This has turned into mostly a travel blog, but I figure that in a few years it might be nice to read this and be reminded that I didn’t actually accomplish some things academically while in Chile…
My geography class at the university turned out to be a pretty difficult course, especially because I was the only foreigner in the class. I learned how different the education systems can be between two countries. For example, we always got a study guides for our exams, with all the information we would be required to know for the test. A guide is obviously not available in all of the university’s classes, but it’s not something I’ve come to expect in my classes at UNC. In addition, I had some difficulties in writing essays for my TA. At some point, I realized that the problem with my essays was not my ability to write in Spanish, but my ability to write an essay the way my TA expected it. My introductions and conclusions always seemed super clear to me, but the comment from my TA was always that my writing wasn’t clear enough. All is well, though, because I ended up passing the class – and even got an exemption from the final exam so I could really enjoy my last week in Chile.
My history class through IES ended with a few weeks of learning more about the dictatorships in Chile and Argentina. We took a trip to Villa Grimaldi, a memorial park in the outskirts of Santiago that used to be a torture chamber during Pinochet dictatorship. My friend and I also completed a final project on sexual diversity in Chile. It was interested to walk around the city and try to find examples of sexuality, especially this new anti-discrimination campaign in the metro stations showing gay couples, pregnant women, older people, etc.
My Spanish classes ended well, too. My grammar and vocabulary have definitely improved, though has as much as I would have liked after speaking so much English in the last few months… I’m proud of what I accomplished, though, and I hope to keep improving in the future!
My geography class at the university turned out to be a pretty difficult course, especially because I was the only foreigner in the class. I learned how different the education systems can be between two countries. For example, we always got a study guides for our exams, with all the information we would be required to know for the test. A guide is obviously not available in all of the university’s classes, but it’s not something I’ve come to expect in my classes at UNC. In addition, I had some difficulties in writing essays for my TA. At some point, I realized that the problem with my essays was not my ability to write in Spanish, but my ability to write an essay the way my TA expected it. My introductions and conclusions always seemed super clear to me, but the comment from my TA was always that my writing wasn’t clear enough. All is well, though, because I ended up passing the class – and even got an exemption from the final exam so I could really enjoy my last week in Chile.
My history class through IES ended with a few weeks of learning more about the dictatorships in Chile and Argentina. We took a trip to Villa Grimaldi, a memorial park in the outskirts of Santiago that used to be a torture chamber during Pinochet dictatorship. My friend and I also completed a final project on sexual diversity in Chile. It was interested to walk around the city and try to find examples of sexuality, especially this new anti-discrimination campaign in the metro stations showing gay couples, pregnant women, older people, etc.
My Spanish classes ended well, too. My grammar and vocabulary have definitely improved, though has as much as I would have liked after speaking so much English in the last few months… I’m proud of what I accomplished, though, and I hope to keep improving in the future!