Study Abroad Blog

Learning Arabic in Jordan: The Food

Want to learn Arabic? We recommend taking a close look at our program in Amman, Jordan.  I just returned from a trip to Jordan and will be blogging over the coming days and weeks about my experience. The bottom line, I highly recommend the school in Amman and the country of Jordan. Wow is what comes to mind as I think about my experience.

People seem to love this photo of spices at a little store in Amman, so I thought my first blog would be about the food in Jordan. Since I have been on a diet since I returned a few days ago, you can surmise that I found the food delicious.

Learn Italian and the Tastes of Sicily

Italy, as you already know, is renowned for its unique traditional cooking methods and flavors that tie together the bounties of the Mediterranean and the fresh vegetables and spices of the countryside.  We regularly see commercials zooming in on red and white sauces, meats, and pastas being tossed onto a plate from an overflowing pot and know immediately what kind of food we're being sold. In our 'Italian and the Tastes of Sicily' class, you can explore a world you may never have been exposed to otherwise!  

5 Reasons to Study Abroad in Ecuador

 Choosing a study abroad program can be overwhelming. Luckily, AmeriSpan Study Abroad is here to help! Today, we will look at five great reasons to study abroad in Ecuador.

1. Learn Spanish - Well yes, you already knew that! However, Ecuador is an excellent place to learn Spanish. Particularly if you are choosing an immersion program with a homestay, you will find that the Ecuadorian people are very kind, friendly, helpful, and encouraging on your quest to master Spanish. You can choose to study Spanish in the capital of Quito, the beach town of Montanita, or in the Andean city of Cuenca. Click to learn more about Studying Spanish in Ecuador.

Top 6 Ways to Stay in Touch During Study Abroad

Before you study abroad, take the time to figure out how you will keep in touch with friends and relatives back home, and in your host country as well. If your cell phone and cell phone carrier offer international service to your host country for reasonable rates, great! But if not, don’t despair. There are options out there! 

1. Cell phone: A great option is the Mobal GSM World Phone. They are fairly inexpensive to buy, require no contract, you pay only when you use them, you keep the same phone number whenever you travel, and work in 150 countries worldwide. Read an article about this great phone here: Keeping In Touch While Studying Abroad

2. Phone card: AmeriSpan has an international phone card with special low rates, access to over 150 countries, and your friends and family can even messages for you. 

3. International country codes: Participants & their families should know how to dial internationally. Country Calling Codes is a website that includes all country calling codes, and instructions. 

Don’t go to Spain!

 Why would you go to a place that might entice you to stay forever? The people are far too generous and they have too much fun. Who wants the freedom to sit on the beach with a glass of sangria, to eat tapas after 10pm or make the last meal of the night breakfast? What about taking a siesta could possibly call you? 

Affordable luxury is way overrated. It’s simply too easy to travel from one metropolitan city to another in two hours on a world-class train. In one city one may overeat the finest ham, see three cathedrals and the world’s oldest university in one afternoon. Who needs it? Taking a relaxing drive along la Costa del Sol would just be entirely too beautiful. 

Medical Spanish in Chile

 Looking for a SALUD Medical Spanish program?  Have you considered Santiago, Chile for a Medical Spanish course?  Santiago is becoming a very metropolitan and modern city. Many people who visit notice its clean streets, wonderful metro system and attractive skyline. The city has its beautiful and not so beautiful neighborhoods. The SALUD Medical Spanish program takes place in one of the nicest neighborhoods, Providencia. Providencia’s main streets are lined with restaurants, shops, hotels, and nightclubs. You will find a diverse mixture of Chileans and travelers in Providencia. It also houses families in residential areas, while travelers can visit museums and various points of interest. It is centrally located within Santiago, and Santiago is centrally located in Chile, making it a perfect base for travel throughout the country and to other destinations in South America.     

Spain Spanish Schools? ... OMG!

Spain Spanish Schools was the term you just googled, and "OMG" was your reaction when Google informed you that there are 8,700,000 results to your query.  You thought you were over the hard part, you had finally found the time, the money and had even chosen Spain as opposed to umpteen other Spanish-speaking countries. You were ready to learn Spanish in Spain! It was going to get easy from here... but 8,700,000 results.

