Monthly Archives: November 2020

Not your average Spanish story…

My experience with the Spanish language and culture is slightly different than the majority of students I have met throughout my time at UMass. When I was 11 years old, my parents sat my brother and I down and told us that we would be leaving the town we had lived in our whole lives to move to a third world country. At this time in my life I had never even traveled outside of the United States. After many tears and much resistance, I eventually tried to come to terms with the fact that we would be expanding our worlds and moving to Costa Rica.

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Change of Language: A Spanish Major Who Grew Up Portuguese

As a child, my Portuguese identity was a significant part of my life. I grew up making wine with Avô in his basement, I spent time at the Holy Ghost Club making malasadas with my Avó’s friends, and, like any Portuguese child growing up, I was fed a lot of delicious food. And while I could understand Portuguese fairly well, I was never able to speak it. Instead, when spoken to in Portuguese, I would always respond in English. And while I would like to blame it on my surroundings (as I was never exposed to it in my Massachusetts elementary school, and my mother never forced me to speak it), I knew it was entirely my fault for not speaking the language. As I reached middle school, my parents gave me the option to take a Portuguese 101 class at my local community college and I decided to give it a go. After sitting through classes surrounded by people twice my age, I was finally able to spark the language within me, and pretty soon, I was speaking to everyone in my family in Portuguese (after being surrounded by it my whole life, it came to me fairly easily). I never used to consider the Portuguese an important aspect of my life, but when I was in high school, everything changed.

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Cov-Education Program Leading to Tutoring in Mexico

Las summer I learned of the volunteer site called Cov-Education that focused on helping students with extra help during the Covid pandemic. The first student I was assigned to tutor never reached out to me. So I was a few weeks without touring. I didn’t expect to gain much but to tutor students in English and Spanish. However, a nonprofit organization president reached out to me a few weeks after finding my profile on the Cov-Education site. She asked me if I was okay with tutoring students outside of the United States because she needed a tutor for students who lived in the US but got deported back to Mexico. I agreed and ended up working with teenagers in Mexico. I started making lesson plans and had to figure out how to reach out to these kids through video chat. I learned a lot about myself, about teenagers, and teaching in general. I thought that if I put a little faith in myself everything would be okay. I learned the workload it is to lesson plan, teach, and the importance of being prepared. My experience in teaching these students has been a fantastic and eye-opening experience. I have learned the best way to aid them in learning while also trying to make it easier for them to adapt to learning through a screen. First, what took me to surprise is how ready they were to learn and their excitement every time they understood a concept. 

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Latin American Restaurants near you

From Pupusas to Sancocho , Latin American food is always an blessing especially when it is cooked with love. On college campus it can become difficult to find Latin American  food especially in such a rural area. However, I compiled a list of Latin American restaurants that are near and in the Amherst area.  Here is the list of restaurants with their address and  recommended dish to try , whether you are homesick or trying to explore different cuisines. 

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How to be a pre-health Spanish major

One of the first things that you learn as a pre-health student in university is that you can major in whatever you want, as long as you complete the pre-requisites for graduate schools. While this is 100% accurate, a lot of students do not take advantage of this because it can be difficult to manage the pre-requisite STEM courses while also balancing the requirements of a completely unrelated major.

However, difficult ? impossible. I am a senior pre-dental student at Umass, where I am finishing dual degrees in biology and Spanish, a minor in Portuguese, and the Spanish & Health Certificate. I have learned a lot along the way, and want to share my experience with other pre-health students who are considering majoring in Spanish, or any other non-STEM major.

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Big Schools = Best Choice

As a senior in high school, I was extremely conflicted in where I wanted to pursue a higher education. Even on the deposit deadline, I still had absolutely no idea where I wanted to go. I committed to UMass simply because it was the cheapest option, and my logic was that if I wasn’t 100% sold on any of my other options, I might as well go to the one that I could afford. Now, as a college senior, I look back and am so grateful that I chose this school. In this blog post, I am going to cover the top 5 reasons (in no particular order) that I feel why a large school like Umass provides the absolute best education.

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Tips for Learning Spanish in your Spanish Classes

The Spanish/Portuguese department at UMass definitely prioritizes teaching about culture and history just as much, if not more, than teaching about language. This being said, the courses definitely still provide opportunities to improve fluency and pick up vocabulary. 

Throughout my time in the Spanish department, and even more so my time studying abroad in Spain, I have been able to take note of the kind of techniques and situations which inspire a Spanish lesson to stick in my mind. Of course, everyone is different, so my findings may not be universally applicable. However, if there is anything this post leaves with you, it is that there is great benefit in making a conscious effort to understand your own learning style by reflecting on the moments or habits during which you have picked up a new concept or vocabulary word, and strive to discover what connects them.

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Double Majoring Spanish and STEM

While choosing an array of diverse classes unrelated to your major inspires growth and intellectual stimulation, it can be even more satisfying for some people to channel that extra time into a second major, as this allows for a deeper dive into the subject matter. I am a senior completing my last semester at UMass, where I’ve been pursuing a dual degree in Spanish and Statistics for the last four years. 

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Combining Spanish and Portuguese with Political Science

Everyone says, “be expected to change your major a bunch of times in college.” However, in my case, I kept on adding majors until I ended up with three: Spanish, Portuguese, and Political Science. I have strong personal connections to all three of these majors and did not want to choose between them, as a result, I have to explore ways in which they can be combined to meet a common academic and career objective.

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Spain is More Than an Ocean Away

Have you ever felt like you’re missing out on something totally life changing? As a Spanish major in my junior year at UMass Amherst, I haven’t had the opportunity to travel anywhere further than a trip to Disney World; I’m desperate for a visit to a Spanish-speaking country. I’ve spent my entire academic career hearing anecdotes about professors’ and peers’ eye-opening stays in Spain, Brazil, Costa Rica etc. Jealous of their journeys, I long to experience Spanish life for myself. 

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