Study Abroad- Toledo, Spain

I studied abroad in Toledo, Spain in an intensive Spanish course over the summer for six weeks. I took two classes that counted towards my dual degree at OSU and traveled all over Spain in order to immerse myself in the culture.

When in the United States, you see how people are different from you. You see their culture, skin color, and other attributes that make them diverse and unique in their own way. However, a lot of culture things are accepted, regardless of certain backgrounds or features. When you go to a different country though, some of these nationally accepted ideas or sayings are considered completely out of place.

During my time there, our foundation had a program called “Intercambio” where you would get together with a native Spanish speaker who wanted to learn English and converse about anything and everything. We would spend about an hour speaking Spanish and an hour speaking English about twice a week. During this time, we talked about certain things we had heard about each other’s countries, personal life stories, and random things a well. One thing that really stuck out to me was when our Spanish friends asked about certain grammatical slang like “kind” and “pretty”. In Spanish, kind of and kind are two completely different words and can easily be distinguished but when saying that in english, especially with not a lot of prior background, kind can be very confusing. Same with pretty. To be pretty means two completely things while using the same word. Someone could be pretty, bonito or guapo in Spanish or they could be pretty good or busy, bastante in Spanish. Just the use of these words in one sentence can really be confusing to those who aren’t fluent.

And that’s when it hit me. Here we are, talking about things that make complete sense in our language but not in someone else’s language, and suddenly the world gets that much bigger. I realized that even simple things like the use of typical words can really create a different sense of understanding between people and cultures. By being able to explain these certain words, along with others, and them explaining better ways to say certain things in Spanish, I was able to see a whole new side to the way that language can either separate us or in this case, bring us closer together.

Without this kind of interaction that we had twice a week, I don’t think I would have been able to make that connection. There are so many different kinds of colloquialisms that everyone uses on a daily basis that no one thinks twice about. But by having these better understandings, I was able to take a step further in understanding the Spanish language that I love so much and also understand more of the roots of the Spanish people. They always speak with understanding and listen very intently to what we are saying. If we can have more bonding and understanding like my friends and I did while we were simply talking about life in general, this world would be a much safer and nicer place.

This change is significant for my life because my goal is to be a hospital pharmacist that interacts primarily with patients whose first language is Spanish. By having this better understanding of how some cultural trends can be interpreted, I can have a better understanding of how to interact with patients and how to talk about certain topics. This experience is super crucial for me attaining this goal because my Spanish has greatly improved since going abroad and I don’t think that would have been as possible without it. With this trip, I have a better understanding of myself, the Spanish language, and the world around me.

Here is my blog. We became really busy after I stopped posting so it’s most my excursions and the beginning stuff. Enjoy 🙂

http://hagyosutospain.blogspot.com/