Study abroad in Spain

While reading, “Inventing the University” it reminded me of the study abroad program that I participated in this summer. The program took place in Spain and was something that I’d always wanted to do. Being a Spanish major, I knew and understood much of the history of Spain and was really looking forward to being there and experiencing that same history in person. The program consisted of three classes: Spanish art, Spanish history, and Spanish film. I thought to myself, this is going to be a breeze. I’ve already studied most of these subjects and any homework, papers, or tests will be easy. I soon found out that I lacked much experience in writing papers about Spanish film because this was something that was foreign to me. The terminology in Spanish film spoke about different filming angles and tactics that not even myself could express in a paper. Just as “Inventing the University,” mentioned, I found myself inventing much of the techniques and ideas I was trying to express. I didn’t understand the audience I was writing to and found myself many times asking the teacher for help. She was very helpful and showed me what she was looking for and what actually made sense from a film-critics point of view. This experience in Spain taught me a lot about investigating and studying your audience in order to write an understandable and applicable paper.