1I've been reading your personal statement, Paul.
2First, let's talk about your work experience in South America.
3What took you there?
4Was it to gain more fluency in Spanish?
5Well, as I'm combining Spanish with Latin American studies,
6my main idea was to find out more about the way people lived there.
7My spoken Spanish was already pretty good in fact.
8So you weren't too worried about language barriers?
9No.
10In fact, I ended up teaching English there,
11although that wasn't my original choice of work.
12I see.
13How did you find out about all this?
14I found an agency that runs all kinds of voluntary projects in South America.
15What kind of work?
16Well, there were several possibilities.
17You mean construction? Engineering work?
18Yes, getting involved in building projects was an option.
19Then there was tourism - taking tourists for walks around the volcanoes -
20which I actually chose to do,
21and then there was work with local farmers.
22But you didn't continue with that project. Why not?
23Because I never really knew whether I'd be needed or not.
24I'd thought it might be difficult physically, but I was certainly fit enough...
25now, I wanted to do something that had more of a proper structure to it, I suppose,
26I get demotivated otherwise.
27What do you think you learned from your experience?
28It must have been a great opportunity to examine community life.
29Yes, but it was difficult at first to be accepted by the locals.
30It was a very remote village
31and some of them were reluctant to speak to me -
32although they were always interested in my clothes and how much I'd had to pay for them.
33Well, that's understandable.
34Yes, but things soon improved.
35What struck me was that when people became more comfortable with me and less suspicious,
36we really connected with each other in a meaningful way.
37You made good friends?
38Yes, with two of the families in particular.
39Good.
40What about management.
41Did you have a project manager?
42Yes, and he gave me lots of advice and guidance.
43And was he good at managing too?
44That wasn't his strong point!
45I think he was often more interested in the academic side of things than filling reports.
46He was a bit of a dreamer.
47And did you have a contract?
48I had to stay for a minimum of three months.
49My parents were surprised when I asked to stay longer - six months in the end.
50I was so happy there.
51And did anything on the administration side of things surprise you?
52What was the food and lodging like?
53Simple... but there was plenty to eat and I only paid $7 a day for that, which was amazing really.
54And they gave me all the equipment I needed... even a laptop.
55You didn't expect that then?
56No.
57Well, I'll look forward to hearing more.
58But now let's look at these modules.
59You'll need to start thinking about which ones you'll definitely want to study.
60The first one here is Gender Studies in Latin America.
61It looks at how gender analysis is reconfiguring civil society in Latin America.
62Women are increasingly occupying positions in government
63and in other elected leadership positions in Latin America.
64I think you'd find it interesting.
65If it was to do with people in the villages rather than those in the public sphere, I would.
66Okay.
67What about Second Language Acquisition?
68Do you think I'd find that useful?
69Well, you've had some practical experience in the field, I think it would be.
70I hadn't thought about that.
71I'll put that down as a definite, then.
72Okay.
73What about indigenous Women's Lives.
74That sounds appropriate.
75I thought so too, but I looked at last year's exam questions and that changed my mind.
76Don't judge the value of the course on that.
77Maybe talk to some other students first and we can talk about it again later.
78Okay.
79Yes, and lastly, will you sign up for Portuguese lessons?
80My Spanish is good, so would I find that module easy?
81Not necessarily.
82Some people find that Spanish interferes with learning Portuguese...
83getting the accent right too.
84It's quite different in a lot of ways.
85Well, I'd much sooner do something else, then.
86Alright.
87Now, what we need to do...