(bright music) - 29-year-old Jorge Apponde of Argentina dreamed of teaching language.

That opportunity came in Wyoming.

He lives in Powell, where he now teaches at Northwest College through a program sponsored by the Fulbright Organization.

I'm Steve Peck of Wyoming PBS.

This is "Wyoming Chronicle."

- [Announcer] Programming on Wyoming PBS is brought to you in part by Wyoming Humanities, enhancing the Wyoming narrative to engage communities with grants and programs across Wyoming for more than 50 years.

We proudly support Wyoming PBS.

- Welcome to "Wyoming Chronicle."

My first test of today's interview is pronouncing the name of my guest correctly.

He gave me some training beforehand and I'd like to introduce Jorge Apponte.

- Perfecto.

- Perfecto.

Thank you.

Jorge is an instructor of Spanish at Northwest College in Powell.

We're on campus today.

You're a native Spanish speaker from where?

- Yeah, I'm from Argentina.

I'm 29 years old and I'm an English teacher in Argentina, and I came here to be like a Spanish instructor.

- So I understand again, you're a native Spanish speaker.

In your country, you're an English teacher.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Which you've come to this country to be a Spanish teacher.

- Yeah, it's a completely different thing, but I love it.

It's a great experience to teach your own language, and it's a big challenge also, but I love challenges in life.

- You arrived here in Powell, first time you've ever been to the United States?

- Yeah, that's right.

I came here on August the 6th, the 10th, sorry.

And so I started, it is my first time in the United States.

I always wanted to be here.

For English teachers in Argentina, it's like mandatory that you have to go to an English speaking country once you graduate as an English teacher.

And I graduate in December of 2019 and started working since then, both primary and high school levels.

And I always wanted to be in the United States, and now I'm here, so it's like my dream come true.

- But when you thought of being in the United States when you were a young man in Argentina, where were you thinking of?

New York or Miami or Hollywood or Powell, Wyoming?

- Yeah, I think most people want to go to New York, Chicago, or like big cities.

I never heard of Wyoming before, but I love being here.

People here in Powell are really nice, really warm.

And I love the quietness of the town, it's amazing.

- Now you told me before we began that the city where you grew up in Argentina was about 60,000 people.

So not a gigantic metropolis, but bigger than here.

The obvious question to ask is culture shock, I guess you speak the language.

That's a big part of overcoming that, isn't it?

- Yeah, there are some things I'm still getting used to, but so far, I think it's been great to be here and learning about the American culture, which is depending on the thing, but most of the time, it's quite different to my culture.

But it's great.

I love learning about different cultures, and especially the American culture.

- Sure.

You're here in large part due to an educational entity with a famous name, which is Fulbright.

- Fulbright, yeah.

- What is the Fulbright program that has brought you to Wyoming?

- Well, Fulbright has like lots of different programs, but the one I came here with is for a foreign language teaching assistant.

So in my case to be an Spanish instructor.

And so this is actually my second attempt, because the first time, it was last year I applied for this program.

But in Argentina, there are 16 candidates that get accepted to come to the United States.

And on my first attempt, I was in the waiting list, so there were 16 and five more candidates waiting for that opportunity.

And then I said, "Okay, this is what I want, so I'm gonna try it again."

And then the second time, I made it.

- Did you do anything differently the second time or?

- Yeah, I prepared myself to teach Spanish.

I try to take Spanish classes.

I mean, not because I don't speak Spanish, but because there is a way of teaching Spanish.

It's a different thing.

There are different grammar rules.

And I also prepared myself in different aspects so as to be ready for the interviews.

And I felt more confident on the second time than on the first time.

So I'm really happy for that.

- All right, so the second time you made it, and so you knew you were coming to the United States.

How did Powell Wyoming enter the picture?

- Yeah, first of all, when I was accepted, Fulbright got me seven options to choose from.

And there was one university in Oregon, another one, well this one in Wyoming.

There was another one in Texas.

There was another one in Arkansas, Ohio, Virginia, and Louisiana, that's the other one.

And this has to be like a double match, I have to choose the college, but the college has to choose me as well.

And I was happy when I got to know that I was going to come to Wyoming because I had really good references from the previous instructor who was from Spain.

