Have you ever considered studying abroad in a country where you speak at least some
of the language? Many study abroad programs are taught in English, allowing students who are
not native-speakers to still participate in cultural experiences. However, for students who do
speak the local language, there are many opportunities to immerse yourself in the culture of the
area.
Recently, I studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain. While there, I traveled around with a group
of four friends from my school. Each of us spoke varying amounts of Spanish, but we all agreed
that we preferred to at least order from restaurants in Spanish, allowing us to practice our
speaking skills. While half of our group had much stronger spoken Spanish, as someone who
reads and understands Spanish but does not speak it as well, I was excited for the opportunity
to get help from my friends in improving my skills.
At one of the first cafes we went to, we all ordered in Spanish, and while checking out,
we learned that the baristas did not think we were tourists due to our linguistics but because of
our bags we had. From this experience, we started thinking about how, at least as a group, we
could probably do decently well getting around in Spain speaking Spanish. While in Sevilla, and
even sometimes when traveling on our day trips, we chose to only speak in Spanish to locals,
whether that be ordering, buying tickets, or just asking someone to take our picture. For many
dinners on the trip, we even spent the whole meal talking amongst ourselves in Spanish.
Speaking with my friends, and even just listening to them talk when I did not feel
confident, allowed me to get a refresher on my vocabulary and helped me out a lot. One
morning, when one of my friends and I returned to that original cafe, I was able to speak with
him in Spanish the entire time. At the end of our breakfast, we even had a whole conversation
with one of our original baristas and a man who worked there. It was a great experience for
boosting confidence, as I was able to feel that I could fully participate in the conversation.
While many other students chose to speak in English to baristas and waiters, I was so
glad that we were able to go through this trip the way we chose to. It allowed for us to have
enjoyable and meaningful conversations with many locals, especially at restaurants where our
servers were either more than happy to speak in Spanish with us to allow us to practice or very
excited that they could converse with us when they did not know English. We were able to ask
our baristas/servers for recommendations, joke around with them, eat at more “hole-in-the-wall”
local restaurants, and overall enrich our experience.
Even though I was less confident in my speaking skills than my peers, being able to
listen in on our conversations and do my best to participate as I improved over the course of the
trip was so meaningful. Despite all of the wonderful tourist attractions and local experiences we
had the opportunity to participate in, many of my favorite parts of the trip were caused by the
way we chose to immerse ourselves in the culture. From chatting with our baristas and servers
to the adventures we had from choosing to take local transportation even though it was
sometimes very confusing, it gave us so many stories to tell and experiences to laugh about.
When traveling abroad in a country where you know the language, the amount of the
local culture you can experience is totally up to you and how much you’re willing to immerse
yourself. While I do not think I would’ve chosen to speak in Spanish outside of ordering at restaurants on my own, I am so thankful that my group of friends was excited to give ourselves these extra experiences. I fully recommend if you are choosing to study abroad in a place where you can, at least, get by with the language that you try out speaking the language more and try participating more in the culture as a whole, as it can only expand your horizons and add on to the adventures you’ll have!