1. For my education abroad experience, I stayed with a host family in Salamanca, Spain and took Spanish courses for 6 weeks at the University of Salamanca. In addition, my group took trips to various cities throughout Spain and Europe and participated in weekly cultural activities in the city.
2. During my time in Salamanca, I gained insight into the differences between Spanish and American culture and ways of life. I learned, for example, that the daily schedule allows for people to go home during lunch time to eat, spend time with family, and rest before going off to work/ school for the rest of the day. This in turn means the people stay out later and spend more time and home and with family during the day and don’t participate in the straight 9-5 work day we have become accustomed to in the United States. I bolstered my language skills through acquisition of vocabulary and practice, which helped me learn more about my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to using Spanish in a social setting. Up until this trip, I had only really used Spanish in academic settings, so learning how that is different from socially speaking Spanish was eye opening. I assumed people would be annoyed when I struggled to speak with fluency, but was pleasantly surprised when my lack of fluency was met with great understanding and encouragement from those around me.
3. Eating and talking with my host family every day helped me gain confidence in my speaking skills and a better understanding of Spanish culture. Also, living in a place where English is rarely used forced me to get outside my comfort zone and use my Spanish with strangers helped my Spanish skills as well. Getting to know my host parents and talking with them about current social and political issues in the US and Spain gave me insight on other people’s perspectives on these issues and how they think they should be solved.
The cultural activities through ISA, specifically the bike tour of the city, flamenco class and cathedral tours showed me the rich and beautiful history of the culture, customs and architecture of Salamanca and Spain as a whole, which in turn led to a deeper understanding of the world around me. During our bike tour, our guide told us about the festivals and celebrations in the city during the year, and why they celebrate what they celebrate. In the flamenco class, we learned about the different types of Spanish dance and music as well as how to perform a dance from each one with proper form. Dance is a very important part of the Spanish culture, and our instructor taught us about how dance is connected to the performer’s past, heritage emotions, and hopes for the future. In our Cathedral tours, I was fascinated to learn about the development of religion in Spain over time and how that process influenced modern day faith practices in the country. Through these cultural activities, we interacted directly with the people and history of the city and gained much insight on Spanish culture.
Having the opportunity to travel around Europe during my STEP project showed me how wide the world really is and opened my mind to the possibility of living and working in another country. I learned how much I love to travel, and doing it with such ease and on a student budget proved to me it was possible for me in the future when I am in grad school or working. I learned about different ways of life as well as how I feel about them, what I liked and didn’t like about each country we visited, and if i could see myself living there. Through these travel experiences, I discovered how small my understanding of the world was and how much more I want to learn.
4. These new discoveries made me reconsider my plans for the future to incorporate some form of traveling or teaching abroad in my life. Before this trip, I did’t have much interest living abroad, but now that I have experienced it for a brief amount of time through STEP, I definitely want to incorporate it into my life. Gaining a deeper understanding of other cultures helps me become a better teacher because I can teach my students authentically and with more knowledge on the subject. Gaining confidence in my speaking skills helps not only my Spanish skills but my self esteem as a whole, which is something I will have to keep using my entire life.