Chile Introduction

Howdy my fellow adventurers!! I am Jerica Simmons, a senior at LC with a sociology major and a dual minor in human services and Spanish. I am using the Chilean study abroad to replace the last course I need for my minor. Rather than taking a Latin American culture class in Lynchburg, I decided to immerse myself in a bit of Latin American culture. Though I have taken Spanish classes since the eighth grade, I am not very comfortable with the language. I have developed a good grasp on Spanglish, but my Spanish is really rough. I tend to make up words or just pronounce English words as if it were Spanish instead of learning the actual words. I feel like by doing this, I am cheating because I know that I can navigate the United States without putting much effort in my foreign language. By doing this, I am not earning the right to call myself a Spanish minor, so my main goal for Chile is to force myself to be better at the language. I don't want to just be able to survive in a different country by memorizing certain key phrases. I would like to be able to have actual conversations in Spanish and not get so flustered when I try to use it. I have always been scared to use my Spanish because I don't want native speakers to think I am stupid or am trying to be a part of a world that I don't belong to. This is an irrational fear, but it is real for me and I would like to face it head on and be uncomfortable for a few weeks. I hope to leave Chile having built a real relationship with my host family and learn to be comfortable being the new kid. This could give me better insight into the experience of people who have immigrated into the United States and be more sympathetic to their struggles. I know it is not the same, but it is the best I can do. I also want to not be so intimidated by kids I don't know. I want them to think I'm cool or at the very least not hate me. That being said, I am so hype for this trip and can't wait to see what we can get into.

Image result for study abroad for chile

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 19, 2017 at 5:49 AM

    Hola Jerica! Thanks for posting! I am excited to hear about how your language skills grow during this program and how you face your fears.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 19, 2017 at 8:35 PM

    Hi Jerica! We share the commonality of having Spanish as a minor, although I am looking to switch it to a second major of mine! I am also nervous about not knowing enough of the language to feel sufficient or to sound "smart enough", but I am confident I know enough that I can get around. I am also excited to be able to practice Spanish in a setting that isn't a classroom, because I think I will learn a lot more!

    ReplyDelete
  3. catlyf3December 22, 2017 at 2:21 PM

    Hi Jerica! Honestly, I went to the Dominican republic with only having one Spanish class and it went surprisingly well! Going somewhere without knowing a language is scary but you can definitely work around it! Also, don't be scared about your Spanish! Worse case senerio, they help you out with grammar or pronunciation! I cant wait to see you there!

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownDecember 26, 2017 at 8:44 PM

    Hi Jerica! It's really great that you want to strengthen your Spanish skills while in Chile! I'm sure you will learn a lot! Look forward to meeting you!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Wall

I was told that this would happen, and that if I followed a few simple steps that everything would be fine. I didn't expect it to happen all at once or for it to affect everything,  but here I am awake in the middle of the night talking to no one. Here I am writing about "Culture Shock". I didn't think it was possible for this to happen because I was in Chile. I'm in the glorious Chile that is protected by the Andes. The Chile that clawed its way out of a dictatorship and emerged stronger for it. This is the Chile that gave me Dame la Mano by Gabriela Mistral that I would recite under my breath all day in high school.  This is the Chile that birthed Salvador Allende and Pablo Neruda. This is the Chile that I studied with Dr. Rojas, and the same Chile that America tried to destroy. I'm surrounded by all this history, love, and beauty that I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams. When I got off the plane in Santiago, it felt like returning home from war...
Read more

On My Way to Chile. . .

Image
The adventure starts tomorrow and I am freaking out a little bit. My brain it is running and I keep wondering what I am going to forget to bring because I always forget something. Do you remember back in elementary school, when reading out loud was the most stressful part of life?  You would look down the rows, see you were the fifth person, and then skip to the fifth paragraph in the reading.  You study that paragraph and make sure you knew how to say all the words so no one would tease that you couldn't read.  Then the teacher would call on the next student randomly not going in order of the rows!! That is the feeling I have about the Chile trip at the moment. I'm scared that all my preparation will be for nothing because I've studied the wrong. I'm nervous that even though I've taken Spanish  almost every year since the eighth grade, I will step onto Chilean soil and know absolutely nothing. I wonder if the scenery and food will be as great as I have pi...
Read more

D.I.E

"The first step is D: describe.  -Describe the situation in concrete, observable terms.   The second is I: interpret.  -Try to find at least three different interpretations of the interaction or occurrence.   And finally, E: evaluate.  -Evaluate what you observed or experienced.  Consider how you might have felt if you were a member of the host culture and held the dominant cultural values and beliefs."   An Uncomfortable Situation The only thing that I can remember that was uncomfortable during the trip was the way people greeted each other by a kiss on the cheek. With each greeting, the correct way to say hello was to have a kiss on the cheek with the person you are seeing. With some people, we would only have the kiss and with other people there would be a kiss and a hug. There were also people that would not hug or kiss me when we saw each other. Description: During the New Years celebration, the extended family came over to watch the fi...
Read more