Idioma y Cultura

The two biggest differences between being here and being home are obviously the culture and the language. These two things are the most challenging to deal with, but at the same time they are what make this experince what it is. They are basically what brought me here, I wanted to learn Spanish, and I wanted to see a little bit of the world outside Idaho. I wanted this cultural experience, and it has taught me more already than I ever imagined it would. So I wanted to tell you guys a little more about the dynamics of these two aspects of my time here.


Before coming here, I knew the most important part about improving in a second language is confidence. If you are always second guessing yourself, you'll never say anything, therefore, never practice, therefore, never learn or improve. Even if you don't know if what you want to say is perfect, you have to be confident and say it anyway. Another important part, not being afraid to make an idiot of yourself, it's inevitable that you're going to say a lot of things wrong. You just have to accept that fact and get over it, because if you are always trying to prevent it, you're not going to learn or get better. The confidence part was a little hard at first: people speak a hundred miles an hour and then look at you waiting for an answer when you didn't understand a single word of what they said. But of course it has gotten much easier. The thing is that here people don't speak Spanish, they speak Chilean, which is totally different. Chileans use different endings on certain verbs than other Spanish-speaking countries, they abbreviate everything, slur words together, and they have hundreds of sayings and words, "Chilenismos," that they use constantly in daily conversation, that make no sense if translated literally. When you ask them to try and explain what a certain Chilenismo means, they use another Chilenismo in their explanation, so you still have no idea what they meant to say in the first place. Also, Chileans are famous among Latin people for speaking fast. Awesome. At first we were constantly telling people to talk slower so we could understand, now I'm used to keeping up. Another thing I am noticing as my spanish gets better, is that my English is getting worse! I have already started forgetting words in English, I can only think of the Spanish term! I love spanish, that is the reason I came here, and my Spanish is tons better than when I arrived. But it still have a long way to go! It's definitely one of my favorite parts of being here, getting better at Spanish.


Another part that I have learned so much from, is the culture difference. I have written about some of the things that people do different down here, and there are tons more. But the awesome part of experiencing a new culture isn't learning all the things they do different, it's about learning why they do things differently. The people here have a different way of thinking, a different way of looking at life. That is why things are so different, they live different lives than us. They have different priorities, different opinions, different knowledge. Another thing is that naturally, I am constantly comparing things here to how things are at home. But I have realized that things at home aren't necesarily right or wrong, or better, just different. I wish I could explain this better, but it's just something you have to experience yourself. I have really come to appreciate these people for who they are and they way they live life. They are much more focused on love, happiness, and people: things that I find to be important. I now realize how us as Americans are more focused on time, work, money. We are always hurried and stressed. We know what is important in life also, but we don't spend as much time enjoying it. Of course there have been times that I have been frustrated with how differently things are done here, but those times have been worth it because of how much my point of view has been changed by being here. I'm not sure if that made sense at all, but I wanted to at least give it a shot at letting you guys know how it is here:)