Katie Hrycak

Minor in Spanish

Current Occupation: User Experience Designer
Current Location: New Brunswick, Canada
Program: Bachelor of International Business/10

Notable Quotable:

Why did you choose this particular language”

I chose Spanish because it is is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. In addition, my program offered a third-year study abroad, and the Spanish-speaking countries appealed to me the most.

Tell us about your learning experience

I will never forget my first Spanish class. The professor refused to speak a single word of English, no matter what, and I sat there completely lost, fumbling through the activities and exercises. For several months, my brain was exhausted after every class. In hindsight, that was the best way to learn and to prepare me for the study-abroad year, and I am forever grateful for my professor’s patience with all of us. What stood out to me most was how music and movies were integrated into learning the language, along with reading newspaper articles from various Spanish-speaking countries. This tied in with the politics, culture, and business topics we were studying in other classes, and being able to read about them in Spanish made everything much more meaningful.

Travel as part of your degree

If you have the opportunity to study abroad, take it. The experience is life-changing in ways that are difficult to put into words, yet everyone who has done it will tell you the same. While my minor in Spanish gave me a strong foundation, nothing compares to being fully immersed in the language and culture every single day. I am still fluent in Spanish because of that time abroad, but the true gift was the confidence I gained from living independently in another country, navigating classes, the long-lasting friendships I made in that country, and connecting with people from all over the world. Studying abroad doesn’t just teach you a language, it transforms the way you see yourself and your place in the world.

How have you used the language since graduating

The confidence I gained from becoming fluent in Spanish carried over into learning other languages and gave me the courage to never hesitate when putting my mind to something . A few years after university, I left Canada to backpack solo as a digital nomad through more than 30 countries. Along the way, I picked up fairly strong French, Italian, and Ukrainian, and enough Portuguese, Khmer, Vietnamese, and Russian to get by.

Learning the local language wherever I went made travel infinitely more meaningful. The look of surprise and delight when someone heard me trying their language never lost its magic. It opened doors to volunteer opportunities, invitations into family homes, and deeper connections with communities. One moment that stands out was I had decided to learn Ukrainian so I could go meet my cousins for the first time. To do that, I volunteered at a language school in Ukraine, teaching English in exchange for Ukrainian lessons. My teacher and I realized it was actually easier to teach me Ukrainian through Spanish rather than English, because of the similar grammar structures. If you had told me in my first year of university that I would one day be learning Ukrainian through Spanish, I would never have believed it.

Professionally, these experiences have made me a stronger leader and designer. Speaking multiple languages and adapting to different cultures has sharpened my ability to listen, empathize, and connect with people from diverse backgrounds.

Why study a second or additional language?

For me, learning a language has been about confidence, connection, and perspective. Spanish was the gateway: at first, it felt overwhelming, but through immersion and persistence I not only became fluent, I also learned how to keep trying, even when I felt lost.

I have beautiful moments where I’ll remember something in Spanish rather than English, or am able to describe a feeling in Portuguese because the word doesn’t exist in English. I can easily flip my brain around to thinking in many different ways, because it had to when adapting to different language structures. It’s opened my mind to take complex problems and approach them in different ways. I would never have this ability if I relied on a computer to try to do what the greatest machine, my mind, already does.

Language is not just about words and translating those words, it is about showing respect for a culture, about being willing to step outside your comfort zone, and about participating in life instead of just observing it or putting it into a computer to do for you. Technology can never replace the mindset you build, the real sense of accomplishment and satisfaction you get when speaking, or the reaction from others when you connect to them more deeply with the nuance that we all have when we communicate to each other