It all started with a business retreat.
In 2019, Adam Lemcio traveled to Spain with his Microsoft colleagues for a week of training and connection. While he spent his days deep in conversation, his free time was very different.
As he walked through the streets, he kept his head down, hoping no one would stop him and try to converse in Spanish. He knew a little about the language, but not enough to speak confidently or answer questions.
After a few days, Lemcio faced a test. It was time to head to the airport and return to the Seattle area. The cab driver wanted to chat, but he spoke no English.
Lemcio took a deep breath and decided to muddle through.
As the taxi moved slowly through the city, the driver and passenger talked about where they were from, the weather, the density of the traffic and more. It was just a simple conversation to pass the time.
“When I got out of the cab, I thought, ‘I’ve just been talking to this native Spaniard for the last 30 minutes, only in Spanish,’” Lemcio said. “I walked through the airport with my chest just puffed out. I was feeling very pleased with myself.”
His unexpected success made him realize how much Spanish he knew — and how much he was missing through independent study.
“I had a functional knowledge of the language, and there were a whole lot of things that I already understood. I knew in certain situations, you said a thing a certain way. But I didn’t understand why,” he said.
Diving deeper into learning Spanish
Lemcio is someone who likes to know why. He also likes to track his performance, so he knows what to improve.
“I’ve always really valued formal, academic learning. For some people, it’s too structured. For me, I love having a goal and a set of points and a letter at the end,” he said.
He also loves language. He took Spanish in high school and majored in English in college. In 2019, he was learning multiple languages at once, including Ukrainian, Japanese, Swedish and Spanish through Rosetta Stone and Duolingo.
He didn’t need these languages to succeed in his career. He just enjoyed learning. But splitting his attention across four languages and learning independently meant he wasn’t making significant progress in any of them.
“I felt I needed to go deep into the grammar and take it apart,” he said. “I was not going to get that if I continued to learn on my own.”
Do Spanish classes online really work?
Lemcio decided to use Microsoft’s employee tuition reimbursement program toward earning a bachelor’s degree in Spanish online from Oregon State University. The online format allowed him to keep working while learning Spanish.
“One of the things I needed because of my full-time work schedule was flexibility. I wasn’t going to be able to attend a class that was time stamped. I needed to be able to get to it whenever I was going to get to it,” Lemcio said.
Taking Oregon State Spanish classes online fit that demand, but Lemcio had concerns.
“My only real experience with formal Spanish education was in a classroom. You have a partner and work in groups and the teacher’s speaking in Spanish and there are open discussions. You had to be in the moment,” he said. “I was really curious. How is this going to work?”
Those doubts faded once Lemcio experienced Oregon State’s course design firsthand. He discovered that OSU’s online language courses include the opportunity to practice with other students in real time.
“I think that was the main bridge,” he said. “There would be either an assignment or a discussion that you were supposed to have, and you would work together with the expectation that you were going to be speaking Spanish the whole time.”
“I was so pleased and satisfied with the online experience — something I thought I would never be hyped about.”
Coursework also included scheduling conversations in Spanish with trained partners through the TalkAbroad platform. The pair could discuss any topic they both enjoyed, such as food, television shows or vacation spots.
“Through that, I spoke to people from Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru and Bolivia. I really got to test my skills on the pros,” Lemcio said.
An internship closes the circle
Between working full time at Microsoft and raising a family, Lemcio could only take one course per term. But he stuck with it, completing his courses one by one.
In time, he had only one task left: an internship. This experience would allow him to apply his language skills in a meaningful community setting.
Lemcio was paired with the Latino Educational Training Institute near his home in Washington, where he taught adult students who spoke only Spanish. His expertise was in high demand.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2023, about 41% of Washington residents who weren’t born in the country spoke English less than “very well.”
As part of the Spanish program’s internship, he opened his first class with recollections about his trip to Spain.
“I told my students I know what it’s like to be afraid that someone is going to talk to you and you’re not going to know how to respond, so we’re going to be students together,” Lemcio said. “I’m standing in front of you as a Spanish student in a room full of Spanish teachers.”
Preparing for what comes next
Lemcio completed his Spanish bachelor’s degree in the same month his son graduated from high school, a milestone he planned from the start.
Lemcio has maintained his connection with the Latino Educational Training Institute. He teaches English classes on the weekends and tutors students during the week.
“The beauty of it is that it guarantees that my Spanish won’t get rusty, because I’m speaking it every week. If I weren’t, there would be a risk that some of these muscles would get kind of flabby,” he said.
Teaching keeps his Spanish sharp, but it also fuels curiosity about what else he can learn. Lemcio is hoping to enroll in another Oregon State online degree program.
“I was so pleased and satisfied with the online experience — something I thought I would never be hyped about. Now, I’m just wondering what else I can learn from OSU,” he said.
Learn more about Oregon State University’s Spanish bachelor’s degree online and start your journey today.
