{"id":2265,"date":"2012-01-11T07:56:40","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T12:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/?p=2265"},"modified":"2012-01-11T07:56:40","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T12:56:40","slug":"informally-studying-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/2012\/01\/11\/informally-studying-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"(In)formally Studying Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"

My first formal exposure to the Spanish language (not counting Dora the Explorer<\/a>) was in 8th<\/sup> grade where Introductory Spanish was a 6-week course offered as part of the Exploratory Wheel<\/a> elective. Spanish class soon became a year-long course for me every year since then \u2013 even now in college!<\/p>\n

I clearly remember the day in 8th<\/sup> grade when I became determined to acquire Spanish fluency. One of my good friends \u2013 endearingly nicknamed Briana Banana \u2013 raised her hand in the midst of silence during a writing exercise. She inquired about one of the new infinitives we just learned meaning \u201cto play<\/a>\u201d which evoked an alarmed and confused countenance by the teacher who repeated back: \u201csouffl\u00e9<\/a>?!\u201d It was one of those unexpected misunderstandings that provoked our endless giggling \u2013 we literally hysterically laughed about this for weeks. If I were to ever write a memoir, this moment wouldn\u2019t only be noted as a randomly hilarious event, but also as a turning point when I decided it would be way more than awesome to be fluent in Spanish so that I could translate words like \u201csouffl\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been learning Spanish for almost 5 years now (didn\u2019t enroll in a Spanish class senior year of high school after taking AP Spanish<\/a> my junior year, highly recommended class by the way!) and recently, I\u2019ve been feeling that the steep slopes of my learning curve have started their inevitable plateau. This is not<\/strong> to say that Harvard language classes aren\u2019t fulfilling \u2013 I definitely feel like I have more mastery with regards to grammatical points such as compound verb phrases and my most recent class (see description below) incorporated Spanish cinema which naturally gave me more of a sense of Spanish history and culture.<\/p>\n

[Spanish 40:\u00a0An advanced language and culture class that further develops\u00a0linguistic competence using regions of the Hispanic world as a focus for class discussion, grammar review, and an introduction to Hispanic social contexts and texts. Course materials may also include films, interviews, painting, photography, music, selections from the press, as well as literary or historical readings. Frequent written and oral assignments, and a thorough review of grammar.]<\/p>\n

I think my lack of complete satisfaction stems from the fact that my Spanish acquisition has been contained within the four walls of a classroom. Ever since high school, most of my time outside the classroom has been dedicated to furthering my scientific interests in order to narrow my future career path. However, I\u2019m pretty confident that I need<\/strong> to either volunteer or study abroad in Spain, Latin America, or any other Spanish-speaking region so that my Spanish learning is concomitant to my personal growth (as corny as that may sound) because studying abroad offers a harmonious combination of formal learning in the classroom and informal learning via outdoor adventures and interpersonal interactions. My adventures in Vietnam this J-term have really cemented my desires to pursue being active abroad in the near future.<\/p>\n

As a first generation Vietnamese-American, I simultaneously learned Vietnamese and English growing up. I\u2019ve never received any formal Vietnamese instruction, but I can listen and speak just as well as I can butcher words when I read them. I couldn\u2019t write Vietnamese if my life depended on it and my reading abilities are fairly limited to restaurant menus. Therefore, I depend on my listening comprehension and speaking skills for communication. My parents\u2019 friends are generally impressed with my fluent fa\u00e7ade because most Vietnamese kids born in the US have English-dominated language skills. I believe my bilingual language advantage stems from the fact that I grew up living with my grandparents so the demand for Vietnamese was higher. However, this advantage no longer applies in college where I no longer reside with anyone who pressures me to speak Vietnamese. My desire to maintain my Vietnamese in college led me to volunteer in Dorchester<\/a>, a heavily Vietnamese populated community near Cambridge. These efforts haven\u2019t been too helpful since the PBHA<\/a>\u00a0BRYE<\/a> (Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment) program aims to tutor struggling Vietnamese teens in English. I\u2019ve also sought out various ways to enhance the Vietnamese half of my Vietnamese-American identity such as participating in Len Duong<\/a> Camp last summer and traveling to Vietnam this J-term.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been in Vietnam almost two weeks now and my parents who once use to mercilessly describe my Vietnamese abilities as pathetic, now just tell friends and relatives that I\u2019m indeed capable of speaking Vietnamese. I\u2019ve learned much more slang as well as new vocabulary \u2013 specifically for all the new fruits and cuisines that aren\u2019t readily available in the United States.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

LEMON Ritz...WHAT?!<\/p><\/div>\n

I think the most convincing proof of my Vietnamese acquisition has been my improved abilities to make jokes and puns in Vietnamese!!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not even sure if Charles Dickens<\/a> has enough words to describe how fulfilling my first (and hopefully not last!) trip to Vietnam has been. Everything from meeting all the relatives who I have and haven\u2019t heard about to seeing where my parents were married and where they use to hang out afterschool has not only been a culturally immersive experience, but also a personally fulfilling one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A man playing the recorder...with his nose!!<\/p><\/div>\n

I intend on using this family trip to Vietnam as a catalyst for studying abroad because I am SO ready to collect some stamps in my passport!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A street sign in Saigon - I guess rockets are allowed on this street?? \ud83d\ude09<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

This restaurant had a special vomit section in the bathroom and we still ate there.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first formal exposure to the Spanish language (not counting Dora the Explorer) was in 8th grade where Introductory Spanish was a 6-week course offered as part of the Exploratory Wheel elective. Spanish class soon became a year-long course for me every year since then \u2013 even now in college! I clearly remember the day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37381],"tags":[58953,211,29847,1675,37317,37341,146,29846],"class_list":["post-2265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jeanies-blog","tag-brye","tag-international","tag-j-term","tag-language","tag-pbha","tag-study-abroad","tag-travel","tag-winter-break"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2265"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2317,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2265\/revisions\/2317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}