Hello, I'm Minami Nagae, currently studying abroad at the University of La Frontera in Chile. The university is located in Temuco, a city full of diverse cultures, about an 8-hour bus ride south of Santiago, the capital of Chile.
Two months have passed since I arrived in Chile as an exchange student, and this semester, due to student demonstrations, lectures finally started this week. I should mention that this university doesn't have language schools or similar courses like other partner institutions, and 90% of the exchange students come from Spanish-speaking countries like Mexico, Spain, and Argentina. Also, the teaching style is different from Japan, with group work being the main focus. So, school life is quite tough! (laughs)
To be honest, my hobby is traveling abroad, and I wasn't originally very interested in Spanish. My motivation came during last summer's vacation when I studied abroad for two and a half months at a language school in San Diego, USA, at my own expense. My host family were Mexican immigrants, and since you can cross the border from San Diego to Tijuana, Mexico by land, I visited frequently. I fell in love with the atmosphere and culture of Mexico, and that's what sparked my desire to learn it. So, although I only took Spanish classes for one semester, I mostly studied on my own, and my language skills were far from adequate. As expected, I was the least fluent among the exchange students. Thanks to the university offering basic Spanish classes for non-native speakers, I've now improved enough to travel alone, but even shopping was a struggle at first. Incidentally, Chilean Spanish is completely different from Spanish spoken in Spain, and it's incredibly fast-paced and supposedly the most difficult in South America (laughs).
I've written some rather harsh things up to this point, but my study abroad experience has been quite fulfilling, for better or for worse. You might have the image that "Latin = cheerful," and it's exactly as you'd expect. If you make eye contact, it's like you're friends. Most university students, professors, and even the general public don't speak English, and about half of the exchange students don't speak English either. However, even if you can't speak the language perfectly, you can make a lot of friends, and everyone is so kind and tries their best to understand your broken English. I think the fun comes across in the photos, so I focused on writing about some of the harsher aspects.
Because it was tough, I think I became much stronger and grew a lot. I have no regrets about coming. Most people study abroad in English-speaking countries, but I highly recommend it to students who want to experience something different, who are fascinated by Latin culture, or who are interested in Spanish!
