From Nicaragua to CCC
GLOBETROTTING POLYGLOT INSTRUCTOR SHARES HIS EXPERIENCES
BY ZACHARY WHITLEY
STAFF WRITER
Ernesto Hernandez is a full-tim e French
and Spanish teacher at Clackam as
Community College. Before joining the
college/ he spent his time as a teacher
journeying overseas with a specialty in
European languages.
The Clackamas Print: Could you talk
a little bit about your background?
Ernesto Hernandez: I grew up bilingual
speaking English and Spanish.! was born
in a tiny little country called Nicaragua
in Central America. My family ended up
leaving for the United States and m ost of
my family settled in Los Angeles, whereas
my father settled in Vermont. I grew up
with my mother in Los Angeles but I kept
sort of moving back and forth between my
parents, so I grew up between very urban
Los Angeles and very rural Vermont. My
first exposure to French was early on when
I ended up living with my dad. Vetmont
is right next to Quebec and Quebec is a
French speaking region, so Vermont had
really good bilingual programs in French.
I started learning so early on that I don’t
have an accent in French. In my last year
of high school, I started Germ an, the
only language leftover for me to learn.
Eventually, I taught English ift Japan and
learned Japanese while I was there, but
it’s rusty.
TCP: should people be bi/multi-lingual?
Hernandez: There really is no reason
why every person who goes through the
education system in the United, States
isn ’t bilingual in English and Spanish
by the tim e they’re 18 years old. I t ’ s
shocking to me. That should just happen.
It happens for the most part, with varying
degrees of success. Virtually all Canadians
are pretty fluent in French and English,
if they’re Anglophones from an English-
speaking background, they’ll at least be
able to converse in French and vice-versa.
The fact that that’s, not true in English
and Spanish is very shocking^ because
som ething like 25% o f our country is
Spanish-speaking.
at an ESL program there. I wanted to
live in Portland, and m oving up from
Corvallis to Salem, I was slowly making
my wayup the I-5.1 always sorted want
to go to a different route as well, I had
been teaching international and ESL
students a long time, and I took it as an
opportunity to get back to my languages.
Low and behold, I see an advertisement
for a French and Spanish teacher here at
CCC and I saidj “Well, that’s me!”
TCP: Where have you been before CCC?
TCP: What do you like about your job?
H ern an d ez: I graduated “w ith a
bachelor’s degree in French,. German
and Spanish. I had. a double-major and
a minor,; but then what do you do with
that, right? I always-wanted to teach and
especially because ifyou do it right, you
still can have lots of free time. I absolutely
adore what I do. Even on vacation Iim
always thinking about “ my- next class* I
can use this,” so I’m pretty much always
working but because I enjoy it, it doesn’t
seem like work. A fter m y university
experience, I decided to work through
an ESL foreign teacher program at Saint
Michael’s College in Vermont. I taught
in Morocco for three to four m onths,
and when I came back my first big job
as a teacher was going to Japan. I took
this very nice offer at a University in
Kanazawa, Japan. I had known nothing
about Asia, nothing about Japan. I ended
up living there for five years.
Hernandez: What I really like is the
diversity of the students. In universities I
had been before, not in a negative sense,
but everything was quieter. Everything
was sort of more strict in a sense. Here
the students aren’t afraid to tell me
they’re really struggling or that their
lives are a mess, and I try to help them
in any way I can. We have veterans arid
sometimes I have to meet them halfway.
There’ s all sorts of problems where I
have very emotional conversations with
my students. They share how they’re
struggling in their lives and the type
of help they need, I try to meet them
halfway and connect them through
resources here. Maybe it’s the nature of
a community college versus a university
or grad school, but here people can be
themselves and say, “ No, I have this
problem and I have that problem. My car
broke down and this and that.” I have real
experiences with my students. It keeps
me on my toes. I feel we can be ourselves.
. This interview has been edited for
clarity and space.
TCP: How did you get to CCC?
Hernandez: My contract had finished
at Oregon State University, and I was
Photos courtesy o f Ernesto Hernandez
Ernesto Hernandez soaks in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, 2017.
Clackamas Print
Hernandez visits the British Columbia Parliament in Vancouver, Canada, 2019.
theclackam asprint.com
June 5, 2019