"I teach Spanish—all levels. I try to give them information about the Spanish world; I try to get them to be relaxed about another culture. I give them tips about traveling to a Spanish-speaking country or knowing a person from a Spanish-speaking country. I even try to make them, if they are a composer, write a song in Spanish."
"I have a unique resume, because I studied oceanography and geography, and I worked as an environmental journalist for almost 20 years. I was a collaborator for National Geographic magazine for some years, and I traveled a lot doing research for my articles. This is a job I love to do. One of my most recent articles, published in a magazine from Central America last month, is about the monarch butterfly traveling to Cuba. Students love to hear about nature and the trips I make for my job. I speak about Mexico, Cuba, and Central America, so they can know many things about Spanish culture firsthand."
"Students need Spanish in many senses. They need it to communicate with the public sometimes, because they have many kinds of audiences. They need Spanish to speak with producers who can hire them in other countries, to speak with other musicians. If they have a group and they have a pianist who speaks Spanish, they can make the situation more comfortable for everybody. They need Spanish to sing, too. They ask me a lot of musical terms. All the time I have in mind that they are artists. I don't forget it."
