Peer Mentor Meeting

Last month, I met with Julia by the Jamba Juice. We talked about my indecision with regards to choosing a career and a major. I told her that despite pressures from various individuals trying to convince me to pursue a career in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), I am not certain I would be happy in such a field. Julia is a Spanish Teaching major, and we discussed our common interest in the Spanish language. I have long considered formal education to be an ineffective way to learn a new language. I retained almost nothing of practical value from my high school Spanish class. On the contrary, I have found self-teaching methods (online dictionaries, Duolingo, watching movies in Spanish) to be much more effective. According to Julia, many of the language courses here at BYU are actually very effective, and seek to immerse the students in the language through natural methods rather than tedious memorization of vocabulary. This is exciting news to me, and I am now considering the option to minor in a second language.