For me, learning another language has never been an easy task, almost like trying to eat a soup sandwich using a fork. In high school, I somehow passed my way through three semesters of Spanish classes my sophomore and junior years without retaining a bit of the language, only being competent enough to pass the classes and get the credits necessary to graduate with an advanced diploma. The end of my junior year of high school—the last day actually—I began working on a farm with men and women from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and even a Cuban. I had no choice but to learn Spanish or fall behind.
While this was a hard push to get me to learn Spanish quickly, I discovered I was able to learn it much better by speaking and listening on a daily basis. At the beginning I felt overwhelmed, by the end of my first month however, I was able to carry-out necessary conversations with fellow employees and my speaking skills were effective enough to get the job done. By the end of that summer I had numerous nicknames, like Condorito (because I have a large nose) and Chester (because I ate Cheetos one time), but I could speak almost fluently. Chester even became so frequently used by my co-workers my boss thought it was my given name.
The following August I returned to my high school for orientation and went to see my Spanish teachers, proudly shocking them with how much I had learned in such a little time. Through this, I discovered that foreign language came much easier to me by speaking and hearing it, rather than writing or trying to learn out of a Spanish textbook. I continued working on this farm my senior year, after school and on Saturdays, further increasing my speaking abilities. I still send messages to many of my former co-workers on Facebook and over text. While these were not the most grammatically correct messages in the past, my time studying Spanish abroad and at VMI in SP-303 have helped me fix my conjugation and correct usage of preterite versus imperfect for my messages in the future.
Upon initially coming to VMI, I was enrolled in the Civil Engineering department. I was happy, as CE did not require me to take a foreign language. After quickly learning that calculus was as much a foreign language as Ukrainian, I became a History major and decided that Spanish would be my language study of choice. Though I thought I was ready to begin taking Spanish again—I placed out of SP-101 and SP-102—I was surely mistaken. I decided to sign up for SP-102 as a refresher seeing as the last Spanish class I had taken was in high school circa 2009, almost five years before. I struggled in 102 in the spring of 2014, and failed. After retaking 102 the following summer and enrolling in 201 the next semester, I began to fall behind immediately. I dropped 201 and decided I need to resort back to my old ways, learning through speaking. I signed up to study abroad in Peru, and picked up my interpersonal speaking skills almost where I had left off.
Me standing above Machu Picchu.
Studying abroad in Peru in June 2015 was one of the best choices I have ever made. Not only was I able to take Spanish classes and receive credit, I was able to see some amazing historical sites which I will likely never be able to see again. I was also able to see a foreign culture for the first time. It not only enlightened me, it really made me happier for the small things we have here in the United States, like toilets that will flush toilet paper for instance. But really, I was totally surprised by the culture shock. Peru being a less industrialized nation makes things a bit more primitive, but it is still a wonderful country to visit, and the people are wonderful.
Being completely immersed in another language once again forced me to learn and I picked up Spanish just as if I had never stopped speaking it after high school. By the end of the month in Peru I was nearly fluent again, and was not afraid to carry out conversations with my host family, my teachers, or even people on the street, and did not get nervous ordering food at restaurants, although maybe I should have.
Me and Profa!
During my short jaunt through Peru, I caught an amoeba and was later diagnosed with Typhoid. I was not aware I could learn so quickly until I had a doctor speaking to me in Spanish words I had never even heard that I magically understood. I was sick for about six days, and could not eat anything. My first symptoms began on a weekend trip to Lake Titicaca, while staying on an island in huts without running water or electricity. The tour guide, a man who was born on an island in Lake Titicaca, performed old remedies on me to ease my pain; which worked for the weekend, but did not completely cure me. Returning to Cusco City the following night, I received medical attention immediately.
After days of treatment and bed-rest, I was able to start eating the food again, and was luckily healed by the next weekend when we went to visit Machu Picchu. On other weekends during this study abroad trip, we had visited various archeological sites around Peru and most of the group was not extremely excited about going to Machu Picchu, assuming it would be the same as the other; we were wrong. Machu Picchu was incredible. Probably the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life, I cannot begin to express how happy I was to be able to spend two days there rather than just one. It is truly a wonder. From having its own climate to the size of the boulders, every aspect of Machu Picchu is breathtaking, and something people should experience for themselves if the chance should arise. The views were magnificent.
Children lined up to light the candles during a religious ceremony.
Working with children was probably the most rewarding part of the trip to Peru for me. As part of the educational requirement, I had to work with four and five year old kids at a local school. I was charged with helping the teachers in corralling the children to the lunch area, keeping them focused during class time, and making sure they did not kill each other during playtime. At first, I was beginning to doubt my speaking and listening skills because I could not understand anything the kids were saying (yelling) to me. I asked the Peruvian-native teachers and the English-speaking students, they all assured me no one understands them. One of the English-speaking volunteers from Spain told me they ramble out words so fast that it is mostly incoherent and only the children can understand each other. Nonetheless, it was very rewarding working with these children because they were so happy no matter what, and their classroom antics were hilarious.
When the saints come marching in, they are carried on the backs of sometimes thirty men. It is a requirement, one of the last, to become a Catholic Priest. I believe there are eleven saints. These figures stand about fifteen feet tall and must weigh a lot because some of the men were standing nearly horizontal. Peruvians take their religion very seriously.
During the month of June in Peru, there are religious holidays almost every week. We were very lucky to have gone at the time we did because there were constant parades going on, which meant great music, art, and dancing.
Another requirement during study abroad was learning about the water crisis that is taking place in Peru, and present several ways in which the Peruvian government could remedy the situation. Clean water distribution and storage in Peru is a major problem not only for health concerns, but for agriculture as well. During the dry months from March or April until September, farmers crops often die from lack of water. The infrastructure in Peru is too weak to help the farmers and they are left to fend for themselves, building make-shift irrigation ditches and saving water during the rainy season. After we presented our suggestions to fix the water problem in Peru, we had a short graduation ceremony.
Graduation after presenting our water project.
Coming from Peru back to VMI and into SP-303, I was better able to work in a foreign language classroom than ever before. In Spanish Composition and Comprehension I was able to utilize my interpersonal and presentational speaking skills, as well as my contextual interpretation skills to display my abilities. In 303 I had fun writing the compositions but I most enjoyed the listening and interpretation activities because that is how I have best learned Spanish during my entire career as a language student, listening. Coincidentally, I received the best grades on these activities.
Next semester I am excited to be taking a class that involves Latin American Cultures. I hope this class will give me a more well rounded perspective of Central and South America and allow me to employ the skills I learned while abroad as well as the strengths I gained while taking SP-303.
Magazines like National Geographic do a phenomenal job of photographing tribes of third-world countries and giving brief histories of their traditions. However is there any real indication that these stories are not simple speculation or that they very lightly skim the surface of deeply rooted traditions created over thousands or millions of years. The United States and much of the West has no idea and probable does not care about the indigenous tribes of South American people being pushed from lands their ancestors have been on for centuries, they only care about a good story. Publishers realize this and use it to create a more desirable product.
