Benefits of a Teen - Child - Study Abroad
Benefits of a Teen – Child – Program
- Making Friends
Traveling to Cuernavaca, your kids are almost guaranteed to make friends. those friends will speak Spanish.
meriah nichols mexico-33
- Learning About Different Places
When you travel, you learn. Traveling around Mexico and your kids will learn first hand about the pyramids of Teotihuacan, about coastal sea life, water, desert ecosystems, elevation hazards, mountain life and indigenous cultures.
- Appreciating Real Food
If you travel around Mexico, your kids are likely to become adventurous food eaters and potentially, food lovers.
They will develop an appetite for fresh, unprocessed foods.
- Learn Spanish
Kids are like the sponges.
They soak up what’s around them, and if that happens to be the Spanish language, they’ll soak up Spanish.
- Enjoying Clothes
Mexico has a variety of colorful, handmade clothes that kids can enjoy wearing and dressing up in.
6.Appreciating Music
Traveling in Mexico is a long lesson in mariachis, trios, bandas. The kids develop an appreciation for the musical forms — they think the accordion is cool. They also savor music that isn’t mainstream USA — which opens the doors to even broader musical experiences.
- Relaxing
So much in Mexico is laid back, with different time schedules and ways in which things work.
Kids learn to relax and just have fun here. They learn to chill out and not sweat the small stuff
- Learning How to Swim!
Is it unavoidable? No.
You probably could avoid it.
- Life Skills:
People bargain in Mexico — and by traveling and bargaining with you, your kids also learn. They also learn how to assess situations, how to be careful when they need to be, how to be friendly without divulging too much information.
With a gun crime rate for the entire country of Mexico that’s about the same as that of the city of Phoenix, Arizona, visiting Mexico is less dangerous for the average American than visiting New York City, Washington DC or Miami.
And with the additional dangers of making friends, learning languages, cultures, and developing an appreciation for music and real food to boot, we can well understand why you would want to keep your child away.
Ideas to practice your Spanish once you are back home
1.Write in Spanish Every Day.
Don´t think it. Ink it!
Writing is a highly engaging exercise for the mind, regardless of the language you write in. Writing is essentially putting thoughts on paper, so imagine if you were to practice writing in Spanish for just 5-10 minutes every day.
What if you can’t write in Spanish? Start using Word Reference, Google Translate or some other dictionary apps on your smartphone to help you out. Make sure not to overuse these resources, though, because the goal is to communicate in Spanish without relying on dictionaries and translators. Writing in a journal is a tremendous personal development exercise that I would encourage anybody to take on. During this writing time, jot down either an interesting experience that happened to you that day, something you care about or something you’d like to remember. Honestly, it doesn’t matter that much what you are writing about, just as long as you are doing it sincerely and putting some effort into it. This means don’t just copy things from Google Translate—that’s not how you’ll learn Spanish.
2. Set a Time to Think in Spanish
Writing is like thinking on paper. So now it’s time to actually think in Spanish.
Thinking in Spanish is pretty hard when you are not used to it, which is why you need to ease yourself in. So start by thinking in Spanish for 30 seconds to one minute every day. When you feel more comfortable doing this exercise, do it for longer periods—up to five minutes a day. This is already a lot, and you’ll find yourself thinking spontaneously in Spanish sooner than you think. For example, you may ask yourself, “What will I be doing tomorrow ”? And you might answer, “Seguramente voy a estar en la oficina con mis colegas de trabajo. Después voy a volver a casa para estar con la familia.
3.Watch Videos in Spanish on You Tub
Go to YouTube and type in “[name of your hobby translated to Spanish] videos.” For example, type in “el arte del jardín” (gardening) or “la guitarra”) videos. Then prepare yourself a playlist of twenty or so videos that you can watch whenever you want on your computer, smartphone or tablet. Dedicate a few minutes every day to watching one of those videos.
4. Listen to Spanish Radio, Podcasts or Audiobooks
Hearing a foreign language is a big part of learning it. Today with technology, you have a tremendous amount of Spanish content available at your fingertips. According to your taste, you might prefer to listen to the radio (which is excellent for understanding and picking up accents from different countries), podcasts about subjects you’re interested in, or Spanish audio versions of books you already read in English (or haven’t).
5. Spanish Radio
If you tend to be more of a casual radio person, then head over to this website to get a list of dozens of radio stations that you can listen to on the internet. If you want to work on your Spanish listening skills, try out the CNN radio en Español or check out Recuerdo 107.5 for some nice Spanish music.
Also, make sure to download the free “Simple radio” app on your smartphone. Thanks to this app, you can listen to any radio station (provided you have an internet connection of course) from anywhere in the world! You can sort through radio stations according to names, cities, countries and genres. For example, type in noticias (news) Mexico to find a good list of recent Spanish newscasts. I like “Radio Oldies México”
6. Spanish Podcasts
If you’re leaning towards podcasts, you may either take the route of a huge amount of excellent podcasts for Spanish learners (like the famous Coffee Break Spanish podcast) or more traditional podcasts about your hobbies.
If you are looking for the latter, just get yourself the “Podcast” app from Apple and do a quick search to find some cool podcasts that will help you practice the language.
