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¡Hola! I write to you just six days away from my departure from South Bend to Santiago, Chile (including a transfer in Atlanta, Georgia). I will spend six weeks in the city, where I will receive the opportunity to truly immerse myself into an unfamiliar culture. As a student studying Spanish at the University of Notre Dame, I am looking forward to learning about language and culture through different lenses, in an environment much different than that of the traditional Notre Dame Spanish classroom.

I am packing many necessities to take with me on my journey: my toothbrush, my favorite water bottle, and my lucky socks (just to name a few). However, I can’t leave home without one of the most important tools—patience. Patience has been useful to me throughout my growth as both a student and a person. I practice patience as I work to overcome life obstacles. I practice patience when working shifts at the Early Childhood Development Center and the campus bookstore. I practice patience when studying for exams. I practice patience because I understand that pursuing goals is not a one-step process; achievement is made by taking time and putting forth my best efforts.

I will practice patience during my time abroad because I know that none of my experiences will be perfect. I will struggle with navigation, the language, and cultural differences, but I will be patient with and challenge myself. Through challenging myself and taking time to reflect on my experiences, I will be able to grow, not just as a student, but also as a person.

I am excited to practice and improve my speaking skills. I am excited to meet new people and make new friends. I am especially excited to try new food. Above all, I am excited to be a part of a program where I can connect my academic interests to real life experiences.

Hasta luego,

Aidan

After weeks of explaining to confused family and friends that you can indeed study abroad in Georgia because there is a country with the same name as the state, I am finally on the brink of my trip! I am a bit nervous about my conversational Russian, but I am even more excited to see my language skills develop through constant use.  In the classroom, the pressure of native Russian speakers attempting to communicate with me just does not exist, but in Georgia I will be immersed in this very situation every day. I trust that “necessity is the mother of invention” will help me refine and go beyond what I have learned over the past two semesters at Notre Dame.

I have enjoyed researching Georgian culture over the past several weeks, but I highly doubt that I am prepared for everything I will encounter. I am sure I will discover that some of the things I have read are not actually true for most Georgians. As a result, I am going in with a very open mind. I am very excited to adapt to a new culture, especially through a homestay, and I have been thinking about how to make a good first impression and avoid becoming a burden on my hosts. When I was choosing a language program, I was very particular about finding one that offered homestays because Professor Tom Marullo left a deep impression on me about their importance to cultural immersion. I am looking forward to living in a Georgian house in a Georgian neighborhood, and I hope my hosts are very knowledgeable in the local culinary arts. 

I have traveled to Costa Rica and Ireland with my family, but I have never traveled to Eurasia, and I have never visited another country to live with a local family for 6 weeks. I am excited to watch my language skills develop as I adjust to a very different culture. Additionally, the end of the Cold War in the United States was very different from that in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. I have studied this topic on my own, but I have never experienced what it is like to live in one of these countries, and I expect that this experience will allow me to understand life in a post-Soviet nation. I have also been following the war in Ukraine very closely, but I cannot truly relate to the experiences of the people involved. I expect to encounter people who have fled Ukraine and Russia because of the war. Reading about their experiences is important, but it will be even more valuable to talk about them in person.

As I approach my study abroad experience in Radolfzell, I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to grow in my language acquisition. Having spoken with prior students and the institute itself, what separates this opportunity from my previous classroom learning experience has been the focus. While the early classes of the German language are focused on grammar, vocabulary, etc. the electives in my experience have been more focused on the reading and writing skills. Additionally, there is a focus on looking at Germany from an academic point of view. We focus on the German political system, economy, history, literary figures, etc. This immersive experience will focus primarily on conversational skills and vocabulary. It will develop my ability to hold conversations about my family, dreams/aspirations, a new favorite book or TV show, etc. Additionally, I expect to develop my German grammar skills profoundly while abroad. Mastering German’s grammar rules has been my biggest hurdle to mastering the language so far, and I believe that by being immersed in the language completely, spending a few hours daily in the classroom, I will be far better prepared by the end of the summer. 

I think I will become a much more confident person not only in my language skills but across all areas of my life. There will be times where I will not know what to say when speaking with a local German. There will be times where I slip up, and I say something I do not mean. This opportunity will allow me to be okay with that. By having to think on the fly, I believe I will become more confident and speak in front of other people, especially in my German classes when I return home. 

Marhaba, my name is Tucker Limon and I am going to be studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan this summer. I depart in about 20 days and am attempting to prepare myself for a complete change of environment. I will know practically no one and be dropped into a foreign society in which I only have scraped the surface of understanding. However, with this daunting unknown, I am overly excited. I want to see and do everything.

I will be in a rigorous academic environment while in Amman. I am going to be studying at Qasid Arabic Institute in the heart of the city, and will be participating in the MSA program (Modern Standard Arabic – الفصحى). I will be in a classroom for four hours a day, outside work for four hours a day, five days a week, for nine weeks. I hope to engage with students, faculty, and society with my previously learned Arabic skills as well as with my newly gained knowledge. Outside of the classroom, I will be living in an apartment and will have to cook and live on my own. I am excited to navigate the transportation system as well as learn where and what to buy at a grocery store. I am very into music and have been looking forward to the house music scene in Amman for a while. I hope to adventure around and go to the numerous historical sites that the ancient city has to offer. 

