Today the Interviewer Became the Interviewee

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Today the Interviewer became the Interviewee

I was the guest lecturer for Professor Patrick Matzler’s class at the Universidad Católica del Maule. His students from the English Language and Intercultural Communication class today asked great question about international scholarship. Fue una experiencia buenisíma!!  I also paid tribute to Micheal Jackson with my white footies and black shoes in this picture. Ha ha! 🙂

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Profesor Patrick Matzler is originally from Sweden and has been an academic in Chile for several years now.  His wife is Chilean  which brought him to the country.  He has also been of great assistance to me with my focus group interviews and dissertation research data collections so I was more than happy to meet with his students.

CI promised the students that this blog post would be in both English and Spanish.  Therefore, I’ll have to write it out first and translate to Spanish for posting.  They asked great questions as we shared in rich discussions.

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Verción Español

Hoy día yo tenía un tiempo bueno con los estudiantes de la clase Idiomas Inglés y Comunicación Intercultural.  La asignación de los estudiantes fue  entrevistar a mí e también escuchar a qué yo tenía compartir sobre ser una erudita visitando de un otro país. 

Preguntas incluían deportes, (el nombre de LeBron James nos hablábamos muchas veces), educación con fines de lucro privado en Chile, UGA, mi vida en Ohio y Georgia, colegio atlética y comó jugadores son pagaban, educación International y carreras, CTIM, comida, adaptación cultural, el elección presidencial, y mucho más.  Todo el mundo parecía muy atento a mi hablando e yo espero que ellos puedan usar la información yo daba completar sus investigación proyecto de clase.

De nuevo, una gracias especial a Profesor Matzler por me permitía visitar con suyo estudiantes.

 English Version:

Today I had a great time speaking with students from the English Language and Intercultural Communications class.  Their assignment was to interview me and listen to what I had to share about being a study abroad visiting scholar.

Questions ranged from sports (the name of LeBron James came up several times), private for-profit education in Chile, UGA,  my life in Ohio and Georgia, college athletes and  how players are paid, International Education and careers, STEM, food, cultural adjustment,  to the recent Presidential elections and much more. Everyone seemed very attentive and interested in what I had to say and I certain hope that they will be able to use what I shared with them to complete their class research Project.

Again, special thanks to Professor Matzler for allowing me to visit with his students.

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“Ms. Brown, why am I learning this stuff ?!”

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“Ms. Brown, why am I learning this stuff ?!”

This (above) blog title was a common lamentation that I heard from some of my high school students when I was a teacher in the public school system.

TemperatureWhat’s the temperature?

Today it is so hot outside in Talca, approximately 84 degrees  Fahrenheit.  I had arrived to the office after having walked to and from the grocery store to buy a few things.  While leaving the mall, the above picture caught my attention.  Since I don’t have a vehicle here in Chile I just started to realize how much money I am probably saving myself not having to drive a car or either my motorcycle everyday.  I could see the price of the gas on a sign across the street and was again reminded how in the US, we are one of the few countries still using a non-metric system.  Here in Chile, the time in based on a 24 hour logarithm, temperatures are in degrees Celsius, and liquid units are in liters and milliliters.

During my period of being a high school teacher, when my students used to complain about learning algebra and needing to “solve for X” they never understood the value of such ability because most of their cultural contexts was based in an US experience.  Apart for the international students in some of my classes, most felt that learning these concepts were a waste of time and on many occasions I couldn’t immediately think of a comparative reason why they needed to now how to “solve for X”.

Upon arriving at my desk I inquired with my officemate Veronica as to what the average temperature was in the Summer (as we are still in Spring season here).  She responded “viente ocho” which I immediately knew had to be 28 degrees Celsius.  Being a North American, I am more familiar with temperatures in Fahrenheit so I knew I needed to do a conversion.  I remember from my biology classes that the average body temperature is 37 degrees Celsius which translates to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit so I did the above conversion to get a sense of what to expect for an average summer temperature in Talca, Chile.  This required having the ability to solve for X.  Therefore, providing me with an excellent example for my students as to why they need to learn Algebra.  Clearly, I needed this skill because it came in handy when I wanted to answer my temperature question within an international context.

GasWhat will it cost to fill my gas tank?

This brings me to my final example… I saw the price of gas was 773.0 pesos/liter but intuitively, I had no idea what that was per gallon.  At first I thought, “Oh!  That’s only about $1.50 per gallon”, but then I realized that liquid measurements here are in units of liters.  So, I had to find the conversion factor for liters to 1 gallon and as a result came to realize that the gas prices for car fuel here is quite high (approximately $6 per gallon).  Yikes!!  So if I ever again encounter a situation with either my students, friends, or family and they decry the need to learn Algebra or higher math, I will draw upon this adult learning experience.  My response to them will be that ignorance is not bliss and as a matter of fact it can be quite EXPENSIVE if you aren’t attentive! 😉

As in Georgia, seems I also enjoy cooking in Chile.

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I really like to cook!! :)

The only thing more fun than cooking good food is ultimately eating good food. My own creation of pollo, verduras, hongos, tortillas, y arroz español (chicken, vegetables, mushrooms, tortillas, and Spanish rice)

Spring4The only thing better than cooking good food is being able to eat good food! 🙂

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Spring3Today began to evidence that we are now entering Spring season in Chile (along with my allergies, “Hello Flonase“.  This young man (Carlos) allowed me to take his picture as he strummed a lovely tune before our Castellano Spanish course.

Spring2Students where out and about today enjoying the beauty of the day and campus.

Spring1Universidad Católica del Maule Talca, Chile