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PERSPECTIVE
Finding a voice abroad WashU’s immersive Summer Language Institute helps students hone their language skills and step out of their comfort zones.
by
ALEXIS BENTZ
As an American college student, there are three things I know with certainty: the haunting last line of “The Great Gatsby,” the first 17 digits of pi, and my Starbucks order. But as I walked into my green-and-white haven for the first time on a different continent, it dawned on me: My usual rapid-fire request for a grande decaf iced caramel latte with oat milk would no longer be rapid. I had to figure out how to say “lactose-free” in Spanish. Despite having studied the language for eight years, I became a stuttering, stuck record, only able to utter “no caliente” (“not hot”) when asked what kind of drink I’d like. “¿Entonces…frío?” (“so… cold?”), the bemused barista replied. I nodded. He chuckled, and my cheeks burned. What felt like an eternity later, I had trudged through my order and, exasperated, offered a handful of crumpled euros to the cashier. Given that this was one of my first interactions while studying abroad in Madrid, Spain, one might guess that I subsequently went full-on turtle, retreating into a shell of silence. Instead, I got louder. I knew that my experience in the Summer Language Institute in Spain would be immersive. Six weeks in Spain. Living with a host family. Classes, activities, and interactions all in Spanish. While this was a gulp-worthy notion, it was also electrifying. I also knew from experience that immersion in foreign language learning makes all the difference. In high school, my Spanish classes were largely conducted in English. As a result, when I entered my first collegelevel language course — this one entirely en español — I realized something: Despite six years of rote memorization and conjugation drills, I actually had no clue how to speak Spanish. My first three years of language learning at WashU forced me to put the abstract grammatical lessons I’d learned into practice. I began to finally consider myself a proficient Spanish speaker. Wanting to magnify the impact of immersion, I enrolled in the Madrid summer program, eager for my surroundings to work their magic.
A class field trip to Córdoba provided students in the Summer Language Institute in Spain an opportunity to learn about Arabic influence on Spanish language and culture. (Photos courtesy of Alexis Bentz)
Magical, truly, is an apt description of my experience abroad. I saw historical epochs brought to life as my class traveled to the very cities — Toledo, Córdoba, Segovia — we’d studied. I witnessed
