The Oracle was given the opportunity to chat with Spanish Teacher Mr. Luke Leiden. Mr. Leiden Spanish 2 through 5 and is one of 2 teachers who teach Spanish at Shaler area High School.

Q: What is your favorite restaurant? 

A: My favorite restaurant is probably any small taco stand in the U.S. I think that Mexican taco stands are my favorite restaurants because they’re outside. You can sit on the ground, you can find a table, you can order different tacos and meet new people and stuff like that. And sometimes I admit that even though I’m a Spanish teacher I actually like Mad Mex and sometimes go. I like getting recommendations from students from Mexican restaurants, but at the end of the day since my wife is from Mexico, when we want Mexican food she cooks.

Q: Did you ever see yourself being a Spanish teacher in the future?

A:  Definitely not, I didn’t even see myself being a teacher. My mom was  a teacher growing up, and I just kind of always wondered how she could do that. When I left high school I was pretty certain that I wasn’t going to go back, so I think it’s kind of interesting that I did end up going back. 

Q: Why did you choose to teach Spanish over the other subjects? 

A: I chose to teach Spanish because I did very poorly in Spanish class in high school. I didn’t think that I needed Spanish and I just took Spanish so that I didn’t have to take it in college. But what made me come back to it is that once I learned Spanish, and started talking with people and them understanding me in Spanish it was just kind of like the coolest feeling I ever had. Just to be able to just stumble through words and the person like “Oh yeah, I understand what you mean,” it was just so amazing. I always joke with my students, like when I go to Mexico and order food and the food comes back and it’s what I ordered, I’m just really happy. I think teaching Spanish for me gave me a confidence that I never had, and I would love to be able to share that with students for maybe someday they would need it.

Q: What is your first car?

A: My first car I bought used and it was a 99 Green Volkswagen Golf that the previous owner had spray painted the hubcaps gold because it had like it had a gold like little racing line on it. I thought it was really cool. It was a hatchback, so it was easy to park, and I didn’t get it till I was out of college. I never had one in highschool and always had my friends drive me to school and stuff.

Q: What is your favorite movie or show? 

A: My favorite show is The Office. I love the sarcasm, and I’ve never worked in an office setting, so it kind of makes me think differently. I think that Steve Carehouse is really funny and I think that all the characters in The Office are kind of relatable. And my favorite movie growing up was Cool Runnings because we used to go to video stores and rent movies, and I think my dad would just get so frustrated with looking around, to the point that he would just get Cool Runnings every time. I thought the Jamaican bobsled team was a really cool thing and I always liked the Olympics growing up, so I thought it was a pretty cool movie. 

Q: What is your favorite slang that you have heard students use and can you use it in a sentence?

A: I think my favorite slang is “same”. The first time I heard it, I understood it and I liked it. I liked “same” but i don’t think we use it as much now as we did earlier., like it was used like tis all the time; “I didn’t do my homework.”  “same.” “I’m starving.” “Same.”

Q: What is your favorite place you’ve ever visited?

A: My favorite 2 places were Chile because the entire country is basically a beach. It was in the southern hemisphere so I had my first ever Christmas with flip flops. It was super warm, and it was so far from home. I just thought I was like kind of out there. And the second place is Katoro, Mexico which is where my wife is from. It’s this gorgeous Spanish colonial town that is basically like the San Diego of Mexico basically. It’s 85 degrees every day, beautiful weather, it never rains and it’s just a pretty vibrant city where they have lots of outdoor festivals because it’s always so nice out. They love to have lots of music in the street.

Q: What is your favorite food?

A:Other than tacos I love any form of pasta. I just feel like it’s always both so delicious and fills you up. I like a good piece of bread with it too. Both the pasta with the bread are probably my favorite.