LANGUAGE ACTION CARDS

Transcription

1 In addition to these action cards, you can also visit the online orientation to find experiential learning activities that can help you dig deeper into the Spanish culture. Go to: Log in using your address and the following password system: your initials in CAPS (i.e. Anne Smith = AS234) LANGUAGE Some students like our suggestion to keep a small notebook and put new Spanish words you learn in it. There are all sorts of approaches to this, and you may be keeping one already! The brightest idea we ve had from a former student is the following: Go to the stationery store (or El Corte Inglés) and buy a small Spanish address book. Use this to make your own personalized dictionary, writing in the words under their first letter (if you learn the word discoteca, for example, put it under d!) If you ve already started a different notebook, you can transfer the words you ve already collected into your new dictionary it ll be a great review! Otherwise, get a fresh address book and start adding word entries. Set aside 15 minutes for some informal language lessons. Go to a newsstand (estanco) and buy a local paper or magazine in Spanish. Go to a nearby café or bar and sit at a table by yourself, within listening range of a pair or group of people. Use your newspaper or magazine as cover, and do some careful eavesdropping on a conversation happening near you. Target your listening for 3 words or expressions that grab your interest. Are these new to you, or have you heard these words/expressions before? Are they always used in the same sort of situation? Make note of these for later, even if you don t know their exact spelling or meaning. Ask a friend, teacher, or host family member to explain what they mean later on. Is this something you would say? If so, try using it! Language is tied to culture. Accompanying the sounds you hear are many gestures, some of which may amuse you or even offend you! Try to eavesdrop on people s body language as well as their spoken language, and spend 15 minutes watching people on the street or in a café. Do they shrug? Talk with their hands? Wave fingers in each other s faces? Have you been on the receiving end of one of these gestures? How did you feel? Flattered? Awkward? Insulted? Have you started to incorporate any of these gestures into your own interactions? Do you feel like your experience with this has been successful? Try to stay attuned to this important aspect of communication throughout your time in Spain. Both of these activities can also be done while watching Spanish TV shows. Telenovelas are particularly known for their expressive language and gestures! Make a point to watch one regularly, and take note of both words and gestures.

2 LANGUAGE SERIOUS ABOUT SPEAKING SPANISH? After realizing she never had a day where she used Spanish for the majority of the time, even once she was living in Spain, one of our students in Seville came up with the idea to have one day a week where she didn t use English at all. This one day she stayed away from ing and calling people back in the States, put special effort into speaking Spanish with her host family and API friends (who saw she was serious, and did actually respect her wishes and do it!), and spent some extra time watching TV or reading in Spanish. At the time she explained her plan to me, she had only being doing her no English days for a few weeks, and she was already thinking about adding a second day per week to gradually work up to more time in Spanish. Practice, practice, practice. Take as many opportunities as you can to use your skills. If I had not been able to get over my fear of speaking the language then I would have never grown in my speaking abilities. It is okay to make mistakes and not pronounce words correctly. The most important part is that you are trying and when you TRY TO SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE people are much more willing to help you out. Odds are you have a fair amount of reading to do already for class, but academic language can be very different from popular language. Three ways you can improve your reading skills are: 1. Read for pleasure! Past students have read everything from Harry Potter to Dan Brown in Spanish, and it s great because you are reading something familiar and lighter, material you enjoy, and practicing Spanish at the same time. Since you already know the story, you can focus on language use and be more aware of new words and structures. You can also look for popular Spanish fiction to read bestsellers, not literature necessarily that may even be set in the city where you live. If you need ideas on where to start, just go to a local bookstore near the university and look around, or ask the staff for a recommendation. 2. Read free papers! Many cities in Spain hand out free papers on the metro, on street corners Pick one up and make a point to read at least one article from it every day. You ll stay in the loop regarding local news, and you won t have to spend a penny! If you re just starting to learn Spanish, just try to grasp the main idea in the article s headline, you don t have to understand every word of the text. 3. Even if you don t read Spanish at a high level, you can observe a lot from looking at format, graphics, and so on. If you don t feel ready for a book yet, go to the newsstand (estanco) and buy a magazine. Pick one that grabs your interest, and look through it. How does it compare to similar magazines in the U.S.? Are ads different? Is layout different? Pick one article and focus on a specific structure that you are learning now. Look for and circle all the verbs in past tense, all the verbs in subjunctive, all the prepositions, or something else you ve recently covered in class.

