This past summer Kristina Bruce had the opportunity to emerge herself in Spanish culture when she worked at the Technologic de Monterrey as an international student counselor.

This is because she had the opportunity in July to go to Mexico. When she was there she worked at the Technologic de Monterrey, she acted as a counselor for international students. She worked with students and helped them with choosing class and she gave new students tours of different cities in Mexico.

Overall she worked with 200 students via telephone and email and about 30 students personally.

“I wanted to do something a little different this summer, so I decided to work in the office. I was able to do this because I made friends and connections there through teaching,” Bruce said.

She says that this experience was different than the previous years because she was working with non-natives so she spoke more Spanish to them so they would learn.

“I feel like when I was in Mexico you had to go to work every even when there was no a lot to do where as in the us you finish your work and you can go or your boss will give you something more to do,“  Bruce said.

“The other major difference is in Mexico you go to work from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. then you go to lunch from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., so you have like a two hour lunch break and then you have to come back and work from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., that was really hard to adjust to because I was really hungry at 4 p.m.” Bruce said.

Working in Mexico helped her be a better Spanish teacher because it helps her learn new vocabulary, improve her fluency and it helped her understand Spanish culture more.

Madi Muller sr., is in Bruce’s Spanish four class this year “She makes us talk a lot more in Spanish, and she is willing to help, she talks faster this year than when I had her in Spanish two, she encourages us to talk around words we don’t know and lets us know what word are more commonly used,” Muller said.