Letra
Hispánica
School of Spanish Language and Cultures, Salamanca, Spain
Student's opinion
From Kate Smith
The only things I have to say about Letra Hispanica are good things. The first couple days of my month in Spain were very difficult, but once I got past the initial bumps, I really enjoyed my stay and couldn't praise it more.
First of all, the weather was absolutely perfect. I went during August. The mornings were slightly chilly, the afternoons wonderful, and the evenings very pleasant. Every morning I walked to school with my house-mate, a Texan in his 60's who was spending his second month at Letra. My housing situation was unique because I lived a little far away, although I think I stayed with the best "mom" and best "cook' for sure. Most of my friends stayed in houses less than 15 minute walk from Letra and if they had house-mates, they were usually younger. Nonetheless, the walks in the mornings to school and back for lunch and forth for meetingS with friends were welcome periods for thought.
Which brings me to the idea of the other students at Letra hispanica. Letra is divided into several classes (only about 3 or 4) My class, which was the 'teenager' class, had an average of four people in it. There were other teenagers in Letra who spoke better Spanish and they were placed in classes with more experienced, and usually older, speakers. This didn't stop us from having contact with the other students, though. We would often go shopping, or to a cafe together, or to the pool as a group of students and teachers. We also met people around Salamanca. I had one Californian friend who was very adept at making friends in the Salamanca community. She knew practically everyone by the end of one month. I really appreciated the small classes. I became pretty close friends with my fellow students and only wish I kept better contact with them, now. The multi-national nature of the students was actually one of the best aspects of Letra, though strangely enough, the teenage class was only composed of American and French students. Other classes had Portuguese, Taiwanese, Swiss etc.
Another of the best aspects of Letra Hispanica is the quality of teaching. The teachers are really great people, as friends and instructors. They made each class less like school, and more like a time for elementary discussion which evolved as we got more comfortable with our situation and the language. The teachers are closer to the students in age, and therefore related to us more easily and the friendly non-formal environment made learning a lot more enjoyable. In this, I think Letra Hispanica is unique. I also felt that I learnt a great deal. Before I went, I had had three years of Spanish in the States, and one year of no language, and so I was very rusty. And though we had homework and the grammar classes seemed to go very fast at times, I felt very accomplished at the end of the course and managed to cover everything I had covered in those first three years of Spanish.
As for Salamanca... it was truly charming. One month was really the perfect amount of time for me, considering I had only a summer to plan. By the time I left, I had explored almost all of the city, and could picture the layout of the city in my head as more than just a map but with actual distances and times to walk this far, the general placement of museums or particualr shops so forth so forth. What afforded me the best experience was really the architecture. I'm an artistic person myself and was just wowed by the not only the famous cathedral but the nunnery and some of the narrow streets behind the university or down the streets leading to the plaza. The atmosphere was just overall very lovely and "Spanish", laid back and inviting. I certainly spent many an afternoon wandering about, with friends or alone, looking at buildings, going into monuments, or visiting parks and reading books. For one particularly nice class, one of our teachers did a music section and took us to a garden nex to the cathedral. We met up with a singer/songwriter friend of hers and we sang and played guitar in the garden. Later on in the week, we went to his performance at a small bar. This reminds me that, as I'm sure is mentioned on the website, the nightlife of Salamanca is very fun as well. Unfortunately in my opinion, there are sometimes large groups of American teenagers who come through periodically and raucously pile into clubs. Most of the time though, the night life is localized, safe and very friendly (and cheap too). On of my favorite night time entertainments was actually to go sit on a lawn at one gate of the cathedral and listen to the university's music professors put on jazz concerts (these happened every night for a few consecutive days).
Obviously, I really enjoyed my stay in Salamanca. I must say that the degree of freedom and responsibility I had was perfect for me. I think that the extent to which a person will thrive or flounder with responsibility and freedom truly depends on his character. It is possible to have too much fun, and also to have too little fun, but Letra Hispanica provides everything to strike a healthy balance.
I hope this has helped your decision a little. I'd love to go to Spain again this summer, but my language has now switched over to Chinese (I live in Beijing, China), and I think that I will focus on a singing course this summer instead. So in the absence of a second experience for me, I'm sure a first for your daughter will be great.
Kate
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