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My experiences with languages

Hey,it’s me again 🙂

Today I will talk about my personal experiences with different languages, countries and cultures, especially the experiences I have made so far here in Spain. First of all this is not my first time in an other country, I already traveled much in my life and did two student exchanges, one in France last year and one a few week ago in Slowakia. There is a big difference between staying in a hotel in summer break or actually live in a spanish or french family and go to school or having work experiences. 

– La Palza de Toros –

In the time I stayed in those families I learned so much about the culture and the way they were living. I studied french for 4 years in school, but from my personal experience I can say that those 9 day in France were way more effective than classes in Germany, because you are in constant confrontation with the language. In this time I improved my language skills a lot. It’s the same thing here in Spain, I only arrived a few day ago and I have the feeling I already improved my language skills, especially in daily situations. In school you often do not have the change to speak that much, especially not about daily conversations but more about grammar and rules. In my view this constant confrontation with another language the best way to learn a new language because most of the time you can’t just switch the language because otherwise the person you are talking would not be able to understand you. 

In my few days here in Spain I learned to have daily conversations even with native speakers and now I’m more secure when I have to answer. The conversations I have with the people around me are start getting longer and more difficult. I’m excited to improve my language skills even more and learn more about the culture here in Spain in my next 2 weeks. 

Below I will show a few pictures from my other exchanges and of cours from my experiences so far here in Spain. 😉

Why is language so important?

Hello,

My name is Gisele I’m 16 years old and I’m from Germany. 

This is my blog and I will write about my experiences here in Spain and what I learned, especially the language. Because this is exactly what I want to clar up about: our language is something that connects the world. Language is an instrument that gives us the opportunity to communicate with people around the globe. This was the main reason for me to decide to do my work experience in Spark, language schools are the key to this connections.

Language is one of the most important parts of any culture. It is the way by which people communicate with one another, build relationships, and create a sense of community. There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today, and each is unique in a number of ways.

Language should never be something to fear or a reason to not do something you want. 

Knowing more than one language is a significant advantage in many careers. This is especially true if you work in certain fields like human rights, business, or finances, but you can also earn a living as a translator or tutor. Knowing multiple languages also opens up opportunities to work internationally. If you’re hoping to advance in your career and are looking for an edge, learning another language could do the trick.

Now I have talked a bit about language’s general importance, but learning more languages impacts our lifes too. Research shows that students who know more than one language have better problem-solving skills, creativity, and better critical thinking. In studies on bilingual kids, researchers found that kids who spoke a second language at home did better on cognitive tests than households with only one language.

Because language is so closely linked to culture, it makes sense that learning a language would connect you to that culture. You learn much more than just words and phrases. A new language invites you into a culture’s rituals, history, values, and more.

Being able to communicate with someone in their language fosters a unique bond and encourages empathy.

It can be tricky to nail down what “culture” is exactly. Anthropologists define it as an often shifting collection of beliefs, values, behaviors, and rules that a group of people shares.

Language is a vital part of culture because it’s what people use to communicate aspects of culture (like rules and values). People are introduced to their culture through language, which they learn at a young age.

I hope this post was interesting and the message was understandable and clear:)

In my next post I will talk about the experience I have made with different languages and countries.

After completing the internship and the Spanish programme, I would like to have developed the qualities of independence and self-motivation as much as possible. In my opinion, these are two of the most important building blocks for realizing my own potential to the best of my ability.

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After having finished my work experience and spanish program here in Spark, I will have learnt how to deal with new situations and new people, such as how to connect and integrate myself into those new things. I will have achieved this by working on my social skills. Being able to deal with new situation is really important in life and it will help me to learn to step out of my comfort zone.

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During my two weeks being a Chaperone, I will be the best Chaperone I could be, encouraging myself to be confident, hardworking, organized and resolute so I will be proud of myself. Apart from this, working with children and teenagers is one of my passions and a reason to work here.

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Mi experiencia en España

En las dos Semanas en El Puerto de Santa María he hecho muchas cosas en Spark y con mi familia anfitriona. En Spark tenía la posibilidad de trabajar independientemente. He pintado dos cuadros. Un toro y el Castillo de San Marcos. He hablado mucho Español con la familia y por eso yo aprendí el idioma. 

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For the next 2 weeks, I will be doing a work experience at Sparks Spanish. I went to Spain to further work on my Spanish besides the 4 years of Spanish classes I got at home. To also improve on a personal level I set four goals to achieve. 

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Just graduated and ready for a next adventure I started to look at jobs outside of the Netherlands. Soon enough I found Spark and as the name says the connection was there. Spark was not completely new to me since my sister also did an internship here about six years ago. It was nice to hear that besides some small changes Spark remained the nice and safe space for students to come and learn English.
I started this adventure with four goals I will achieve in the next six months working at Spark.

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Durante la estancia aquí en Puerto de Santa María viví con una familia acogida muy amable. Siempre se esforzaron mucho para que me encantara la estancia, ¡y realmente me encantó mucho!


Todos los días tenía clases de español con Inés que muchas veces me enseñaba las partes antiguas y famosas de esta ciudad. ¡Era muy interesante! Por eso, gracias a Inés, ahora sé muchísimo más sobre la cultura y la historia de esa ciudad y de toda Andalucía, y además, claro, era una buena práctica de compresión auditiva y de habla para mí así que eso mejoró muchísimo mis conocimientos de español. Me encantó que también aprendí muchas frases y refranes típicos de aquí.

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After having completed this work experience and Spanish program, I will have learnt to be independent, responsible and how to organize time better by planning my project at Spark.

Furthermore I will also learn much more about myself, about my strengths and weaknesses, about my abilities and how to make use of them in order to contribute in the team.

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Mi experencia en Spark

En mi tiempo en Spark en el Puerto de Santa María he aprendido muchas cosas que son importantes para mi futuro en el mundo de trabajo. Porque estaba solo con mi proyecto, aprendí a organizarme y organizar cuando hago cosas.

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Durante mis prácticas en El Puerto de Santa María adquirí experiencia laboral y experiencia en la vida y el trabajo en un país hispanohablante. 

Las clases de español, la vida en la familia anfitriona  y las conversaciones con mis colegas me ayudaron a mejorar mi nivel de español y mi confianza al hablar. Las tareas encomendadas me enseñaron cómo trabajar de una forma más independiente y efectiva. 

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