Here at University College Twente (ATLAS) students and staff form an inclusive and active community where we share life experiences and views on matters of all sorts. We all experience some degree of culture clash and often try to seek others with whom we still may in some way have certain cultural traits in common. Language therefore is one of these key cultural binding traits. For many students the connection with their cultural background gets stronger when they start studying. The clashes between the culture of their home country and that of The Netherlands and/or of students from again other parts of the world, causes for many interesting and enrichening conversations.
Although English is the main language of communication in ATLAS, which for most is not their mother-tongue, most ATLAS students and staff are bilingual and many even know a third or fourth language. Within the community some groups come together to practice the languages they know but do not use on a daily basis. Every once in a while the Spanish speakers in ATLAS get together and have a small activity, like dinner or lunch meeting, while they practice their Spanish. In these meetings the group spends some time talking about daily life or their experiences when they were visiting or living in a Spanish speaking country. What is funny to see is the different accents and the small differences in dialects especially in the small vocabulary niches that are only used in certain countries or areas.
The group consists of a few native speakers and many non-native speakers, and is always open for people interested in learning some Spanish. As an exercise some non-native speakers mainly focus on trying to express themselves as accurately as possible in Spanish while native speakers also try to exercise their Dutch. In this way the groups often has very simple discussion and conversations to enhance their proficiency in these languages. These “Spanish hour” meetings are simple and fun conversational gatherings which helps us maintain or learn Spanish as a language we can converse
Want to experience the joy of shared cultural growth in our community? Usted es bienvenido.
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