And so I was really happy when they told me that I was going to come to Wyoming.

- You mentioned previous instructor, so you're not the first Fulbright instructor under this program to teach at Northwest College?

- Yeah, that's right.

I'm actually the third instructor.

Because there was, the first year, a lady from Mexico.

And then last year, a woman from Spain, and now it's me from Argentina.

- So that's interesting to me.

Mexico, Spain, Argentina, all coming here to speak Spanish.

I'm not a linguist, but I think I know that the Spanish that is spoken in Spain is quite different from the Spanish that many people would speak in Mexico and perhaps Argentina as well, is that right?

- Yeah, that's totally right.

When it comes to Spanish, to teaching Spanish, there's a lot of things that you need to bear in mind or try to teach like standard Spanish.

Because if you teach just Spanish from your country, then they might find themself with a situation where they think they know Spanish, but probably in that country or in Mexico, they have a different word for that.

And so you need to prepare them in order to be ready to say, "Okay, so I know in Argentina we say this way, but in Mexico, they say in a different way."

The same with Spain.

So what I try to do is like I try to teach standard English, Spanish, sorry.

And also when I teach Spanish from Argentina, I said, "Okay, we say this way in Argentina, but then you might hear in Mexico, Mexican people say in this way, or in Spain, they have a completely different word."

So that's what I try to do.

But yeah, like in any other languages, there are different accents, different words.

- Is there a place where what you refer to as standard Spanish is spoken?

- Yeah, I mean, not really, but I try to teach like, or what I try to do is like to say, "Okay, so we have this word in Argentina, we say in this way, and also in Columbia, Paraguay, or Uruguay, people might say it in this way, but then you have people from Spain and they use this word instead."

- What's an example?

- Well, that's a good question.

- You talked about- - Yeah, if I said car for example, which in Mexico they call it carro, but in Argentina, we say auto, but then I think in Spain, they say automobile.

So there are like little differences that might confuse people.

So when I teach, for example, vocabulary, I try to look for in advance like how people say in different countries.

And then when I come to the class I say, "Okay, so we say this way in Argentina, but you might also hear people saying in this way or that way."

- Are these differences primarily vocabulary, or are they in grammar as well sometimes?

- I think the most difficult thing to know is like with Spanish from Spain, they have like a kind of different grammar that we don't usually use in Latin America, for example.

But it's not that different, it's mostly related to vocabulary, but it's not like if I speak to someone from Spain, I cannot understand them.

Or if I speak to someone from Columbia, it's not that I'm not going to be able to understand him.

Of course there are some words that are particular to a country, but if you know Spanish, you try to to understand by the context also.

- Well I think the thing you're describing, I know it exists in English as well.

- Same happens with American and British accents, you know?

We do have some different words, and besides the accent, which is also different, but there are some words like elevator or lift.

But I think they are small differences.

Like it's not like if you speak American English, you won't be able to understand British English.

- Exactly, yeah.

So here at Northwest, you're teaching community college students, many of them their first college experience, maybe right out of high school.

Many of them I think probably the first foreign language training they've ever received.

How do you go about it?

What's the first thing you say when you walk into a class of English speaking teenagers from Wyoming?

- Yeah, what I try to do is like, first of all, I greet them in Spanish.

On our first classes, I taught them like basic stuff, like how to introduce themselves, how to say "My name is," or how to greet someone, vocabulary that we always use in the classroom first.

And then we keep on moving like little by little in order to make it more complex, to learn longer structures and phrases that they can use on a daily basis.

So that's what I try to teach.

- So the idea is by the time the first class is over, they know something.

- Yeah, totally.

And a good thing that I think I do is like in every class, I take like 10 or 15 minutes to do like a revision of what we have been working with from the very beginning until now.

So we try to keep on practicing like the things I taught them in the first class because if I just teach them something and would never go back to that, they might forget, it's like everything, if you don't keep on practicing, you end up forgetting.

- You're building on what you did.

- Yeah, exactly, and that's a good thing I think because I notice that they are able to answer my questions.

For example, if on the first day, I taught them how to introduce themselves, and now for example, I can ask them, "Okay, Harry, can you please introduce yourself?"

I say this in Spanish, right?

And they are able, I'm happy because they are able to do that and that means that they really learned.

