Andrea Pope is a master’s student in Hispanic Literature and a Graduate Assistant in Teaching at the University of Arizona. She began her undergraduate career as an occupational therapy major, with a minor in Spanish. She studied abroad in Mexico, and loved it so much that it prompted her to change her major. In Chile, she performs the duties of the Resident Director of the University of Arizona students, and teaches an intermediate Spanish conversation class.What has your experience in Chile been like so far?
I was open to Chile, but the only reference I had to Latin America was Mexico. I spent a year and a half there, so I have a lot of ties there. I was constantly comparing Chile to Mexico, and everything was so different that I was confused and almost upset in the beginning. I felt like I was going through the same process as my students were with the cultural shock. But, as anything goes, the more you get to know something the more you understand it and the more you can appreciate it. The more I experienced Chile, the more people I met, and I really got to understand some of the cultural nuances. I was intrigued, and it has ended up being a very good experience. I would love to come back and visit.
What differences have you encountered between the University of Arizona and the University of Viña del Mar?
The differences in the structure in general are huge. They are both academic institutions with the same kind of goals, but the way they go about reaching those goals is so different. For example, how structured our classes in the US, as compared to how open the structure is to the classes in Chile. We are even having a series of seminars between myself and the professors here to talk about those differences and how we can incorporate the plusses of both systems, because my students will come in and tell me that it’s difficult for them. They will go into a professor’s class and he says do a presentation on whatever you want. The students say, “What? What do you mean whatever I want? I need more direction.”
In the last seminar we had, we actually talked about how too much structure, or over-structured courses, can prohibit the student from exploring their creativity. At the end of the day, they don’t know how to think for themselves. So, when they are told at the end of their four-year academic career to write a thesis, they don’t know where to go with it.
How are the students adapting to Chilean culture?
I don’t know if I got really lucky, but they have adjusted so well. They love it. Fortunately, they have found a way to negotiate their own culture and its authenticity and value, and the value of Chilean or Latin American culture. I think this is difficult for the foreign exchange students when the cultures are so different. They don’t know which to choose, but that’s the point. You don’t need to choose one, but you have to learn to integrate them.
What are the greatest benefits you see your students getting out of this experience?
One of the articles that I passed out to the professors for them to read for the seminar was an article by Walter Mignola called Corporatization of the American University. It talks about what role the humanities have in a world of globalization and global capitalism. Right now, there are all these clash of cultures with immigration, politics and consumerism. So, how do the humanities have value in a world so focused on consumerism and efficiency? Mignola postulates the idea that those aficionados in the humanities have to learn how to translate not in so far as language, but in so far as cultures. They have to learn how to be professionals in that in between area of cultures. I think that is a great idea because that is really what we want; we don’t want to value one culture one over the other, but instead we want to know how to interact with people of different cultures and backgrounds even within our own countries. So, I think the way the world is progressing is more toward the need to translate between cultures, so I think that these students have that advantage. The advantage to learn how to go in between, and maybe they end up in the country they visited or maybe they go back to their own, but at least have some sort of cultural sensitivity.
Do you have any advice for students who are considering studying abroad?
The biggest piece of advice that I always give my own students is to get over the fear of making mistakes. When that wall of fear comes down it is so much easier to learn. You are so much more open to learn and have a good experience through your errors and your learning.
Do you have any advice for professors and teachers who would like to coordinate a similar experience for their students?
One of the articles that I passed out to the professors for them to read for the seminar was an article by Walter Mignola called Corporatization of the American University. It talks about what role the humanities have in a world of globalization and global capitalism. Right now, there are all these clash of cultures with immigration, politics and consumerism. So, how do the humanities have value in a world so focused on consumerism and efficiency? Mignola postulates the idea that those aficionados in the humanities have to learn how to translate not in so far as language, but in so far as cultures. They have to learn how to be professionals in that in between area of cultures. I think that is a great idea because that is really what we want; we don’t want to value one culture one over the other, but instead we want to know how to interact with people of different cultures and backgrounds even within our own countries. So, I think the way the world is progressing is more toward the need to translate between cultures, so I think that these students have that advantage. The advantage to learn how to go in between, and maybe they end up in the country they visited or maybe they go back to their own, but at least have some sort of cultural sensitivity.
Do you have any advice for students who are considering studying abroad?
The biggest piece of advice that I always give my own students is to get over the fear of making mistakes. When that wall of fear comes down it is so much easier to learn. You are so much more open to learn and have a good experience through your errors and your learning.
Do you have any advice for professors and teachers who would like to coordinate a similar experience for their students?
I think the most difficult thing is not to superimpose their experiences and knowledge on the students, because we have all of this information that we want to impart to our students, because we’re passionate about it. It is difficult not to practice the banking model of teaching, which is where the students are there, and you go and deposit all your information into the students and they take it and somehow assimilate it. The whole idea is to pull out questions and conversation from them. That also means that us professors sometimes have to sacrifice that organized plan in order to give the students the experience they are looking for, because at the end of the day they are the ones who have the experience and should be able to do it in their own way. So I think the biggest challenge is to stop, and be able to sacrifice that lesson plan even though you may have spent hours organizing and let the students take more control of their own experience. You just guide them and mediate them.
By Lauren McNitt
No comments:
Post a Comment