Spanish tutorial: Meet my tandem, Mariarosa Holgado Vargas

In addition to taking formal classes, I’m taking advantage of a special Spanish tutorial. Our language school, Maximo Nivel, offers a valuable supplement to the traditional curriculum: tandem language learning. Because it runs a large English program for Peruvians, Maximo Nivel is set up perfectly to match English- and Spanish-language learners for impromptu, out-of-class practical language practice. It’s called tandem language learning and works like a custom-made Spanish tutorial.

The concept is simple: we students work on our own with a native speaker in our target language. Together, we teach each other, setting our own schedule, our own goals, our own methodology. No one pays; everyone benefits. And learning foreign language is more fun.

I meet every day for an hour with a young architect, Mariarosa Holgado Vargas. She’s providing me with a Spanish tutorial, and I’m helping her with English. Students can tailor the sessions to meet their unique needs and interests. The danger in these unstructured arrangements, of course, is that it’s easy to fall into meandering chit-chat – some may feel good because they’re speaking in their target language with “a native”, content to skim the surface, rather than focus in on serious language learning. Not so Mariarosa and I. We’re goal-oriented, both of us. Every day’s hour – or hour and a half-plus – is a hard-nosed working English and Spanish tutorial, as intense as any class.

Each tandem is unique, and anyone interested in learning a foreign language can do it. Here’s how ours work:

• I speak Spanish to Mariarosa. She speaks English to me. We correct each other, using the ongoing conversations as fodder for short drills on specific errors. (Click here for an example of the 3-minute drill.)
• Her formal studies have given her a strong base in grammar and writing, but little practice in speaking, so I’ve asked her to keep a diary in English. She’s comfortable with it, and good at it. She doesn’t hesitate to write about things meaningful to her – her breakup with a longtime boyfriend, for instance, and the recent death of her father. Because she ponders serious thoughts and painful emotions, as well as recounts day-to-day activities, the diary opens us to a wide range of English constructions to work on.
• I correct the grammar in her diary, press her on her thoughts, suggest other ways she might express herself in English, and push her to dig more deeply for details – and the language needed to express them. Additionally, I ask her to tell me orally what she’s written, using her stories as grist for work on pronunciation and grammatical usages she hasn’t mastered. In short, the diary opens us to both written and spoken practice.
• This week I’m laboring over a thank you note to Mariarosa’s friend Chela, a jewelry vendor with whom I spent a delightful afternoon in Machu Picchu. This self crafted Spanish tutorial gives me good practice in my weakest area, writing. (See Waiting for a Jewelry Buyer: Chela's Story.)
• I’m also focusing on different forms of Spanish past tense by telling her about my weekends. She uses my stories to drill me on correcting persistent errors.
• We end each day’s work by agreeing on what we’ll bring to tomorrow’s session, initiating the first steps of the daily learning cycle: Plan Prepare Practice. This way we come together with a clear agenda (though we do keep ourselves open to changing it depending upon what each of us did the previous night or other thoughts on our minds).

Over these weeks, we’ve expanded our tandem Spanish tutorial to conversations about our families, our friends, and our futures. She hopes to get a master’s degree in architecture in the U.S. and I’m encouraging her to apply to Yale because of a shared interest in Machu Picchu. Yale’s Peabody Museum has a huge collection of artifacts from Machu Picchu – more than 4,000 items – and long-term plans in Peru. (Hiram Bingham, then a Yale professor, re-discovered Machu Picchu in 1911. Bingham mounted expeditions to Machu Picchu in 1912 and 1913 to excavate the site. Clearly, he didn’t return to Yale empty-handed.)

For her senior project, Mariarosa designed an intriguing new cultural center in Aguas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu. Recently, the university signed an agreement with the government of Peru both to begin returning the items and to build a Machu Picchu museum in Cusco. Perhaps another tandem learning opportunity would be mutually beneficial at Yale?

--Posted by Terry, October 16


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