School here is VERY different (to say the least) from USC.
First, it’s
incredibly small; I think it’s
about half the amount of students at USC's business school alone. It’s only one
building, which in theory would sound like everything’s easy to find, but that’s
not the case. I still have no idea how it happened, but the first week, it took
me about 25 minutes to find the correct staircase to go to the library (lot's of donde está's). I can
find it now, but my ability to get lost never ceases to amaze me.
Second, we
don’t have to buy textbooks here. The library has photocopies of the chapters,
or you can find everything you need online. I think the U.S. can learn a thing
or two on this one…
Third,
people just hang out here. Long after their classes are over, you can find
people sitting on the grass, smoking outside, and hanging out with friends in
the outside patio part of campus. For the most part, Chileans live with their
families until marriage or at least while they go to college, so I guess this
is their way of getting out of the house.
Lastly,
the building is so slippery. That’s right, slippery. This is probably my
biggest challenge in Chile so far (kidding... maybe.) There’s always someone polishing or cleaning
the floors; it’s like they want you to fall and die. The sandals I wear are not
meant for FEN’s floors and I almost fall flat on my face at least three times a
day. The day I actually fall, I might consider transferring (it’s a small
school, I don’t want to be the talk of the town.)
Classes:
- Introducción al Marketing – I’m not exaggerating when I say my teacher speaks like a NYC Subway conductor, everything’s one word and mumbled. I catch syllables here and there & I’m positive he’s not actually pronouncing full words. He doesn’t post homework or test announcements online, he just casually says it in class and then moves on. Those announcements are always part of the 30% of what he says that I can’t understand. So naturally, I missed the first homework assignment and went to two help sections that were cancelled. I recruited Chilean friends since then and they help me when I’m lost (which is always.) Also, we had our first quiz, which was on an English article, but the questions and answers were in Spanish. I’m pretty sure only half of my class speaks English, so I’m still confused about that.
- Gestión de las Personas – (Basically HR) My teacher’s Brazilian so he doesn’t speak “Chilean” Spanish, and it’s easy to understand him. Everyday we get into small groups and talk about our strengths, weaknesses, ideas of success, etc with our classmates. It’s stressful but I like it because I know it’s helping me with my Spanish.
- Zumba – I absolutely love my Zumba class. My teacher is so fun and crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever sweat so much in an hour and a half, and I have to show up to my next class all sweaty & gross, but I don’t even care because it’s such a fun class. I even started going to the extra classes she teaches on Wednesday’s. We did have a quiz in it though, which didn’t go over so well.
- Intercultural Business Challenges in South America – This is my one class taught in English this semester. This class just consists of group presentations & guest speakers. For our final project, we have to interview, analyze & improve a Chilean business. So of course my English class still involves struggling in Spanish.
- Saturday, March 12, 2016
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