I asked a similar question about where I should study abroad but I had four different ideas, I was kind of all over the place. Now I’ve numbered it down to two things. I either want to study abroad for a year in Spain or spend a semester in Spain and do the Washington D.C internship Semester. I can’t decide what to do. I can do either and be on time for graduation. My Spanish professor says he recommends I do the year in Spain. I want to go to Washington for a political communication internship. I’m deciding whether I want to work in political communication for a congressional office or with consulting or if I want to be a news reporter. I feel like the best way to realize what I want is to go to Washington. But I could go so much farther with my Spanish fluency if I stay longer. While I can’t do the Washington semester if I stay in Spain a year, Washington will always be there if I want to go. I don’t need a visa to stay there. What is the best thing? I for one just can’t decide. I think I spend a lot of time wanting to make the “perfect” decision for myself, for my future career, and sometimes it’s hard to know what that is.
My kid did both – semester abroad and a DC semester. She loved her DC experience (Dept of State internship) – better than her semester abroad. I think it is great that you can do both. I will say that she also spent a summer in DC interning in a senators’ office. She did not particularly enjoy that – very low level work compared to “real”'responsibilities at State. Can you find a DC internship where your Spanish skills would be useful, and you can learn more?
From what you say in your post, I would say to do the semester in spain/semester in Washington. You are sayign tha t you want the sem. in Washington so you can figure out what you want to do as a career…that is important. Your Spanish professor is speaking from the point of view of what is the best for fluency…but it really depends on what you want to do with that.
A third vote for the semester for each - Spanish fluency is nice, but I don’t think it would make nearly the difference in yourself, your career, and your confidence in your career choice that DC would make. On top of al that, you still get your semester abroad. Seems like the best of both worlds to me.
Similar to the first reply, my daughter has loved her semester working in DC at the State Department. It has been hard working all day and taking classes at night, but the work she is doing at State real, as the first poster said. She also did a summer abroad program. With her major, she has decided doing the DC semester and summer programs is the best way to go for her and graduate in four years. My advice would be to see what type of internship she could get in DC and then decide. Some of of the other kids are basically licking envelopes and taking phone messages in their Senator/Reps office. Still fun and rewarding, but maybe not career advancing.
Yes, my kid was answering phones and updating the media database with references to the senator for her whole summer. The regular staffers treated the interns like something on the bottom of their shoe, too. It is easy to be starry eyed about an internship in the Hill, but there are a lot of other internship opportunities in DC. She was treated like a real staffer with job responsibilities she learned a lot from at State. She still meets her State boss for lunch sometimes 5 years later.
How important is it for you to become fluent in Spanish?
That should be your biggest question.
Fewer and fewer American college students do a full year abroad. And that’s too bad, because it’s only in your second semester that you truly become part of the community, that your language skills start zooming into low-level fluency, that you start becoming comfortable with Spanish, your life in Spain, your friendships with locals. A semester is… well… a long vacation.
I’d recommend the year. You may never have an opportunity like this in your life. Fluency in Spanish can be enormously helpful in many careers, and frankly, it would set your resume apart as you look for opportunities in political communications, given the growing importance of Latinos throughout much of the U.S.
@katliamom I don’t know, important. It’s always been my goal to be fluent. This is my fifth year studying it and then I wanted to study abroad next year. If I don’t walk out knowing the language, I’d feel it was a waste of my time.
Also after my year away, that’s where I max out all my electives. The only thing I have time to do is my remaining GenEds and classes in my major. I can’t take more Spanish courses but I do have a Spanish club at my college which would help me maintain the language when I come back.
The other people had me pretty convinced Spain/Washington was the best move but then you had me back to square one because your post was very convincing, advocating for a year of Spain.
But I’m really not completely sure which path I want to follow and I thought Washington would be the best place to find that out.
Why is it your goal to be fluent? You sound unclear on your career path… if you were sure you wanted to teach Spanish or work as an interpreter, for example, then fluency seems important. But honestly – you will be close after 5 years of study and a semester there. I think getting an idea of possible career choices is pretty important with graduation coming up.
I agree with @intparent - the goal of Spanish here seems to be the big X-factor. From the outside looking in, it seems like a goal that’s more personal than anything else - would you agree or disagree?
@PengsPhils Personal. I think whether I go towards politics or journalism, knowing Spanish would be a perk. But I don’t see myself doing a job where it would be an absolute requirement. So I guess it comes down to me. I want to be able to speak Spanish as a personal goal for myself.
Personally, in your position, this one particular thing stands out:
To me, this says that DC is a must - finding out your likes/dislikes for your career is very important to most. If you learned Spanish fluently and achieved your personal goal, but felt lost in your career until after graduation, when changing fields / jobs is usually much harder - would you still be happy with your choice? To me, I think the balance of one semester of each allows you to get a true taste of both, and at least know that you tried both.
Is there any way to do a full year in Spain as well as a DC internship? If Spanish is an important personal goal for yourself, it could be worth some sacrifice to do it. Could you stay in school an extra semester? How does that work out financially?
All things aside, I think it’s important to remember that a lot of decisions can be between two great options - I think this could be one of them. Weighing personal goals with career goals is one of the harder things people do, and it doesn’t stop once you get out of college. It’s very possible that there is no “perfect” option, and that’s perfectly okay. Whatever you choose, don’t spend your life thinking back on “what if I did the other”. As long as you are making choices by giving good thought to your options, pros, and cons, you’ll probably find that most all of your choices are at the very least positive.
There are a number of ways you can achieve fluency besides an additional semester in Spain. You can become fluent in one semester easily, based on your course work to date. You just have to commit to fully immersing. The world has become so global that it is easy to find people anywhere who speak English. The temptation is to patch conversations together in your native language. If you resist that temptation and commit to immersing and achieving fluency, you will.
This seems obvious, but your DC semester could help you make connections that can help find a long term job.
Also can you practice spanish by volunteering in a spanish speaking clinic or something?
I’m not sure about the volunteering. I think most people have been pretty clear about Spain/Washington though so that’s what I do. That was my plan for all of last semester, it’s only in the last few weeks that I started rethinking it.
What was a big eye opener was the difficulty I’m having this semester in my Spanish semester. My professor says I’m very intelligent and he complimented me on my oral presentation and I’ve been writing scripts for the Spanish broadcast of my school’s TV station. I still feel I have so much to learn. My professor is from Spain and has been living/teaching in the U.S for 3 years and has a lot of trouble for speaking English. He admits at my university in Spainsh, he doesn’t watch the news in English, he lives with his Spanish wife so he’s not immersing himself in it. But still, he’s lived here THREE YEARS, I’d think he’d be better at English.
You have to make sure you immerse yourself when you do go to Spain…it is too easy to find English speaking friends and watch English TV, etc. I lived in Germany for 2 years (not to learn a language) and I took German courses but was not at all fluent because I had english speaking friends.
Here is another option - what about combining a spring/summer or summer/fall option in Spain and still possibly leaving you the option of a DC semester? It may take some work to find the program that would work, but I know it’s possible.
@pleasantbay I am heavily dependent on financial need. They won’t cover summer programs. And I’ve basically lived this year off the money I made in the summer during the school year. I have a work study but you can’t really make the kind of money at school that you make in the summer. So I need a job that pays in the summer.
^^ I understand. Then I would say trust your gut and do what you REALLY want to do because the college years don’t last long!