Hi, my name is Bree and I am a Communicative Sciences and Disorders major and my challenge is Inequality and Human rights. Summer 2024 I went to Salamanca, Spain. I am in love with the idea of interdisciplinary concepts, especially those bridging between the science and social worlds. One of my part time jobs is working at the hospital, where I occasionally encounter people whose primary language is not english and therefore communication issues arise. With many of these people being recent immigrants and refugees, it can be tough to be in a place where communication is limited. Being in America and especially Montana, I am primarily surrounded by one language which is english. only 20% of Americans are bilingual, a striking comparison given that  Over 56% of Europeans are bilingual. This statistic is enforced by people who claim that a person should only speak English, arguing against the benefits of learning a foreign language. This is why I decided that learning a foreign language can help bridge this gap, choosing Spanish as there are many people in the US that speak it!

In one of my Spanish classes here at UM, I was recommended studying Spanish in Salamanca, Spain at Colegio Hispano Continental. So I arrived in Salamanca and the entire time I took formal Spanish language classes 5 days a week, 4 hours a day. The school provided tours, event meet ups, and traveling experiences. I went to Segovia, Lastres, Aveiro Portugal and During my off time I explored the city of Salamanca, which is designated as a world heritage site. It was filled with architecture and had one of the oldest universities in Europe. During my entire stay I was hosted by a Spanish woman called Rosa, who only spoke Spanish, which was great because I was even more motivated to learn.

Exploring the culture and life of the average Spanish civilian was amazing and incredible to experience. The city is very space efficient in space, and you could walk anywhere you needed to go in less than 15 minutes. The culture of walking is so normalized, that J-walking is super normal and less dangerous than America. While most pharmacies in the US seem to be cold and disgruntled, in this country they were on every other block and the attendants even came up to me to ask me what I needed! What a shock! The city really came to life at night, which is hard for me because I like to sleep, ha! My favorite culture moment was when famous soccer games were playing, and everyone was out on the street, cheering, eating and eating tapas.

My favorite moments were the ones I spent with the friends I made. All of the other students were from different countries and learnt the language alongside me. Lots of people in the US don’t take Spanish classes too seriously, so it was fun to be surrounded by people who were just as passionate as me learning spanish. We traveled, ate, laughed, struggled and explored this new country we were in, bonding over our experiences. A question that came up for me was why study another language, when English is already kind of a lingua franca? The short answer: to make more connections! The long answer: currently working on a project on that, stayed tuned for Winter 2025! The most valuable experience of my trip was being in a foreign country where speaking and understanding was difficult, and it really put into perspective what immigrants go through in the US.

My everyday walk!