Laboring through one foreign language requires time and dedication, and learning two languages has proven to be rare. However, senior Mark Koester delved into the challenge by chance.

Koester originally took Spanish because of its popularity, but an opportunity opened up to take German 1 this year because of scheduling conflicts. Although he did not initially plan on learning the language, he came to enjoy it.

“I kind of wanted to learn it in the past because my name is German and it made more sense to learn that than Spanish. But I don’t think I’m that proficient because I only know one semester’s worth of (German), so just a handful of words and verbs in the present tense,” Koester said.

Learning a second foreign language was easier for Koester due to his prior experience of taking Spanish for four years. Recently, Koester had an opportunity to utilize his Spanish skills during a spring break trip to Mexico.

“I just went to Mexico and it was cool to speak Spanish with the people there since they didn’t always speak good English, so it was interesting being able to help them with English and get help with Spanish at the same time,” Koester said.

Despite learning two foreign languages at once, Koester plans to achieve fluency in Spanish after high school rather than continuing German.