GRIP, Internships Abroad ¡Qué padre!

Ashoka, Mexico

Out of all the internship, cultural, and personal experiences that I have had over my two months in Mexico City, the most important for me was my daily encounter with native Spanish speakers and the ability to connect with them in their own language. I have been studying Spanish for a few years now but solely used it in classroom settings, so it instantly caught my eye when I saw this GRIP placement requiring advanced Spanish knowledge. From the moment I got off the plane, it became obvious: I would not speak much English here. In the beginning, it was quite hard to adjust; in conversations, my mind was racing to recall words from the distant memories of the Netflix series I watched in Spanish. Then, I began to get comfortable as my passive Spanish knowledge slowly turned more active. Working in my third language posed new challenges, especially when I was interviewing various local entrepreneurs and had to listen to and evaluate their stories about the social issues they were passionate about. These were often topics for which I had never formally learned any vocabulary. As I got more comfortable understanding them became much easier and faster, I caught myself understanding conversations and complex issues I had never learned about and became more comfortable expressing my own opinion in Spanish.

What made this linguistic experience even more unique for me was the diversity of the Spanish language itself. I was not solely practicing Spanish, but a uniquely Mexican version and many more given how popular and attractive Mexico City is for foreigners. Just at my workplace, in the team I was working with there was only one person from Mexico, others were from Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica. They all spoke different versions of Spanish which was obviously a challenge to understand but taught me so many new phrases originating from different countries across the region and ultimately offered a glimpse into their similar yet different languages and cultures. When I went to cafes popular among “digital nomads” I also heard countless dialogues from all over Latin America. The best conversation starter there was asking the question, “where is your dialogue from?” I was fascinated by how connected these people are simply by Spanish. Growing up in Europe, it seemed evident to me that countries although cramped closely together, people are much divided by their language and culture. However, in Mexico City, I saw the opposite. I met people from over such a large continent and region and experienced the powerful connection that Spanish provides for them.