Like most of his classmates, sophomore Martin Fenoll Amoros has been studying English since he was six years old. From Granada, Spain, Fenoll Amoros is participating in the Spanish exchange program this year and aims to achieve higher English proficiency by coming to the United States.
“I think when you go to Spain after, you know a lot of expressions or a lot of words that you can’t know in your English classes in Spain because we learn British English. So there are a lot of words or a lot of expressions that are different from in the US,” Fenoll Amoros said.
Spanish students and students from Brookline are participating in the exchange program to supplement their respective English and Spanish classes. The 25 Spanish students lived with 25 host families in Brookline for two weeks at the end of October, and a group of Brookline students will be going to Granada for two weeks in April.
Students wanted to participate in the exchange for varying reasons. Senior Cece McPhail said she mostly wanted some independence before she leaves for college and to experience new aspects of life.
“I feel like the first thing that comes up isn’t really necessarily about Spanish itself. I’m really excited to have the opportunity, since I’m an only child, to have to experience what it’s like to be kind of like a model sibling,” McPhail said.
Having already visited Barcelona and Majorca, junior Lara Grossman wanted to immerse herself in Spanish culture in a deeper way.
“When you go on vacation, you see so many new things, and you can learn, but you don’t get the experience of staying with a family and just living with them and seeing what their life is like every day for a week,” Grossman said.
The students from Brookline said they were excited to introduce their Spanish counterparts to tenants of New England culture, like apple picking, admiring the foliage and watching a Bruins game. Martin Fenoll Amoros said when the exchange students arrive in Granada, he is excited to show them the Alhambra, a historic fortress in the region, and the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
“I’m excited to go to the Alhambra. That is in Granada,” Fenoll Amoros said. “Also to go to the mountain because in Granada there is Sierra Nevada; that is a very big mountain with rivers and a lot of animals and plants and it’s very beautiful.”
Upon the arrival of a group of Spanish exchange students in Boston on Tuesday, Oct. 22, a new discovery about their vaccination status posed a challenge to the trip: They weren’t fully immunized to the Massachusetts requirements. So, although they were allowed into the country, they could not enter the high school alongside their American hosts.
However, the Spanish students got to experience a brief tour of the campus on the afternoon of Thursday, Oct. 24, once the buildings were emptied of other students.
“I want to enter the high school to see how the classes are and also to see the Spanish classes to listen in. But we don’t have this option so it’s difficult,” Fenoll Amoros said. “We think that the high school was amazing, and we are very sad not to come into the high school.”
McPhail was similarly disheartened by the situation.
“I was really excited to bring them around and introduce them to my friends. It’s a lot easier to have them meet my friends and my teachers and see what my everyday life is like when they can follow me around school,” McPhail said.
McPhail said she is excited to compare school in Brookline to school in Spain, and she wished the Spanish students could have done the same.
“One of the things I’m excited about when I go to Spain is to see the difference between an American classroom versus a Spanish classroom, and I feel like they’re missing out on the opportunity,” McPhail said. “I appreciate that they’re valuing everyone’s safety, but it’s still really disappointing.”
Still, the students said they didn’t think the vaccine complications negated the pros of participating in the program. They said the experience allows students on both sides to forge connections and that it pushes them to reach a deeper level of language proficiency and apply their learning to real-world situations.
Senior Olivia Mataraza said she thought the most central benefit to participating in the Spanish exchange was that it deepened her understanding of different lived experiences shaped by nationality.
“I think the best way to try to understand someone else’s perspective in their own culture is definitely immersing yourself,” Mataraza said. “So I think going there and having them come here—we have a better understanding of each other, even though we’re literally complete strangers essentially that just text each other.”