3 CULTURE Go to the music section of El Corte Inglés, the FNAC or a local music store. Look around to see: What are 3 top sellers right now? What are some new releases (novedades)? Are there more CDs by Spanish artists or international artists? If the store has listening stations, listen to at least 1 song each from 3 different CDs. [If it doesn t, ask the staff if they ll put on one song for you to hear.] If you re feeling adventurous, talk to a salesperson and ask them if they have any recommendations for you based on the kind of music you like. Is there anything you like enough to buy? If so, do CDs seem more expensive in Spain? Follow up your excursion with a brief survey of some people your host family, intercambio, people on the street and ask them what their favorite group/band is. Their recommendations might give you more ideas on what to look for next time you go! What does culture mean to you? A lot of students think of it as theater, dance, music, film Find a theatre in your host city. Locate it on a map and go to visit it. Find out what is currently playing/showing. Ask the box office (taquilla) staff how much tickets cost. Is this something you would be interested in seeing? Would you feel comfortable attending a performance by yourself? Even if you don t want to see the show, try going back to the theatre on the night of a performance/show to see what kind of people typically attend this kind of event. Do local students go? Families? Older couples? Do you think the ticket price makes it accessible to certain groups? Would the audience be different at a performance in a city in the U.S.? Spain has a huge café and bar culture. Odds are a day won t go by without you entering one or the other for a drink or a snack as you hang out with friends, meet your intercambio, or study. One great way to meet locals is to pick a café or bar you like and become a regular. If you haven t already, look for a place you like not too far from home or school. What aspects are you looking for in your ideal café/bar? If you ve already been several times, make a special trip there to give it a closer look than you have on previous visits. What kind of people hang out at this café/bar? Do they serve anything special? Are the prices reasonable? If you were trying to convince a friend to go with you for the first time, how would you describe why this is your place? How does it compare to cafés or bars back home? Put yourself out there, IN THE CULTURE. If you do not make an effort, you will not achieve your goals.

4 RELATIONSHIPS A fresh start One of the reasons study abroad has some uncomfortable moments for students is that it has all the aspects of starting over that going to college had, with the added challenge of doing so in a culture you don t know as well. As you may remember from your freshman year, it can be both scary and exciting to go to a place where no one knows you that well. Scary because you are once again worried about making a good first impression, making connections with new people, avoiding feeling lonely or out-of-place but also exciting because you are liberated from the assumptions your friends from home have about you, and you are free to be a new person in this new environment. Who do you want to be? How do you want to spend your time? Who do you want to meet? FRIENDSHIP is fostered through effort, time, and open communication. Don t hang out with only Americans and in groups of 20 people. Go out with one other person and MEET LOCALS. Start early and it gets easier. Free to decide Lots of students do build strong relationships while abroad, bonding with other students in their program and getting to know some locals. Here are some things you should think about when trying to make friends: You control how you spend your time: If you plan to travel a ton, as many API students do, you will probably be out of the city during many weekends. This means you will be drastically reducing the opportunities you have to seek out new friendships with locals and build those relationships. Think back to freshman year if you had gone home every weekend, would you have made friends as quickly on campus? Try to balance your desire to see the world with your hopes to form quality friendships while abroad. You make choices about the company you keep: Most of us don t like to spend all our time alone, but the tendency to go out in big groups repeats the safety in numbers approach you may have used when going out during the early days of college. If you are out with a bunch of people, others around you will assume you are busy with your own friends and probably won t make any attempt to approach you. Try going out with only 1 or 2 of your American friends at once. You won t be on your own, but you will be more likely to meet other people and talk with them in a smaller group. You decide where you go out: It can be tempting to go where everyone is going, but the reality is that you probably won t meet many locals at The Irish Rover (or whatever the primarily American hang-out is called in your host city). You also won t speak much Spanish, so if that s a priority for you, then try to stick with other students who share your goals for immersing yourself in the authentic culture of Spain. Choose a place to go that appeals to locals too!