And I love to do that.

- How did you learn to speak English?

- Yeah, it was really hard at the beginning, because I started learning English after I finished high school.

And I went to our English academies in Argentina, but I also taught myself like watching YouTube videos, tutorials.

- Really?

- Yeah, and I think that helped me a lot.

Another thing that I did is like after I used to finish with my classes, I try to watch videos, like TV programs from the United States or the UK, like "The X Factor," "The Voice."

And I try to repeat the phrases they said and try to copy the intonation, the pronunciation.

And I think that helped me a lot.

It's always a dream for English teachers in Argentina to come to an English speaking country because there is where you really experience the real language and you have the chance of putting everything that you have learned into practice.

And yeah, at the beginning, I was really nervous, like what am I going to do if someone, or if I don't understand someone at the airport, for example.

But yeah, it feels great.

It feels great satisfaction when you talk to someone and you are able to understand everything that he's saying or to answer back, it's great, it feels an enormous satisfaction.

- I know in some parts of the world, English is part of the basic school curriculum.

- Most of its schools in Argentina are offering as the main language English, but then you have other schools or private schools where you can also learn Portuguese or French, German as well.

So yeah, but mainly English is the first language taught.

- Why is that, do you think?

What role do you see English having in the world of languages?

Is it to have a special place, a more important place than others?

- I think that's a very good question though.

Since we live in a globalized world nowadays, I think English is mainly the language of business.

So you can hear people speaking English everywhere.

If you go to Thailand for example, and you do speak the language, that might be someone speaking English.

Same if you go to Japan, Russia, whatever country you go, I think there will be someone to speak English.

And like I said before, I consider English to be the language of business.

And so that's why it is really important to learn language.

And that's why most countries nowadays offer English as the first language.

- You said that you didn't learn, at least begin formal education in English until you were out of high school.

One of the things I've always been told is the best way to learn a language is when you were a little tiny child, you didn't do that, would you agree with that or?

- Yeah, totally.

I think the younger you learn a language, the better it will be.

Because I think at that age, your brain is like a sponge and you absorb absolutely everything.

But I didn't have the chance of taking English lessons until I finished high school.

And also because I didn't know that I had a passion for English.

And that was like, after I finished high school, I realized about that.

But yeah, I think it's totally true.

I mean, if you learn a language at a young age, it will be much easier for you to get all the vocabulary knowledge of that language.

- Almost as if you're learning two languages sort of at the same time, it's almost like learning one.

Just a bigger language.

You said you realized you had a passion for it.

What was that realization?

When did you begin to think that, or why?

- Well, I finished high school, and in high school, after high school, sorry, I had an English teacher, and he was my mentor.

I always admired him and I said, I mean, because his classes were really fun.

And I said, "Okay, I really like English, I want to be like him."

And unfortunately, he passed away a couple of years ago.

But yeah, definitely, he was my biggest inspiration to become an English teacher and he transmitted that passion to me.

- A good teacher can be a very important thing, can't it?

- Totally.

I think he made me love English in a way that I don't see myself like teaching something else that is not English, for example.

I love teaching English, I love the language.

I think there's always room for improvement.

And I'm learning a lot here as well.

I put into practice my English skills.

And so, like I said before, there's always room for improvement, and I love to keep on learning things.

- Well, you have Spanish, you have English, other languages?

- I'm trying to learn a little bit of Portuguese because there is a student here who is from Brazil and he's teaching me Portuguese.

And also sometimes, I watch some Italian videos to try to learn a little bit of Italian.

I think I want to learn Portuguese and Italian because they are pretty much similar to Spanish.

So I don't think it's gonna be like that hard to learn.

And it isn't that hard.

The things like, we just need to, I need to organize myself more and try to find a time where I can learn.

I don't mind like learning by myself.

I think it's a good thing because I do have like the skills of learning a language and know how a language works, what to learn first, what to learn after.

And I think that's a good thing.

- I think in things that people do, some people are better at some things than others.

Say I'm playing baseball and my friend might be better at baseball than I am.

I try hard, I learned to play baseball, but he's just better.

Were you better at languages than other people, do you think you had talent for it?

- Yeah, I think I was a little bit better, but just because I tried harder.

