St. Bonaventure students study abroad in Argentina and Uruguay during the winter interim session
February 15, 2006 - Posted in Study AbroadDuring the winter interim session, while many other students were relaxing at home and spending time with their families, nine St. Bonaventure University students, along with three students from George Mason University in Virginia, were busy earning three credits in Spanish in Argentina. While there, they also had plenty of time to enjoy the hot South American summer — a welcome reprieve from the cold of Western New York.
From Dec. 28 to Jan. 12, group coordinator Dr. Zennia Hancock, professor of modern languages at St. Bonaventure, led the group of 12 as they took intensive Spanish classes through the Universidad de La Plata, stayed with Argentinean host families and found themselves completely immersed in another language and culture.
Based in La Plata, a suburb of the capital, students had easy access to Buenos Aires, and they had the opportunity to sightsee, shop and dine as they toured several of the city’s most famous neighborhoods. Another planned excursion took them to an entirely different South American country for the weekend, as they also visited Uruguay, where they stayed in the capital, Montevideo, and took a daytrip along the coastline to the beautiful beaches of Punta del Este.
Several students noted and appreciated the cultural differences they were exposed to. It took Bonaventure freshman Mike Morgan a while to become accustomed to the Argentinean tradition of exchanging a friendly kiss on the cheek — even with strangers — instead of shaking hands.
“In the beginning, I had to get used to giving kisses, and sometimes I forgot and I shook hands, the American way. The strange looks I got, when I did that, were enough to tell me not to try that again,†said Morgan.
“In Argentina, they seem really interested in what’s going on in everyone’s lives, and they always come up to foreigners, kiss them and ask about their families. That was a really nice thing to see, and it made me ask myself why people in the States aren’t as friendly as that. When I came back to the States, I was very tempted to give total strangers a kiss on the cheek … then I remembered I wasn’t in Argentina anymore,†he said.
Many students also made some enduring friendships. “People take their time with you, even when there is a communication barrier … I made two friends there — and more, of course — and we’ve been writing to each other every week, simple things, over e-mail. I help them with English and they help me with Spanish,†said George Mason student Kamla Dang.
Although students were busy enough with their studies and side trips, they also participated in plenty of extracurricular activities, including tango lessons, “parrilladas†(Argentinean cookouts), a community service activity with the La Plata congregation of sisters of the Holy Word, a wine-tasting course, and plenty of souvenir shopping.
“The wonderful thing about this kind of trip,†said Hancock, “is that students can practice what they learn the moment they step outside of the classroom — in some cases, they have to, in order to catch a cab, buy a sandwich, or ask someone on the street how to find their way to a meeting point. Language acquisition is greatly accelerated. Another obvious plus is that this experience complements the global and cultural education of our students, which is so important in today’s world.â€
The Department of Modern Languages offers two faculty-led trips to Spanish-speaking countries. The Argentina trip will be offered again in winter ’07, and a trip is planned to Spain this summer. Interested parties can contact Hancock (Argentina) by e-mail at zhancock@sbu.edu, or Dr. Alva Cellini (Spain) by phone at (716) 375-2466 or by e-mail at acellini@sbu.edu.