Brady Thompson
NSE Experience at University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
WKU student Brady Thompson, studied at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Fall 2013
“I chose Puerto Rico because I had never been abroad before — it made me a little nervous. Seeing as how Puerto Rico is part of the United States but a different culture, I thought I would feel more comfortable there and I was. My main reason for choosing to study there was in order to better develop my Spanish.
At the beginning, things were a little rocky — mostly just getting myself acclimated to everything. I was a little frustrated for the first few days being there and thinking things had not been completely organized.
I would warn them that many places do not have air conditioning — you will get used to it, but it’s a real pain until you get used to it. The people are all extremely nice. The Spanish from Puerto Rico is very hard to understand — it took me a few weeks before I understood others well.
Puerto Rico impacted my academic goals in not only advancing my Spanish greatly, but by giving me real cultural experience with a Latin American community. I was able to enjoy real classes taught to natives — enjoy how things are really done rather than have classes organized for exchange students. It was challenging, but I loved it.
Seeing as how I want to further study in the foreign language field, my experience in Puerto Rico gave me my first interaction with a foreign culture — I was completely immersed. Now I have a somewhat better understanding of what I need to do when encountering new cultures and how to approach the situation.”
MORE STORIES