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Just as one of our wrap up questions, it's so cool that we have the president and the vice president of the club here. I don't think we've ever gotten that on one of our club episodes before. So, from both your perspectives, I would love to hear what your goals are for the club going forward.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

For me, I will say we really want for more people to join the club because I know there's a lot of people that like learning language. And I feel like because we should start at the club, not a lot of people know about it. So that is one of our goals, and like be able to one day have people say, Hey, you have made Spanish look more fun and more easier for me to understand. That's for me at least my goal.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Yeah, I will say since I really like teaching and I know that the way I learned the best was by just speaking the language and interacting with like English media. I want the club to be a place for that. A place where you learn the best when you're having fun. So I want it to be that place. The place where students after class can practice what they've learned when they can solve some of their doubts without the pressure of the class or pressure of having bad grades if they make a mistake. Like be this the place that you can make all the mistakes that you need so you can learn the best. The place when you can find people from other countries that can give you a different view on life and different types of entertainment, different types of food. Hispanic food is really good, and you're missing out if you're not out there like looking for your Hispanic friends.

Closing And How To Get In Touch

SPEAKER_04 23:08

We're really grateful that you all are stirring up interest in the Spanish Club. I'm just delighted that you all are doing this, and we'll check in with you again maybe later on in the next year and see how it's going.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

And thank you to our listeners for making it to the end of this episode. And if you have any questions about the Spanish club or about college life in general, we would love to direct any questions specific about the club to Isabel and to Ivan. You can email us at adrquestions at gmail dot com or leave a comment under the YouTube video.