Ever since I was old enough to know what study abroad was, I knew I wanted to do it. Spend a few months (or even a year!) in basically any country you want? Who could say no? At first, it was impossible to narrow down the list of places I wanted to go—the only programs I crossed off initially were the ones I didn't meet the prerequisites for! When I really thought about what I wanted from my study abroad experience, though, it was much easier. I'm a Spanish minor and absolutely love the language—it has always been my goal to speak it fluently someday. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I had to go to a Spanish-speaking country. I knew I wanted to go to Latin America rather than Spain, because it seemed more adventurous to me; I am lucky enough to have lived in Europe already, so I wanted to try something completely new and different. To be honest, I don't know why I chose Buenos Aires specifically. I knew very little about Argentina before coming here, but for some reason I was drawn to it (and I'm so glad I was!).
Studying abroad was easily the best decision I could have made to improve my Spanish. I'm constantly interacting with native speakers in my homestay, school, and daily life. I've learned so many new vocabulary words and idioms simply by hearing and using them so frequently. I'm sure that I could have eventually learned them all from a textbook, but here I was picking them up starting on my first day. There are also so many words I've learned that would be essentially meaningless without knowing and understanding the cultural context behind them.
I'm also taking a Spanish grammar class for the first time since high school. In college, once you get to a certain level, you just start taking literature or other content-area courses. There are many amazing courses offered at UR, but I'm a huge grammar nerd and missed my conjugations! Before coming here, I felt that I had sort of been stuck in a grammar rut—I knew all of the tenses and many other concepts, but I had no idea how to progress. Here, I feel like I'm pushing myself to new limits—we spend four hours a week going over and practicing complex topics. I'm learning a ton!
There are so many intangible benefits of living in a Spanish-speaking country, as well. I've studied Spanish for eight years now, and living here successfully really makes me feel like it's paying off. It is also definitely encouraging me to keep studying; every day I realize I still have much to learn! I've also noticed myself becoming more confident in speaking—I rarely get nervous now when I have to say something, and I'm way more comfortable trying trickier sentence structures in conversation.
If you're considering studying a language at UR, I can't recommend study abroad enough. Take language classes early and often, and remember that it's never too early to start thinking about going abroad!