During the summer of 2014, I embarked on a two-week journey to a foreign country. I was in high school at the time so I was only a sixteen-year-old who felt completely frazzled by all aspects of the trip and specifically about being away from home. In addition, my Spanish speaking skills were not very developed yet at this point in my academic life. Though, I personally think that my experience abroad was more focused on gaining knowledge about myself rather than gaining knowledge about the Spanish language. Ultimately, I share this story to encourage other tutors here at the University Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL) to consider how being aware and practicing cross cultural experiences, communication, and empathy can enhance tutoring sessions more than words can describe.
The Trip
This two-week trip consisted of two different focuses: we spent one week traveling with the group, but the second week was much different. The second week of this trip consisted of a family stay. This meant that I was going to be living with a real, Spanish family for one week. All members of our group went to different Spanish cities to live with a family and learn in a more immersive way about the Spanish language, culture, and country. My host sister spoke an impressive amount of English, so this made our conversations more fluent. Though, her parents did not speak ANY English. In addition, the town that I was living in spoke a native tongue of Spanish. This meant that those I interacted with could understand the traditional Spanish that I was educated on, but they instinctively spoke a type of Spanish that included slang and different way of conjugating verbs. This made my experience as a guest in this town and home quite difficult. I yearned to find other ways to express thankfulness to the family that was allowing for me to live with them for a week.
Throughout this family stay experience, I learned how impactful words and gestures can be. My host parents and I did not talk much, but I found our interactions very interesting. We commonly attempted to speak each other’s languages and commonly resorted to communicating through facial expressions, physical contact, or the social guidance of their daughter. Though, when either party made the effort to speak the other’s language, it felt very sincere. Living with a family that spoke a different language was horrifying and exhausting, but was ultimately an extraordinary learning experience that helped in figuring out who I truly am as a person. I firmly believe that the interaction skills I learned throughout this trip have shaped the way that I interact today.’
Reflecting on the Experience
Apart from the obvious language barrier, the second hardest aspect of this journey was the homesickness that I experienced. I was traveling with a group that consisted of my peers and two of our high school’s Spanish teachers. I was familiar with everyone in this travel group, but I did not know them personally and therefore did not find comfort in these peers when dealing with this homesickness. I found myself thinking about my home and family a lot within the span of this trip. I noticed that I was particularly homesick in Vinaros, the city where I was living with my host family. Vinaros offered a sometimes lonely experience to me when I did not have native English speakers to confide in or ask questions to.
As an individual, I am very sensitive in social situations and the language barrier caused me to be quiet in many situations where I simply did not want to attempt communicating. While I did feel stressed out by being away from home and communicating by means of a different language, this trip was ultimately positive. In addition, I think I appreciate home much more now that I evaluated this intense feeling of homesickness I was abroad in Spain. In other words, the homesickness that I felt made me evaluate and appreciate the feelings that I hold towards my home, family, and friends.
The Takeaways
I frequently reference this experience when conducting appointments with students who do not speak English as their first language at the Writing Center. My experience abroad was a short one, but I experienced living in a foreign country and the pressure of speaking a language that is not your native language. Especially during conversation partner appointments, I frequently praise writers for their drive to improve their conversational English skills. In my experience, I did not have an outlet similar to conversation partner appointments, but it is super helpful to simply talk with and ask questions of a native language speaker in a non-threatening way. Therefore, it exhibits, in my opinion, a special and inspiring drive to succeed within the English language when writers pursue conversation partner appointments in order to improve their spoken English.
In addition to praising writers who engage in conversation partner appointments for their drive to improve their spoken English skills, I also reference my own experience as a student abroad regarding homesickness within conversation partner appointments. I vividly recall the isolation that I felt as a student in a foreign country. I felt very flustered in a lot of ways during my own experience. Therefore, what I choose to talk about with writers during conversation partner appointments reflects my own experiences as a student abroad.
For example, I ask students about what they do for fun, what their interests include, about themselves, and make suggestions of what to do for fun in America based on these types of questions. Specifically, I ask the writers what types of TV shows they typically watch and then suggest shows that are provided on Netflix that they could watch with subtitles. When I was abroad, I often watched local television with English subtitles and found this very helpful when trying to become more familiar with hearing Spanish. All in all, I think that personally experiencing loneliness when abroad has greatly influenced how and why I interact with writers who do not speak English as their native language.
Moving Forward
Since I am sure that many UCWbL employees may have studied abroad, I would urge other tutors to reference their experiences as a student abroad when working with students at the Writing Center that are not originally English speakers. I have found this connection of experiences to be very helpful when conducting conversation partner appointments and determining points of suggestions or conversation.