{"id":2449,"date":"2015-04-03T17:35:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T17:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/blogs\/?p=2449"},"modified":"2015-04-03T17:35:58","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T17:35:58","slug":"a-little-southern-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogsdev.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/rambassadors\/2015\/04\/a-little-southern-city\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Southern City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"david1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Walking into a room where everyone is speaking a foreign language can be intimidating. Your thoughts begin to race as questions are asked: \u201cWhat are they saying? Are they talking about me?\u201d Immediately, you distance yourself from the group and reflect back to your language class and ask yourself \u201cWhat were those phrases Se\u00f1ora Sanchez used?\u201d Bits of broken Spanish begin to slip out. Recognizing your lack of comprehension you\u2019re tempted to ask, \u201cDo you speak English?\u201d in a broken form of Spanish. Now let\u2019s take this situation down south, not to a city in the U.S., but one called Villa Mar\u00eda in Argentina.<\/p>\n

Now, you\u2019re the foreigner and locals who speak English are excited to speak with a native. In addition, you\u2019re the first American they\u2019ve ever seen. Argentines have a deep sense of appreciation for American culture, even while harboring a strong distaste of U.S. foreign policy. Yet, many of them are interested in learning English. Take a stroll downtown and folks will stop in the middle of their tracks just to stare, wondering where you are from and why you\u2019re speaking in English or Spanish with a \u201cgringo\u201d accent.<\/p>\n

This same recurring scenario happens every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon at the Universidad Nacional de Villa Mar\u00eda (UNVM), at the university\u2019s dining hall. As a Fulbrighter, I established an English learning club in the heart of the city. The English club, \u201cCaf\u00e9 Ingl\u00e9s\u201d, which translates to English Coffee, offers students the opportunity to use the English skills they acquired throughout grade school in a safe and non-threatening environment. Whether it\u2019s with a cup of coffee, or some mat\u00e9 (Argentine tea) to go around, the club serves as a space for cross-cultural exchanges as participants share about American and Argentine traditions, culture, and ideals.<\/p>\n

Although Argentines are exposed to the English language and study it by the time they are in kindergarten, few master the language. An even smaller percentage of the population use their English skills regularly. As a result, many view English as a language meant for the privileged few. This led me to question the value of the English language for an average Argentine. At the university in Villa Maria, students study an array of subjects, ranging from music and photography, to electrical engineering, political science, and medicine. My interactions with local students underscored the importance of the English language in many technical fields. The ability to deduce English technical writing is imperative to the growth and success of these students in their field of study.<\/p>\n

In light of these discoveries, I decided to establish Caf\u00e9 Ingl\u00e9s, where cross-cultural communication could thrive in a safe space. It is my hope that the forthcoming entries will shed light on the role that cultural exchanges and cross-cultural communication can play in reshaping public opinion in a southern town known as Villa, Maria.<\/p>\n

Follow David D\u00e1vila on Twitter: www.twitter.com\/thedavilaa<\/p>\n

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                    Walking into a room where everyone is speaking a foreign language can be intimidating. Your thoughts begin to race as questions are asked: \u201cWhat are they saying? Are they talking about me?\u201d Immediately, you distance yourself from the group and reflect back to your language […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-david"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogsdev.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/rambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogsdev.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/rambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogsdev.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/rambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogsdev.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/rambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogsdev.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/rambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogsdev.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/rambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogsdev.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/rambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogsdev.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/rambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogsdev.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/rambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}