What are you going to do now? (Hint: Spain Spanish schools)

Top 10 Inside Tips: India

 1. Buying & Bargaining. Shop owners insist that they are giving a variety of discounts to you and only you. i.e. the “Pretty Girl” discount,  “First Customer of the Day” discount, “Last Customer of the Day” discount, etc. You can easily spot “touters” after getting taken once or twice. Often times, the hotels and taxi/rickshaw drivers work together and they make commissions at the shops. Bargaining is a must. If a street vendor tells you 50 rupees for some bananas and an orange, he probably would have told a local 10 rupees. Never accept a first offer. Walking away is the best way to get a good deal. If they want your business, they will call you back over. When riding in rickshaws, negotiate a price prior to getting in. Bigger cities like Mumbai have rickshaws with fare meters. Also avoid buying tour packages until you get in country. Many hotels have travel agencies on-site that can organize great tour packages for reasonable rates.

2. Saris. Saris range in price from 15 USD to hundreds, even thousands of dollars. When Sari shopping, opt for something more elaborately decorated if attending a nice function like a wedding. The more intricate detail the better. Saris can also be extremely difficult to wrap, so consider asking for help from a local instead of attempting to do it yourself. Remember, you may only wear it once, but there is tons of fabric so you can always get a nice sari turned into a fabulous western style dress or wall tapestry upon return home.

Top 5 Reasons to Volunteer in India

 1. Variety, variety, variety. Experience medical projects in small clinics of Jaipur, orphanages and day care centers, women empowerment programs teaching sewing and computers to adolescents and housewives, domestic violence shelters, environment projects working with sea turtles on the beautiful beaches of Goa or volunteer at a school for children of local fisherman families. You name it, India’s volunteer program has something for everyone; challenge yourself in one of our amazing projects while making an impact. 

2. Visit a country with little language barrier. English, while it’s not India’s official language, is widely spoken and written on many street signs, restaurant menus, etc. This makes for an easy adjustment into a new, very different culture. Where English is not widely spoken, like in the volunteer project sites, you have the opportunity gain experience teaching ESL, which helps locals become more valuable in India’s job market. It also gives you some teaching experience to add to your resume.  

Guatemala Volunteer Opportunity

by Alexa Boyce, AmeriSpan Director of Volunteer/Internship Programs

When I was in Guatemala a couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to visit one of the community day care centers in Antigua where we send dozens of volunteers each year. There were about 25 children and two teachers on a playground with an indoor/outdoor classroom setting. The kids were small, generally aged about 5-7.

I walked in with the volunteer coordinator, and noticed that the children were playing independently while the two teachers fixed a healthy lunch. Several of the children immediately ran up to me and wanted to play, hug me, touch my hair or generally get attention. I recognized that they probably don’t get much individual attention at home or in the day care.

Spanish DELE Exam Prep Courses

Spanish Dele Exam preparation courses are available. The DELE (Diploma de Espanol como Lengua Extranjera,) or “Spanish as a Foreign Language Diploma,” is the only certificate for non-native Spanish-speakers that is officially recognized worldwide as proof of Spanish skills. Anyone taking a long tern Spanish immersion course should consider sitting for the exam. It can be taken at multiple levels from elementary level to superior proficiency. The best way to prepare for the exam is with one of AmeriSpan’s DELE Exam Preparation courses in Spain, Mexico, or Costa Rica. 

AmeriSpan offers preparation courses for the DELE Exam through our Spanish schools in Barcelona, Madrid, Salamanca, and Sevilla, Spain, as well as at our schools in Guanajuato, Mexico and Coronado, Costa Rica. Courses can be taken for anywhere from 2 – 8 weeks, depending on the exam level and location. The program dates coincide with the official exam date so that students are at their most prepared. The prep courses will reinforce the necessary skills to perform well in every exam section: grammar-vocabulary, reading, writing, listening and speaking.