Going Beyond Borders at Model Middle School

One of the greatest writers of the 20th century, French novelist Marcel Proust, once said that “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new lands but in seeing with new eyes.” For Mr. Proust, options that would not have occurred to us before stand out as obvious if we understand how other people experience the world. In an effort to foster global awareness and develop cultural intelligence, students in my Spanish class had the opportunity to Skype with native Spanish speakers of Colombia.

Here is what some of our MMS students shared about this fascinating intercultural exchange:

“On Tuesday, Sept. 26, my Spanish class Skyped with two people from Colombia. They were native both to Colombia and to the Spanish language, and when Sr. Carvajal turned on the Skype, everyone was more than a little nervous. One classmate named Emma had volunteered before the Skype had started, and was already sitting close where the webcam was pointed. Within moments, Sr. Julian Viana and Sra. Kelly de Viana from Colombia were both looking at us through their screen. They both had black hair and Sra.

“Kelly had glasses. Emma introduced herself, asked a few questions, and was met with fluent answers. Sr. Carvajal was ready to help us understand anything we couldn’t decipher ourselves, and after Emma was done, I shot my hand in the air before my fear could grab hold again. I was still a bit shaky as I sat where they could see, but that vanished when I introduced myself, saying, ‘Hola. Me llamo Rosalind Pack. Tengo catorce años,’ and started asking a few questions of my own. I asked them what they heard of America and, from the first response, it would appear that the strained relationship with North Korea is rather prominent. After that they said that they heard it was a place where people were supposed to be given a lot of opportunities to better themselves.

“Skyping with native Spanish speakers from Colombia was very exciting and I felt pretty accomplished for the rest of the day. I learned a lot about Colombia beforehand, but nothing could compare to talking to them in person. Their culture is pretty different from my own here in America, and just one example would be that they consider it friendly to ask and tell one’s age. It’s actually considered very normal to say your age when introducing yourself there. They also eat ‘Hormigas,’ a specific type of ant that is only

WEDNESDAY, October 11, 2017 found in the city where they are from: Bucaramanga. There, ‘Hormigas Culonas’ are considered a popular snack that taste, according to our virtual visitors, like peanuts. They even promised to send us some to try! What a different culture!, I said to myself.

“Here in America, I never heard of anyone eating ants, and to ask about someone’s age becomes rude when you grow beyond a little kid. I would have never known about these cultural differences, or at the very least, never comprehended them if not for having Skyped with Sr. Julian and Sra. Kelly myself. From now on, in order to improve my understanding of other cultures I will do a little research on countries I really don’t know about. One thing I’m already doing to improve my understanding is learning other languages. I have been trying my best at learning about other places, and I will probably try to learn Hebrew after I have a better grasp of Spanish. All in all, I loved Skyping with Sr. Julian Viana and Sra. Kelly de Viana.”

“When we walked into class, the hangout was ready to start. We grabbed Chromebooks in case we need to translate something or use our notes that we had prepared prior to the Hangout. Everyone was very nervous, but very excited. I wanted to ask more original questions, so I made up the questions based on the other questions asked. When I walked up to ask my questions in Spanish I was scared, but once I sat down and started communicating I realized this wasn’t as bad or scary as I thought. The Vianas, Julian and Kelly, were nice and considerate. Every time I would mess up, they wouldn’t falter! There were a lot of words I did not know, so Senor Carvajal helped me interpret what they were saying.

“One of the goals of the activity was to understand the Colombian culture at a deeper level and compare it with our our own. I learned they have different foods, although much of the music and many sports were the same. I also learned about a Colombian music style they refer as “Vallenato”. Vallenato is an upbeat, but almost classical music. One of the coolest parts of the activity was when I got to ask if they can speak any English for us. Senor Julian said, “I am very happy for speaking english for you.” Although the grammar was wrong, he surprised me as to how much English he knew. He tried very hard to come up with a complete sentence!

“They had a lot of different aspects in their culture I would like to learn more about -particularly when it comes to Colombian cuisine and language- Interestingly, I learned that Colombia is one of the happiest countries in the world, yet one of the most crime-filled. Also, Colombia has many celebrations including “Carnaval de Barranquilla,”one of the biggest festivals in the world. Learning about Colombia and speaking with native speakers truly helped me improve my intercultural intelligence and develop a different perspective about the Spanish culture.”