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Spanish students get a taste of Spain

<p>Students at Benjamin Carson sent these cards with greetings for Eid and Christmas along with general holiday messages.</p>

Students at Benjamin Carson sent these cards with greetings for Eid and Christmas along with general holiday messages.

Benjamin Carson High School Spanish students sent video chats and cards across the world as a class project. Starting Nov. 7, 2016, Benjamin Carson’s Spanish teacher Isabel Saravia started her Spanish students on a cultural project. The cultural exchange was between Saravia’s Spanish class and her previous school in Seville, Spain.

Seville is a city in the South of Spain. Saravia’s former students in Spain attenda school called Irlandesas-Loreto.

“I want my students to see the usefulness of learning a language,” said Saravia of the international project.

In the project, students in Spanish class at Benjamin Carson wrote notes in introducing themselves and talking about general information. This included their name, age, nationality, their school, their passions and why they are studying Spanish.

After students introduced themselves in writing, they recorded themselves saying this information in Spanish. During this whole process, students in Seville, Spain were also doing the same thing as Spanish class students at Ben Carson.

“Students should see Spanish as a mean of communication,” Saravia said. “And this gives them the opportunity to learn from a real situation.”

Benjamin Carson Spanish students also made winter celebration cards translated into Spanish and sent them to the students in Spain. Following this, students exchanged pictures. Benjamin Carson Spanish students sent pictures to the students in Spain and the students from Irlandesas- Loreto did the same back to Benjamin Carson.

“Actually getting to see the face of the person we were communicating with made this project more appealing,” said junior Benjamin Carson student Kaleasha Clingman.

The students really enjoyed this project. 

“I feel like this is a good project because it teaches students how to communicate through “pen-pals” but in a different language,” said Christopher Bryant, Jr., a senior at Benjamin Carson.

“It’s an opportunity to learn authentic Spanish,” said ninth grader Yoma Begum.

The students really enjoyed the opportunity to communicate with other students from a different country.

“I feel like this is a good project because it introduces you to different students in Spain and you get to know how they interact in Spain," Nagaysha Owens said.

Saravia wants to continue the project with her future Spanish classes.

“I would definitely continue this project every year in hopes of improving it every time," she said.

“I really hope that Ms. Saravia continues to do this project with her Spanish classes, because it is a great experience and introduces students to something different," said senior Deontay Cobb. 

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