My HL helped me a lot towards my later years of high school. I primarily learned Spanish my listening to Spanish music and watching tv in Spanish. I was surrounded by people whose only language they could speak was Spanish so I used those conversations as a way to practice. All these things came together when someone needed help. For example, I took a course in high school where I was lucky enough to student teach. I was teaching math and there was a student who walked in and asked for the teacher but he only spoke Spanish. I used everything I learned from to translate to the teacher in the class room and helped the student. Using my HL outside of school has helped me better connect with my family. A majority of my family only speaks Spanish so me learning Spanish was always very important to me. I was very embarrassed of this when it came to my grandma. But, thanks to all my practice and my mom, I was able to learn Spanish well enough to converse, I’ve always been able to understand Spanish very well considering it was my first language, I just didn’t have the ability to speak as well. Now, every time I see my grandma, I am able to actually speak to her, and let her know I really do understand her.
