This is the story of Christine, a Stripey Spanish student who decided to learn Spanish to connect with part of her culture.
What ties bind Christine to the Spanish?
Christine is surrounded by different cultures in her life, her father is Chilean and her mother is Filipino, but she was born in Australia and now she lives in the UK.
When she was little, spanish was not spoken at home and so over the years she decided to learn the language to be able to talk to her father and to get to know the culture of Chile. To achieve her goal she started with Stripey Spanish at level 1 and after a year and a half learning with us she is about to finish level 5. She now speaks to her father in Spanish whenever she can and he is very impressed and proud of Christine's progress. "My decision to speak (Spanish) was the most important thing because now we can talk together."
What is your Chilean family like?
Almost all of Christine's family (on her father's side) live in different parts of Chile, such as Santiago, Los Andes, etc.
I asked her if she had ever traveled to Latin America to meet them, sadly she has not yet been able to visit Chile, but she told me that as soon as she can, she will travel to meet her family and assured me that the meeting will be much better because now she can speak in Spanish with them. "Sometimes my cousins and aunts send me messages on Instagram and Facebook and I feel so happy because now I can respond!"
And although she has not yet been able to visit Chile, Christine and her family keep alive some traditions of Chilean and Latin American culture. "This is my favorite cake! It's called a thousand-leaf cake. It is a very typical cake in Chile and Latin America in general. It is made with dulce de leche. Every Christmas and some birthdays I make this cake with my family. It's a very long process because we have to bake each leaf and boil the condensed milk to make dulce de leche." It looks very good!
How is the process of learning Spanish being?
For everyone, the process of learning a language is different, so I asked Christine what is the most fun and the hardest thing about learning the language; and if she has any tricks to practice Spanish on a day-to-day basis.
For her, the most fun is to do the events in Spanish "for example, the event of visiting the stalls of Camden Market and trying some typical South American food, such as arepas (Venezuela), was very fun and interesting!"
As for the hardest thing... "for me it’s when I know what I mean in English but I don’t know the words in Spanish and I have to look in the dictionary and ask the teachers".
However, Christine has very good tricks to practice Spanish on a day-to-day basis, she loves watching memes in Spanish on instagram and watching Mexican or Spanish series on Netflix "my favorite series is Money Heist".
I also asked her what her favorite phrase is in Spanish and without a doubt the best phrase for Christine is "no pasa nada" (It’s okay / Nothing’s going on).
From Stripey Spanish we wish Christine the best and hope she can visit Chile very soon and enjoy her family, speaking Spanish, tasting the typical food and laughing with Instagram’s memes. Good luck Christine!
Check out the Spanish version of the story here.
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