Philosophy
Broadly speaking, doing philosophy means that everything in the world, from existence itself to mental processes, is under consideration. As Aristotle put it, philosophy begins in wonder that things are as they are. However, like so many other things in our culture, philosophy has changed somewhat in meaning. Originally, the ancient Greek writer Plato's concept, inspired by his contact with Socrates, used the metaphor of a lover pursuing his beloved to define philosophy as the pursuit of wisdom. Of course, it is one thing to be amazed that the world is the way it is, and it is another thing entirely to 'pursue' anything the way a lover pursues a beloved in order to be wise. What did that mean for Plato and the ancient Greeks and Romans after him? It meant that philosophy was a way of life, not just an intellectual hobby or academic study through books.
Today, Plato's definition of philosophy is not exactly how a professor of Philosophy might define what he or she does in the context of university courses, research, or writing. Philosophy at the beginning of the 21st century is an academic concern that includes (brief list): Metaphysics (the problem of existence--being and reality), Political Philosophy (the problem of society and government), Ethics (the problem of relationships, good and evil), Logic (the problem of how to think well and the kinds of thinking appropriate to diverse situations), Epistemology (the problem of knowledge--whether we really know anything and how we know what we know), and History of Philosophy (the problem of what past philosophers have said and whether there is such a thing as a philosophical tradition).
Therefore, to study philosophy today means: (1) to become familiar with what others have said/written on a particular problem; (2) to identify what worked and what did not work in those past sayings/writings; (3) to arrive at your own approach to solving the problem (or eliminating the problem, which is not the same thing--see Ludwig Wittgenstein); and (4) to learn how to clearly present the premises, arguments and conclusions of your approach. Even logic, which is taken for granted as the method for critiquing and arguing in philosophy, needs to be understood in terms of its history and which of its concepts are more or less helpful for the purposes of philosophy.
Lastly, although philosophy as people in the United States typically learn it is a European phenomenon with ancient Greek roots (the word is a compound of the Greek prefix 'philo-', which means 'friend' or 'lover', and the word 'sophia', which means 'wisdom'), the idea of philosophy, both in the Platonic sense and in the modern sense, has strong analogues in all of the world's cultures, in all continents. Hence, achieving broad understanding of what philosophy is also entails becoming familiar with its various iterations in all places throughout history (e.g., in Africa, in the Middle East, in the Far East Asia, etc.).
Spanish
My way of helping others to communicate in Spanish includes methods such as Total Physical Response, with which many movement verbs are learned through active association; the Audio-Lingual Method, through which questions, complete sentences and useful idioms for diverse contexts and situations are practiced; and a modified Direct Method, used to learn to use vocabulary and the grammatical forms of the target language directly, without recourse to the student’s native language. Together with written grammar exercises, anyone wanting to learn Spanish can learn it holistically and efficiently. Typically, I assign grammar and listening exercises as homework, and focus on practicing conversation during lessons. I think controlled conversation (correcting errors in the moment) is an efficient use of class time and a very effective way to learn to express oneself well and understand others.