“Finally Learn Spanish” (Intermedio) “Spanish Pod” (all levels).
7. Audiobooks in Spanish
Lastly, if you are interested in Spanish audiobooks, head over to Audible (an Amazon company)which offers numerous great audiobooks at a fair price, read by real Spanish natives. You could also check your local library for audiobooks on CD, or see if your state has a digital library (many now do) where you could check out an audiobook that way. In regularity lies progress. Make sure to listen to your podcast/radio/audiobook for five minutes a day. During those five minutes, commit to listening carefully and trying to understand as much as you can. However, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t always succeed. Immersion at home is about creating a Spanish-speaking environment para mejorar (to improve) your level, not passing a rigorous grammatical exam.
By the way, you don’t have to listen to podcasts and radio and audiobooks. Nevertheless, know that variety helps your mind learn faster. You will find some overlap of vocabulary, expressions and themes between the three mediums. But most importantly, you will find content in the podcast format that you may not find in an audiobook or on the radio and vice versa. Therefore, use all three mediums if you can, and listen to one or the other according to your mood!
8. Find a Language Exchange Partner
One of the things you would naturally do if you were living in a Spanish-speaking country would be to speak with natives. A language exchange partner is someone you meet with regularly in order to practice.
9. Read Your Favorite Book in Spanish
Reading a book in Spanish that you’ve already read in English has multiple benefits. One of the biggest is that you will consciously and unconsciously make connections between what you are reading in Spanish and what you’ve previously read in English. I personally like “El Principito” (“The Little Prince”) from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.Thanks to Amazon, today it is pretty easy to find a book along with its Spanish translation. If you are more old school you can always go to your local bookstore or library to do that. Don’t forget about e-books and digital libraries as well! These can be especially helpful when reading in Spanish because you can install a free Spanish dictionary on most e-readers. And please note that I said Spanish dictionary, not an English-Spanish dictionary. Why? Using a Spanish dictionary, where the definitions are written in Spanish, is yet another way to further immerse yourself in the language!
So, you can absolutely practice your Spanish by yourself.
You just have to use a couple of smart techniques to immerse yourself in this language even for just a couple of minutes a day. Pick two or three strategies from this post and start them every single day. These new habits will take you a long way!
Believe me your Spanish speaking abilities will improve!!!!!
Packing Tips for your trip to Cuernavaca
PACKING TIPS
PACK LIGHT!!! Leave room in your bag to bring home treasures from Mexico. You should take comfortable, easy-care, mix and match layerable clothing (light slacks, jeans, t-shirts, lightweight shirts, skirts and tops). In general, Mexicans are a bit more conservative in dress than Americans and more attentive to the condition of their clothing. You should take one nicer outfit for any special occasion that may come up. Shorts are not especially common around town; they are more appropriate on the beach and at archeological sites. DO NOT take expensive jewelry or lots of cash. Carry essentials and one change of clothing in a carry-on bag in case your checked luggage gets lost. If at all possible, limit yourself to carry-on!
DO YOU HAVE (if appropriate)…?
Tickets
ATM debit Card
Valid passport and two photocopies of the same
International Student ID card (optional)
Comfortable, sturdy footgear
Swim suit
Acidophilous tablets/prescription medicines/vitamins
Personal toiletries
Towel/washcloth
Insect repellant and sunscreen
Spare glasses or contacts
Sunglasses/sun hat
Travel alarm or iphone
Folding umbrella (does double duty as a sun shade for archeological site visits)
Light jacket or sweater
Your project/pens/notebooks/paper
Reference materials:
Dictionary
501 Spanish Verbs
Mexico and/or Cuernavaca guidebook
Small flashlight with new batteries
Photos of your friends and family to show your host family
Gift for the host family
Binoculars (great for viewing architectural and landscape details)
Money belt or secure fanny pack
EMPTY YOUR WALLET OF NON-ESSENTIALS
Tuck in one photocopy of your ID papers
THE ART OF TRAVELING
When you pack your bags to explore the beauties of your own country or to travel around the world, consider these tips for having a happy journey:
- Travel lightly. You are not traveling for people to see you.
- Travel expectantly. Every place you visit is like a surprise package to be opened. Untie the strings with an expectation of high adventure.
- Travel hopefully. “To travel hopefully,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, “is better than to arrive.”
- Travel humbly. Visit people and places with reverence and respect for their traditions and ways of life.
- Travel courteously. Consideration for your fellow travelers and your hosts will smooth the way through the most difficult of days.
- Travel gratefully. Show appreciation for the many things that are being done by others for your enjoyment and comfort.
- Travel with an open mind. Leave your prejudices at home.
- Travel with curiosity. It is not how far you go, but how deeply you go that mines the gold of experience.
- Travel with imagination. As the old Spanish proverb states, “He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.”
- Travel fearlessly. Banish timidity; the world and its people belong to you just as you belong to the world.
- Travel relaxed. Make up your mind to have a good time at whatever pace is imposed!
- Travel patiently. It takes time to understand others, especially when there are barriers of language and customs. Keep flexible and adaptable to all situations.
- Travel with the spirit of a world citizen. You’ll discover that people are basically the same the world around.
**Be an ambassador of good will!**
