Hello, I'm Terrence and welcome to this video. Basically, in the last year and a half,
I didn't upload anything except for a studying video. And many of you guys have
left comments on my videos of Spain, asking me questions. So I wanted to make a
video in which I addressed all of that. So we are gonna do a questions and answers
video. (A Frequently Asked Questions) Let's start with the first questions, which is: Do you recommend Spain?
Well, that's a very broad question but yes.
I recommend Spain because I had a lot of fun when I was there. The people are very nice
and welcoming.I think it was a great country to have my first experience abroad.
It isn't too different culturally from the US, but there still are interesting facets
of their culture to learn about and become familiar with. So if you're deciding on a country to study in
or do a foreign exchange, it's important to have a true interest in going.
But for me, I loved Spain. And yes, I recommend it. What do you think of Spain? Also very broad but I think it's great!
In general, people in Spain were very kind to me and they took me in and
they added me to their groups and they treated me well. But I don't like to generalize so
there is lots of variety. That's life. There are good Spaniards and bad Spaniards. But
the grand majority of the people were great and I liked them a lot. The fourth
question: Did you spend time outside of Madrid? Yes I did several excursions and trips
to other places in Spain. But in those 5 months, I never left Spain. But I went
to Toledo with my Spanish parents. I went to Doñana with my high school class. It was like
an "end of the year" trip so almost all of us went. And on the way, we made a little stop in
Cordova, which is culturally a very interesting city. And Doñana is a national park
in the South of Spain where there was tons of nature and opportunities to hike and such.
And we lived in, what are they called, cabins and
It was a wonderful experience with my school friends, my Spanish friends.
I also traveled several times with the exchange program itself, with AFS. I went with other exchange students
that were living in Madrid to Barcelona to see the architecture and to see the
different culture that's there. We also went to Granada where we saw the Alhambra and walked around
and experienced that culture as well. That was also a fantastic experience
to be able to meet friends from around the world. I had friends from Canada, France
Turkey, and more. There were people from everywhere and it was interesting to meet them and I think that by the end,
we were truly like a little family of foreign exchange students, you know? What program did you do it with?
Well, I think I just mentioned it but I did the exchange with AFS, which is an American based program.
It stands for American Field Service. And it's a great program. I generally had a very
positive experience with it. AFS offered tons of resources like orientations where they ask if you're
doing alright, if you're integrating into the society, if you're having any difficulties.
How I found it, I was actually originally wanting a program just to improve my Spanish
because I had a real interest for it at the time. So online I looked up "Spanish Language
Programs" and I found AFS, which had some summer programs where I could learn
Spanish and they really interested me. But one day I realized that four weeks
or two months is a really short period of time and that I wanted to spend at least a semester in Spain and
that's what I ended up doing. Next question: Are the Spanish and American school systems different? Yes, they are rather different. I think that there are
three main differences. The first is that in the US, normally it's the students
that go to from class to class. For example we have a history class, an
English class, a Spanish class, a Physics Class and then we go to the teacher's
rooms, but in Spain it's different. In Spain, you have an assigned fixed class of 30 people.
I was in class 4C at my school and the professors came to us. Besides some special
classes like lab biology, computer science, or PE, we were
almost always in the same room. The English, History, and Math teachers would come to us in
the room. The second difference is extracurricular activities.
Is that a thing? Extracurriculars, extracurricular activities.
Outside of school? I don't know, special activities. Here,
in the US, we can do several sports with the high school like swimming or basketball. We can participate
in the school musical and we have many clubs. But in Spain they have almost none of that. There are some opportunities
to do music or sports but not with the high school itself. The high school
is mainly a place for learning and having classes and such. If you want to do sports,
you're gonna end up doing them with an outside organization. The third difference is that in Spain the grading
system and the whole ideology surrounding that is a bit different as well. There are more tests
which tend to be harder. And the tests are more important for your final
grade. They count for more percent. This is a difference that you're going to heavily pick up on if you're in Spain and
you're from the US. So, you have to study a lot for those tests and prepare yourself
because they can really impact your final grade. But in Spain, there's far less homework. Like,
in the US I normally get two to three hours of homework every day from all my classes
but in Spain, it was far less. Most of what you have to do is study and prepare
for tests so that you don't fail. Okay, the next question: What did you do for fun?
