I can reiterate what others have said in saying that I’m a bit worried there will be a big language barrier in Argentina. I think that with studying a language, there’s one aspect of it that’s conjugation charts and studying tenses. The other side of it is actually using the language in a natural setting. I don’t have much, really any, practice with the latter.
I don’t know just how strong my Spanish foundation is. I was surprised at how strong the Argentinians’ English was. They could function so well in the US, and I’m questioning if I could do the same in Argentina. I’m doubtful. The Argentinian students can speak English, so I feel like their inclination upon hearing our broken Spanish will be to just speak English to us, but it’s important that they speak in Spanish so we can make these mistakes and learn. Also, so much of the trip is about learning about the culture, it’s not just a study of language. The culture is probably what I’m most excited about, particularly the food, music, the lateness of the schedule there, etc.
Patrick Phelan
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