Category Archives: Language

American Student Takes Classes in Spain

I want to share with you my experience taking classes in Spain. In the summer of 2021 I had the opportunity to embark on a journey with other UMass students through the Salamanca Summer program. To provide some context I’ll start off by saying I was really excited to study abroad because this was my last summer before graduating. I would not have another opportunity to do so once the academic year started. Secondly I’d also like to share that although I am bilingual and familiar with the language, this was my first time travelling to Europe. I hope as you read my experience, you are encouraged to also participate in this beautiful adventure and get out of your comfort zone.

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Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at UMass

I would like to eventually become an English teacher for speakers of other languages. At UMass I study Spanish as well as linguistics, and am in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages program. The program is a 15 credit mix of linguistics and language literacy and culture (LLC) classes that lead to certification in TESOL. The certification can be used to teach English both in the United States and abroad, and knowing Spanish could open many doors for me in a variety of places in the world. I hope to teach in Latin America, and knowing Spanish will help me understand better the people I want to work with one day and assimilate myself into the culture. Learning Spanish has helped me understand the similarities and differences between Spanish and English, and linguistics has helped me understand language in general, which will ultimately make me a better teacher. If one day I decide to teach domestically in the U.S, knowing Spanish will be useful because of the large population of Spanish-speakers in this country. Also by learning Spanish and Linguistics, I am able to understand how people acquire new languages, and I have first-hand experience and knowledge about the experience of learning a second language.

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The Importance of Speaking or Understanding Multiple Languages

As humans, we mainly communicate through the words we speak to each other, expressing our thoughts, desires, and emotions. In this world we live in, there are currently over seven thousand spoken languages. Taking this into consideration, the more languages an individual can speak or understand, the more connected that person can then be to the people around them and the more opportunities that person can have. In itself, multilingualism is an indispensable skill, and it can be achieved rather simply in both a voluntary and involuntary manner and is equally as advantageous in personal life as it is in professional life.

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Span 597EC – Escritura Creativa (How Poetry Gave Me Comfort During the Pandemic)

During spring 2020, I had elected to take Spanish 597EC – Escritura Creativa. It was a graduate level course and I had been itching to take a higher level class. If I recall correctly, it was one of the only Spanish courses that interested me at that level. However, as a junior, I seriously doubted my ability to take a higher level Spanish course. I emailed the professor, Márgara, about whether or not she thinks I would be able to take the course. Her honesty and kindness ultimately led me to pick up the class.

The class focused on poetry as a form of creative writing. Every week, we would write poems and share them in class. The class was very tight-knit with only 5 of us plus Márgara. The class pushed me to think outside of the box with regards to Spanish expression. The exchange of poetry and feedback ultimately made me a better poet.

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Student Government but You’re a Spanish Major

I don’t quite remember the statistics, but if you were to ask a random student on campus whether they knew what “SGA” was, they probably wouldn’t; and it isn’t surprising. UMass has about 30,000 students with about 23k being undergraduates. The Student Government Association (known more commonly as SGA) is the government that represents the undergraduate body. With a school so large as UMass and a small percentage of the population that actually vote, it is not surprising that many students go their four years without ever hearing or thinking about SGA. Imagine if the US government were elected by 5% of the population and somehow the majority of the population continued on with their lives without ever knowing or hearing about what their government is up to. It sounds like an episode out of Black Mirror!

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Translating Documents into Portuguese during COVID-19

During Spring 2020 I took a Spanish translation class that transitioned to online learning and we began translating COVID documents for the community. At the same time, I was taking a public health course where we were exploring the impact that COVID is currently having on the community. I decided to translate COVID documents into Portuguese because I realized that if the Spanish community was in need of these documents then it was likely that the Portuguese community needed them as well. From my public health course, I learned that communication is key for getting the community to make positive changes towards a better community. I am grateful that I got to make a positive impact on the community. These two courses taken together gave me a better understanding of how connected public health is to communication and how I could use my knowledge of Portuguese to benefit the public health movement towards a healthier country.

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Why We Need More Native Speakers As Teachers

I consider myself to be really lucky that my parents didn’t want to speak English at home, and really emphasized we speak Spanish. Despite moving to the US when I was 7 from Mexico, I maintained my fluidity, and was able to become truly bilingual. Through middle school, I felt really confident helping my friends with their Spanish homework. Even taking French classes felt easy— French was just like Spanish, but more elegant and a tad bit pretentious, overall a fun language to learn. 

In high school, I decided to take Spanish. I can’t remember what the reason was, maybe I wanted to have an easy class, maybe I was genuinely interested in learning? Honestly, that couldn’t have been it. I was allowed to skip a year of Spanish, which made me feel very cocky and proud of myself. That didn’t last long.

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Mi latinidad and love for science

Hello! I am a student double majoring in Biochemistry and Spanish. I am also planning on getting the Spanish and Health Certificate offered at UMass. My spanish major relates greatly to my biochemistry major because it allows me to formulate my thoughts through different lenses. Many times in the biochemistry core classes students only focus on memorizing and analyzing material in a more factual way. My Spanish major has allowed me to take classes where we discuss humanitarian problems occurring not just in medical settings, but all over the globe. I truly believe taking Spanish classes have allowed me to mentality relax during the semester and not stress too much over my science courses. I do believe studying is important but my Spanish class discussion reminds me that there are far more important things than just your studies to worry about. My Spanish class discussion reminds me there is work to be done, not until I graduate from college or medical school, but change that can be worked for currently. I truly believe my Spanish and biochemistry majors complement each other. Taking classes in the liberal arts and science college is such an amazing curriculum to follow. The Spanish classes allow me to stay true to my roots by reminding me of the beauty in my latinidad and learning to embrace it, even as it shows up in my science careers. Being aware of one’s identity is super important as it allows youth to acknowledge what position you are in and how to manipulate this in a beneficial way for others. Helping others looks differently, but the reason and passion to help should always come from selfless motives. 

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Growing Up in a Spanish Immersion Program

I was lucky enough to participate in a Spanish immersion program throughout my elementary and secondary public education. One classroom per grade in my elementary school was designated as a Spanish immersion classroom. The Spanish immersion program provided 100% of Spanish instruction in core academic classes, beginning in kindergarten through 2nd grade. English was slowly incorporated in later elementary grades in order to prepare immersion students for state standardized tests. In middle school, students involved in the immersion program took a designated Spanish class as an elective. This designated Spanish immersion elective continued throughout high school, and during junior year, every Spanish immersion student took AP Spanish – allowing immersion students to graduate with a Seal of Biliteracy to cap off the program.

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Combining Science and Language – My experience at UMass

As a freshman entering UMass, the only goal I had in mind was to get good grades in order to go to medical school. I joined a living learning community called BIOTAP where I was able to take smaller science courses to strengthen my skills in lab and create closer relationships with my floormates and professors. This experience allowed me to get some premed courses out of the way, but I was still at a loss for what I wanted to major in. I soon began to miss my Brazilian culture that was a very big part of my high school experience and decided to take a Portuguese course to have more variety in my schedule and learn how to write formally in Portuguese. After that course I decided that studying a language along with my science courses would be an important way in order to continue enjoying my challenging courses and engage with Latin culture.

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