Flash back to about a month ago, my classes had just started and we are doing typical ice breakers in each class. The question that was asked in every class was “Why did you choose Sevilla as a place to study?” and the answers varied but most had one common variable, and that was the language. Coming abroad is about having a full experience of a completely different culture. The professors all kind of chuckled and smiled when we said this and I wasn’t quite sure why, but after a month of being here for a month, I understand why.

Sevilla is a special Spanish city for many reasons, language being one of the biggest. First of all the pronunciation is different, they pronounce things with a lisp and a lot of the words are half pronounced. For example, gracias is not pronounced the traditional way but with a lisp on the ‘c’ and the ‘as’ is dropped and replaced with an ‘ah’, de nada is just pronounced ‘nada’. With the speed and half pronunciation with which sevillanos pronounce words with, I understood why learning Spanish here was going to be a lot harder. I have kind of enjoyed the challenge though, and I have learned a lot more than I thought I would at this point. It is nice to force myself outside of my comfort zone to try and speak Spanish to whoever I can.

Sevilla is a special Spanish city for many reasons, language being one of the biggest. First of all the pronunciation is different, they pronounce things with a lisp and a lot of the words are half pronounced. For example, gracias is not pronounced the traditional way but with a lisp on the ‘c’ and the ‘as’ is dropped and replaced with an ‘ah’, de nada is just pronounced ‘nada’. With the speed and half pronunciation with which sevillanos pronounce words with, I understood why learning Spanish here was going to be a lot harder. I have kind of enjoyed the challenge though, and I have learned a lot more than I thought I would at this point. It is nice to force myself outside of my comfort zone to try and speak Spanish to whoever I can.

I try to have conversations with my host mom every single day since she does not speak any English, and I try to go to restaurants that are more local this way I am forced to use Spanish. I will say this has helped me a great deal and I have gotten better at ordering food, but I need to polish my regular conversation a little bit more.