Well Spanish teens to almost the exact same things that we do. I did many things for fun like
going to the movies, going to the park with friend, taking walks around the town, going to the city,
to Madrid to a disco or to have something to eat or drink. In Tres Cantos, there was
a mall really close to my house so we would often just meet there as friends and spend some time together.
There are lots of questions in this category about the learning of Spanish. Many
of you guys have asked: How much Spanish did you know before going to Spain? And a lot of people don't believe me,
but very very little. When I left California for Spain, I had studied a year and a half
of Spanish so I really just knew the basics. I knew the grammar basics. I knew how to form
basic sentences. I had a small vocabulary as well but not huge. Initially,
I also had some trouble understanding people because it just seemed like everybody
spoke so quickly, but that improve with more time in the country. Do you have any tips or tricks to improve your Spanish?
Well, this depends on your learning style and on how much time you're willing to use
every day but what I did was: I had a little notepad/notebook, a little black notebook in which
I wrote the words, expressions, idioms, slang that I encountered
on a daily basis. When I got home, I would study them. Like, I would make little
flashcards to memorize the vocabulary and the definitions and how to use them and in what contexts
to use them. And i studied a TON. Like two to three hours every day,
just in my room alone, watching Spanish movies, watching Spanish TV shows, learning Spanish.
I don't know why. Because it fascinated me. That's the trick right there: having passion.
This question: Why do you have two breaks? I don't know, honestly. When I was in Spain,
I thought that all high schools were like that but apparently not. Many of you
were very upset about it. We had three classes, then a break, two more classes, a break,
then two more classes. This question seemed really important to me. How did you convince your parents?
The task of convincing your parents and asking them to let you leave the country for a semester
is not easy and is a very important part of the process. My parents were
hesitant at first. But I think that what finally ended up convincing them was
that I had a concrete plan of what I wanted to do, of my intentions, of my plans. So
I had like a printed out plan of where I was going to go, which which program,
how much it was going to cost, whom I was going to stay with. And if you're very sure of your plan,
and if you talk about the advantages and why you want to go and how the experience will benefit you,
it's more likely that your parents say yes to you going. But I think that at the end of the day,
my parents say how much I wanted to do it and that I really wanted to leave the country and
learn Spanish and learn about another culture. And that's why they gave in.
Next question: Did you go to parties and did you drink? Well there were parties
in Madrid or at my friend's houses. At the end of the year, there were also some "fiestas"
in the local fairground in Tres Cantos and there was food, activities,
rides. But never drinking, because drinking is against AFS rules. And I always
follow the rules. These are less questions, but more like...
insults. When I uploaded the video where I learned and taught
Spanish and American slang with my friend Esteban (that video is here if you want
to see it) many said: We say these words and phrases in the whole country, not just California! People were so mad at me.
Like, super pissed. But it was an honest mistake. I had said that maybe
these words were from California or that they're mostly used in California.
I don't know, I wasn't sure. I said "maybe". I swear I said "perhaps". But yea,
people were very mad at me. What country are you from? Several have asked me this. I'm from the US.
I was born in San Jose, California y I've spend almost all of my life here. This next question,
I also receive a lot for some reason. American?? But he's Chinese! I have a very important piece of info.
It may baffle you. It may be very hard for you to understand. But you can be both.
Wow, wow, who knew? But yea, it's possible to be American by nationality and Chinese
by race/ethnicity. So, that's what I am. My parents were born in China and then
they moved to the US and I was born here and I speak English, Chinese, etc.
Can you make videos teaching Spanish? I don't think I'm qualified to do that because I don't necessarily
speak super good Spanish. I still have a lot to learn. I have lots of room to improve
but I like teaching a lot so if you guys feel like I could do that, I would like to
teach things that I learned, like expressions or I don't know. The last question is: Can you make videos teaching English?
I can teach English. But you guys would have to comment what you want me to teach. If you want
something explained or tricks to improve pronunciation or if you have a
question about the difference between certain words, I'd love to explain it because
I love to teach things. And that's it! I hope you guys have really liked this video.
Leave comments below of what you want me to make next. And yea, till next time!
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét