FLPA Encuentro Español
Creighton
Four weeks of full-time Spanish immersion split between Madrid and Cádiz. I stayed with a host family in each city and attended courses with other Creighton students. My first time out of the country, and the reason the fieldwork in Peru was possible a year later.
Results
6Credit hours, four weeks
Two courses completed in four weeks
SPN 316 Spanish Immersion I and SPN 424 Encuentro Español I, both taken on site.
10Cities visited, two countries
Across Spain and Morocco
Madrid and Cádiz as bases, plus Toledo, Seville, Córdoba, Valencia, and a day trip to Tangier. Most were program trips; Valencia was mine.
Led a further week in Valencia independently, in Spanish
Planned the itinerary and guided my parents around the city after the program finished — the first real test of the language without a program underneath it.
The problem
My Spanish was entirely classroom Spanish: grammar I could conjugate on a worksheet, and conversations that only happened with other learners, over topics chosen to be easy.
What I did not have was experience using the language when it was the only option: with a host family at dinner, with a museum guide speaking to a group, or in a train station where getting it wrong meant being lost.
Overview
Classes ran five days a week, followed by guided tours almost every day. We were tested on what tour guides covered, so going to a museum after daily classes was really just lecture.
I lived with a host family in Madrid and a second family in Cádiz, eating two meals a day with them. That is where the actual language gain happened, when I couldn't switch to English for help with a word. The program also took us to historic centers across Spain, including Toledo, Seville, and Córdoba, plus a day trip across to Tangier, Morocco.
When the academic program ended I stayed for another week and led my parents around Valencia myself: planning the events and meals, handling the transport and doing all of the talking. Four weeks earlier I had never left the country.
Gallery(6)
What a grammar lesson looked like in Madrid. Breakfast our host family served in Madrid. A Spanish history book I picked up while I was there. Central Madrid, around the Royal Palace. Cádiz city view from Torre Tavira. A day trip to Los Alejos, showing my parents around.
Related work
Other work that used the most skills in common with this one.
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