5 RELATIONSHIPS Everyone has something that interests them, they have to look for it to MEET PEOPLE. If you want to talk to Spanish people or MAKE SPANISH FRIENDS, you have to make the effort. You can't just say, "why don't Spanish people talk to me?" because really, you probably don't go out of your way to talk to foreign students in your own university. Reality check: not all Spanish people will be open to a new relationship. This is not just a question of cultural differences, though these will affect how you interact with locals. Put yourself in their place. When you are at home, how likely are you to randomly approach a foreign student, strike up a conversation, and invite them out? If you re honest with yourself, the answer is probably not very likely. You have your life, your routine, your friends and support network, and it s probably rare for you to step outside that and take a chance with a new person who you know nothing about especially one who will only be around for a few months. It s not surprising that some locals may not be interested in investing their time in building a deep and meaningful friendship with an American student studying abroad for one semester. The key is to remain positive about your prospects, rather than getting disappointed if your initial attempts to make friends seem to fizzle out. There ARE success stories, and students do meet LOCAL friends and significant others while studying abroad. Keep trying! Common ground Many students find it so much easier to make friends with people in their program. Why? Well, it s pretty obvious that you have shared classes, shared housing, shared excursions and in addition to that, you re going through similar cultural adjustment experiences, you face language learning challenges, you can express yourself more fully to each other (in English, and in the context of American culture) in short, the very act of studying abroad gives you a common ground unlike no other. It s no surprise that with so much in common, some very important friendships develop between American students, and that s great! Lots of students stay in touch with the friends they make abroad for years after their program, because of the power of all that shared experience. If you are serious about getting out of the American bubble and meeting locals too, you will have to make a concerted effort to find ways to do so! It stands to reason that the same thing will be true for making new friends with other students AND locals the more you have in common, the greater the chance you will connect and have something to talk about. We have certainly suggested you get involved at other points of the orientation process, but we cannot stress this point enough! Seek out an activity that gets you close to Spanish people who share a common interest of yours: singing in the university choir, playing soccer in a park on the weekends, hiking trails in the area, taking dance lessons, going to clubs to hear a local band, volunteering for Amnesty International whatever grabs your attention and attend consistently. Don t go once and write if off because you didn t meet a soul mate on day 1, go multiple times and use your shared enthusiasm for the activity to start conversations with locals. Students have said that a great way to strike up a conversation is to ask for advice or recommendations. People also respond to positive energy, so relax, be yourself, be curious about your surroundings, and head out to look for like-minded people!

6 TRAVEL Travel is often one of the best parts of a student s study abroad experience. Everyone always says it s the one time in their life when they get to see these famous international cities, and they want to see it all! Realistically, many of you will go on to travel in the future once the bug bites, but for now you can be intentional about how you approach your travels to have a rich experience and not feel like you re missing out on anything. Find a BALANCE between TRAVEL and staying in your host city. If you travel too much you might miss some of the amazing things the city has to offer. Think about your latest trip or an upcoming one. How did you choose the location? Are you interested in the city/country, or are you going because the rest of your friends are going? What does an ideal trip look like to you? Do you care where you stay, what you eat, where you go out, what sights you see? What are your expectations? Are they realistic? In addition to asking yourself these questions before you leave, you can ask some while you are traveling: Is this city famous for anything in particular? What is one of the most popular dishes in local cuisine? What do you find most surprising about this city/culture? If these questions help open your eyes while traveling, you can print out a longer list from the More than a European vacation page of the API Toolbox [ for further observation/exploration. They can help you be more in tune with the culture you are visiting. You are probably already sending s to friends and family about your travels. Send yourself one as well! If keeping a journal is not your style, this can be a great way to preserve your impressions of your trip while they are still fresh. Most students don t like to think of themselves as tourists, so in this message you might want to write about what you did on this trip that was special a restaurant or bar you visited off the beaten path, a corner of the city you really liked that isn t necessarily listed in travel guides anything that stood out for you. You could also include something you figured out on this trip that might come in handy in future travels. Send your message to an alternate account, or just save it in the drafts folder, and read it again to prep for your next big trip. [If you want to share your experience to help future API students who might travel to this same location, send your to vija@apistudyabroad.com.]

7 INDEPENDENCE If you don t practice and try to meet people, you won t improve. API can offer things, but it s the student s business to do things, people have to do their part! I think that API will do pretty much anything if there s a really proactive student and they re pushing. If the student doesn t work towards it they don t advance, but API can t do the work for you. 80% is up to the person. The API resources are tools, but it s up to them how much they want to learn. It s personal One of the most popular goals among students (#6 in the top 10) is to increase their feeling of personal independence and self-reliance. For some of you, this is the first time far from home, and you re looking for a way to take chances and succeed on your own terms without your usual safety net and support systems. Ironically, when we ask students how API can improve, comments often focus on our generating opportunities for interactions with Spanish people and culture. Students want us to make them meet Spanish people, have volunteer activities or language class to force them to use Spanish, and so on. Students we interviewed in Spain said that working towards your goals is a very personal thing, and they agreed that the best way to become more independent is to take some initiative and seek out opportunities for yourself! If you re feeling stalled, don t worry. Just working through some of these action activities should help you be more independent and proactive about reaching your goals. Carpe Diem! If you took the time before studying abroad to set goals or write a Letter to Yourself (in the online orientation), now is a great time to revisit the thoughts you had before leaving the U.S. If you didn t get a chance to do either of those activities, think back now to what was then most exciting and/or scary about studying abroad. What did you hope to accomplish and/or experience? Do you feel you are progressing towards your own personal goals? Are there things you haven t done yet because they seem too hard? Many students report it s easier to speak English and hang out with API students, but after the program ends they regret not having made more of an effort. Think of 3 things you really want to do before you leave. Are there any you think you ll avoid because they are too demanding? Are there any you think you could tackle? Personal growth is also about pushing your comfort zone, so pick at least one and push!!