On this trip, I will be forced to learn. Differing from the classroom setting, where Arabic is only taught for an hour a day, I will have 24 hr a day immersion. I will try to speak as little English as possible, only when necessary. I am hoping that this immersion experience will both increase my Arabic language skills as well as aid in the development of my independence and global perspective. I want to meet new people and experience an entirely new culture through the lens of language and integration. I am so excited to depart on this adventure and will keep you all updated! مع السلامة (Goodbye!)

I believe that continuing to learn is a crucial part of a person’s life. Becoming satisfied with only what one knows can cause them to become ignorant. As I have aged, I find myself interacting with a larger amount of people from different backgrounds than myself. Going to Notre Dame, I have interacted with people from across the world with diverse interests of study. Diving into countless conversations with these people different from me has introduced me to a multitude of different ways one could view life. Therefore, I imagine living and studying in a different country can lead to a greater understanding of the people and their culture.

Studying in Italy as an outsider should be very challenging. I will have to ask for help every time I don’t know where to go or what to do, and nothing will be familiar. While I am usually very talkative and social, I don’t know how intimidated I will be when forced to communicate through a language I am not as comfortable with. Through this experience, I should be able to take a step back and really appreciate how impressive it is to be bilingual.

When abroad, I am really interested in hearing local’s perspectives on their current and past political situations. In my most recent Italian class, “Exploring Italian Culture,” we talked about the important historical events that occurred and how they affected Italy. Having the chance to speak to Italians about how they view their country is an opportunity I will be sure not to pass up. Furthermore, I hope to be able to find some of their favorite shows and music to take as recommendations. There is so much music, TV shows, and movies that I have only found through friends recommending them. Therefore, there must be a lot of Italian media that I would also enjoy. I am extremely excited and looking forward to the moment I land in Italy.

The beginning of my four week trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina is fast approaching. Since I have never traveled outside of the United States, I am admittedly a little nervous to be so far away from home. However, my desire for personal growth and life knowledge motivates me daily to take on the challenges that come along with international travel. With preparations coming to an end soon, I wanted to reflect on my expectations for this trip.

For one, I wanted to go to Argentina to improve my Spanish conversational skills. For years I have practiced and studied Spanish in the classroom, and I have always been told that immersion is the best way to learn Spanish. While I am enrolled in a language course at the Universidad de Belgrano, I intend to pick up conversational language knowledge mostly through interacting with Argentinian people. With improved Spanish speaking, I want to make the most of my Spring semester abroad in Santiago, Chile.

I also expect to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Argentinian culture. This new perspective will hopefully inspire a potential topic for a senior thesis or creative new approaches to social issues that I had never previously considered.

While I am nervous to travel so far, I am itching to experience Buenos Aires and familiarize myself with a part of the world that I have never seen.

Hi everyone! In just a little over a month, I am excited to head to Ireland to begin the Irish language summer immersion program hosted by NUIG. This summer, the first half of the program will be taught in Donegal and the second half will be taught in Galway. The late change in the program was unexpected after an anticipated month all in Galway, but I am thrilled to enjoy another gorgeous part of Ireland and meet even more Irish-speaking families that will help me to develop my comprehension and speaking skills further!

Personally, I have anticipated taking part in this program for quite some time after applying during both my freshman and sophomore years (I am now a rising senior), but being unable to attend due to COVID-19 complications. Of all the opportunities I have had at Notre Dame, learning Irish will always rank high among the top, and I am extremely grateful to be able to develop even more after four semesters of fantastic classroom preparation. Returning to Galway is especially exciting for me as I spent the Fall 2021 semester studying at NUIG and I am fairly familiar with the general region. I absolutely loved Connemara and left my semester wishing that I had spent more time in the area and surrounded by the Irish language, which I will now have the chance to do. My time at Notre Dame, both on campus and abroad, has always exceeded my expectations with richer and more fruitful experiences than I ever imagined and I anticipate that this adventure will pleasantly surprise me in the same way!

[To Galway I’ll go…]

I’m so incredibly excited to have this opportunity to travel to Ireland this summer. I’ll be attending NUI Galway’s international summer school. Due to COVID-19, the program will actually be taking place in both Galway AND Donegal, which I find even more exciting.

Some background on my knowledge of Irish: I’ve completed three semesters of Irish language instruction at Notre Dame and will be taking a fourth semester of it at the start of the next academic term. I’ve fallen in love with the Irish language and hope to experience its dynamic culture this summer, as I’ve never been lucky enough to travel to Ireland! In my time abroad, I’m expecting to use Irish heavily in the classroom; further, I’m hoping to challenge myself in using Irish as much as possible outside of the classroom. I also would like to expand my learning beyond the language and would like to learn about Irish history and geography through the trips sponsored by my program.

Since I began taking Irish in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, my language-learning experience has been disjointed at times. Online classes aren’t exactly conducive to speaking a language, particularly when you’re in the clumsy and awkward beginning stages of the language. I think that learning Irish abroad will help atone for the difficulties the pandemic created in my language journey by allowing me to focus wholly on Irish for four weeks. Furthermore, being around the culture in real life instead of through images and videos will be enriching.

Four weeks isn’t long enough to experience even a sliver of Ireland, but I do hope it will be a formative experience for me. I hope to become more confident in my language learning abilities and to appreciate other cultures even more than I already do.

Thanks for tuning in, and I’ll see you when I’m in Ireland!