Monthly Archives: December 2018

The Versatility of the Spanish Major

If you’re a Spanish major you’re likely familiar with the question, “Oh, so are you going to teach or interpret?” In fact, you may have been asked that question so many times that you start to believe teaching and interpreting are your only options. My focus started to narrow to interpreting or teaching just a few weeks into starting college, largely because of this question. By the end of my second semester, I had decided on medical interpreting and enrolled in Spanish interpreting classes. Interpreting seemed like a good option given the current job market and average salary but at the same time, I just wasn’t sold. While I find the level of skill and language proficiency of interpreters admirable, I could tell it wasn’t the professional field for me. I also already knew I had no interest in being a teacher so I was left feeling like my choice in major was pointless. Continue reading →

My Path as a Spanish Major

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My journey as a Spanish major came with many pleasant surprises and opened me up to career opportunities I had never considered. Even before college I had thoughts of going to law school, and getting a Bachelor’s degree was just a step in the process to becoming a lawyer. I continued taking Spanish classes each semester and decided to be a Spanish major but planned to add a second major. I mostly considered speaking a third language as a desirable skill, and learning languages and other cultures was something I enjoyed. However, after transferring and looking at my credits, a second major was not an option if I wanted to graduate on time, and staying an extra semester was not an option for me financially. So when I came to UMass my junior year, I made Spanish my primary major and focused on graduating. Continue reading →

How to get by in Spain

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I think a lot of Americans have certain ideas about Spain and Spanish people; that their passionate, flamenco dancing, bull-killing matadors. Or something like that. Surprisingly, Spain is actually a very diverse country, from its rainy northern coast to its sunny, dry Mediterranean beaches. It even has four national languages, not just Spanish. Though I traveled a lot within in the country, I lived in Granada for my year of study abroad. I became aware of a lot of differences between Granada and Western Massachusetts during my time there. I want to share a few tips and observations on the less well-known aspects of the culture of Andalucía (southern Spain). Continue reading →

How different disciplines culminated into my senior honors thesis

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During my time at UMass, some classes that I took at have often had overlapping themes even though they were completely different disciplines. For example, SPAN394 (part 1 of IE), my service-learning course: Tutoring in Schools, and my thesis seminar, Conquest by law. A lot of SPAN394 was spent discussing different perspectives, entering different cultures, going to Holyoke Bound, and also service learning. As my IE experience I chose to take a service-learning course tutoring in schools and became a tutor at the Amherst-Pelham Regional Middle School. In addition to tutoring in the classroom, it was paired with a weekly seminar that highlighted how to teach to different learning skills and also discussed the diversity of students. We discussed the possible histories of students that would affect their learning such as being an English learning (ELL) student, or living in poverty. One class was dedicated to the low graduation rates of Latino students in schools where most students were people of color, but most teachers were white and held little expectations from their students. Also, ELL students in non-bilingual programs often were behind the curve but teachers did not lend as much as help as the students truly needed, either because of lack of interest or the lack of time and resources available. Continue reading →

Why you should study abroad for a year

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Whenever I thought about studying abroad, it had always been the goal to do it for a year. My reasoning was that I wanted to be as fluent as possible in Spanish and to integrate myself as much as I could into a new culture. I think most people decide to just go for a semester of study abroad, which is done for a lot of reasons. First of all, they may only be able to do a semester because they have to fulfill certain requirements at their colleges. Second, people just don’t want to leave their lives at home for too long of a time and that is totally valid. Also, students might have real responsibilities at home that don’t allow them to be gone for a whole academic year.

I think when you are able to go for a year, however, you should do it. Personally I got a much deeper experience of the culture by staying for a year. There were of course difficulties from being there a year. Almost everyone I knew ran out of their savings by the end of the year, even those who thought they were budgeting well. Things happened at home that I missed out on and I was away from most of my family and friends for nine months. But I definitely would stay for a year if I could do it again. Continue reading →

About the Study Abroad Visa Process

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Why Study Abroad?

As a Biochemistry and Spanish dual degree-er, studying abroad was presented to me as an option during my sophomore year when I declared my secondary major/degree. Originally as a biochemistry major, studying abroad was not an option for me as I knew I would not be able to transfer any credits. However, pursing a degree in Spanish opened up more opportunities for me and I knew that studying abroad would be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for me. After deciding to study abroad, I selected the USAC Madrid program as it offered language classes on top of a service learning and internship component. I decided this sophomore year spring semester and began the process fall semester of my junior year, with the intent of studying abroad in the spring. Continue reading →

Expectation vs. Reality: Managing My Expectations While Abroad

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STUDY ABROAD EXPECTATIONS MAY INCLUDE: becoming fluent in the national language by the time you get back home, only speaking said language, becoming best friends with everyone on the trip, going out almost every night, constant traveling to other countries, unlimited experiences…

STUDYING ABROAD MAY ACTUALLY INCLUDE: being frustrated with how little you can communicate with your host family, always feeling like you aren’t improving your language skills, feeling lonely and knowing absolutely nobody, waking up tired due to lack of sleep, ATM fees and declined debit cards, loud neighbors and uncomfortable situations… Continue reading →

A Salamanca Adventure

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Since I became a Spanish major I couldn’t wait to study abroad. It was an absolutely terrifying thought to me, a natural homebody, but the thought of traveling to a completely different country was both thrilling and nervewracking at the same time. So, freshman me thought I’d go to some Spanish-speaking country sophomore year. Then, sophomore me thought I would go junior year, and then… it was junior year spring semester. When people tell you that your college years fly by, they are not kidding. So here I am junior year spring semester taking an Integrative Experience course because I wasn’t able to study abroad when the one and only marvelous, Patricia Gubitosi tells our linguistics class about a summer study abroad program to Salamanca. I quickly google Salamanca on a map and see it is practically a desert, surrounded by land, not close to the water at all. Continue reading →

My Path to Becoming a Spanish Major

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When I came to UMass Amherst as a freshman I was not originally a Spanish major, I was actually a Sociology major. Upon one or two courses as that major, I quickly realized I didn’t have a passion for it, and I found myself leaning towards becoming a Spanish major. Cut to me meeting Luis Marentes for the first time and talking to him about becoming a Spanish major. I was immediately asked the following questions: Why did I want to be a Spanish major? Why don’t I just use a language teaching app or program to learn Spanish? What did I ultimately want to get out of this major? I will admit that I didn’t know the answers to all of his questions but I just knew I wanted to continue (from high school) learning Spanish because of my lifelong passion for it. Continue reading →

Learning Spanish in Guatemala

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I’ve done a fair amount of traveling since high school, but probably the most life-changing trip for me was the first one I ever did to Guatemala. It definitely wasn’t a country I planned on going to. I had initially wanted to go to Argentina since I was interested in its culture and knew more about it than a country like Guatemala, but in the end it was too expensive and too far away. However, I asked two people that I knew that had gone to Spanish language schools and they both suggested places in Guatemala. One was in Antigua, the most touristy and arguably most beautiful city in Guatemala, and the other was in Quetzaltenango (Xela), the second largest city in the country. I decided on the school in Xela because it looked slightly less touristy than the other one. Otherwise, I didn’t really know anything about them or anything about the country. Continue reading →