Over summer break, German and Spanish students had the opportunity to immerse themselves in language and culture on trips abroad. Spanish students spent a total of two weeks in Spain, visiting cities and towns across the country, including a six day family stay in the city of Alicante. German students spent a week in Europe, seeing places across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.
Senior Clodagh Kloos, who attended the Spanish class trip, said she enjoyed the diversity of the places she was able to see on the trip. Kloos thinks that the variety helped her understand Spanish culture as a whole.
“Every single town has a different type of culture so I got to learn about the ones in big cities or about the ones in smaller cities that most people don’t know about,” Kloos said.
Spanish teacher Kimberly Lackey traveled with her students until they dispersed to begin their stays with Spanish families. Lackey said that many students were nervous about the family stay, but it turned out to be very beneficial.
“A lot of kids mentioned how their Spanish skills improved so much from going on the trip and I think that a lot of kids commented on it. We really saw their confidence grow and their ability to just rely on themselves and to be independent and to do something that was really hard, like family stay.” Lackey said.
German teacher Christopher Paladin attended the trip with his students and led them in their exploration of Europe. Paladin said that students benefit from trips abroad because it helps them see what they’ve learned in person.
“Language and culture is all theoretical until you’re immersed in it. Everything we talk about in class is kind of in the abstract and it’s not until you’re actually standing around, in our case, German speakers and hearing the language and seeing them act, [that you realize] like, ‘oh my gosh, they actually speak German and do the things we talked about,’” Paladin said.
Junior Gideon Dalton attended the German class trip abroad. Dalton said his favorite part was seeing the smaller towns and the nature in Austria.
“We stopped in Austria, kind of right below the mountains, and honestly [my favorite part] was more of the nature side, and the towns were really old,” Dalton said.
Paladin has taken trips abroad with students in years before, and said his favorite part is seeing the students experience Europe for the first time.
“Honestly [my favorite part] was seeing the students get to be there in person. Certainly I enjoy visiting Germany and Europe and I always enjoy getting to spend some time there and use my language skills and everything but it’s neat to see the students actually finally get to see everything in person,” Paladin said.