And I always wanted to impress my teacher with my abilities with the language.

So I always tried harder.

And I think that made me like someone competitive in the class.

I mean, not in a bad sense- - Wanted to do well.

- Yeah, because I wanted to impress my mentor, I want him to be proud of me.

And that's mainly why I considered I was a good competitor, let's say, in the class.

- Do you compare the languages in your mind at all?

Is one language more beautiful than the other, or more expressive or more versatile or flexible?

Do you think about it in those terms?

- Yeah, totally.

I think I love English, I love the accent, but I love Spanish as well because it's my first language, and what sometimes happens to me is like, I confuse both languages.

Or sometimes I remember the word in English, but not in Spanish.

And sometimes when I am with Spanish speakers, I talk to them in English, but because I don't realize that I'm talking to them in English, it's an unconscious process, I think.

And people who usually speak different languages, I think they have these kind of problems, let's say that we try to mix the languages, but it's an unconscious process.

- Tell me a bit more about something we said when we first met that you are interested in teaching non-English speakers, non-Spanish speakers as well, in trying to help them learn English, not in either of your languages here on the college campus.

- Yeah, yeah, that's right.

A couple of weeks ago, three students, one from Mexico, another from Spain, and one from Costa Rica asked me if I could help them with English.

And so I say, "Yeah, I mean, I love teaching English.

I'm not teaching English here, so why not?"

And then there were also some Japanese people who asked me to teach them English, to help them with English.

And I said, "Okay, I think this is a good idea to start like formal classes."

So I talked to my supervisor and I proposed them to teach English to these people, like basic English, because usually what they learned here is not like the language we learn in our country, for example, if you go to an English academy.

And I noticed that they needed more practice, more vocabulary, they need to practice more speaking.

So I told my advisor about this and she thought it was going to be a good idea.

So we are still moving forward to that.

And I'm still waiting for the last chance.

I mean, because it's not just about getting an approval from the college.

I already had the approval from the college, but I need the approval from Fulbright.

Because my role here was not to teach English, but to teach Spanish.

But I got this idea, and for the college it's fine, they liked it.

And so I'm still waiting for the final stage of this approval from Fulbright.

But yeah, I mean, everything's going pretty well.

- Your Fulbright program lasts how long?

- It's a year program.

- So you arrived in August, and you'll be here through the end of the academic year as we call it?

- Yeah, I'll be leaving the United States on May the 24th.

- Where are you going?

- I'm going back to Argentina, yeah.

- What then do you think?

What would you hope to have happen after that?

- Well, that's a really good question.

So I came here to grow up like not only professionally, but also like personally.

And I think I've been doing a great job here.

I feel proud of myself, and I know there are still a lot of things to achieve.

I love challenges in life, so I always try to find a new challenge.

And I'm still working on some stuff because I want to teach Spanish once I go back to Argentina, probably online.

And then I would love to come back to the United States because I really love the country, and there are also some other programs where I can apply for and come here to teach and live here for two years, for example.

So there are so many opportunities here, like going in the air, flying in the air, sorry.

And that I'm trying to organize myself, like what can be bad for me?

And I'm still like trying to find myself in this way.

- Well I have been a... People who watch "Wyoming Chronicle" have heard me say this before.

In Wyoming, the community colleges like Northwest are so important, aren't they?

To the towns that they're in because they help bring people like you to Wyoming.

And I think I have a feeling that the state, the community of Powell, the college are better for having you here.

- I think the college has been doing a really great job like gathering and getting international students, and I love the atmosphere at the college because everyone is so nice, also in the community in general, people are really nice.

I love the warmth here, the quietness.

And they make you feel like you are at home, you know?

And that's a great feeling because we can like talk to everyone.

Everyone is so nice.

They invite you to do activities.

And definitely I wasn't expecting this, but it's a great thing because I love socializing, I love talking with people, and I have met really nice people here.

- I'm gonna try this again, Jorge Apponde.

- Yeah.

- I have enjoyed speaking with you very much, and I think I've learned a few things from you as well.

I feel that you're kind of a natural educator as well, and I hope the viewers feel the same.

- It's been an honor for me.

Thank you for the invitation.

- Thanks for being with us on "Wyoming Chronicle."