France: Ana Gutierrez

Program: UW in Paris, Spring

Major: Education Studies and Psychology

What is the moment you are most proud of?

The moment I am most proud of is when I was sitting on a bench at the end of my program, an older French woman came up to talk to me. I was reading a book at the park and she sparked up a conversation in French. I nodded and smiled because I am not fluent in French. As she kept talking, I realized I was understanding more than I thought. I even started to respond with a few phrases and we started to have a conversation through my broken French. I am very proud of this moment because although I was in Paris for such a short time, I was working really hard on my French and this moment was a culmination of all the hard work I had put in. I had French class four days a week for three hours a day, and I often studied on my own after class. Learning a new language can sometimes feel like an uphill battle, and it is, but this moment allowed me to see all the progress I had made the entire semester. This motivated me to continue studying French because I would be a little step closer to connecting with a whole new group of people.

What challenges or barriers did you face as you prepared to go abroad and/or during your time abroad? How did you work through them?

Being abroad was very exciting and there were lots of moments filled with joy, but a challenge that I encountered while abroad was having to make a new social network. Meeting new people was amazing but often I did miss my friends back at UW. Wishing to experience these moments with my friends back at home was difficult with the time difference. Either they felt left out of my adventures, or I felt left out of theirs. Navigating new spaces without the people I usually do was challenging. To work through this, I often reminded myself to be patient. The time difference is no one’s fault. I also made some new great friends and focused on growing those friendships as well. Yes, it was difficult not to have the usual safety net of people, but the new experiences and lessons learned from being abroad were worth the bit of discomfort for a handful of months.

How will your experience benefit you in the future? How might it affect your future career or studies?

Living and studying abroad in a different language taught me resilience. As I plan to work abroad after graduation, I will continue to face the inevitable challenges that come with cross-cultural collaboration. Being resilient and open-minded, like I’ve practiced in this program, will only continue to enrich my future. The connections I’ve made with my host family, as well as my French teachers, have taught me the value of professional relationships and I look forward to reaching out in the future. The kindness I’ve experienced from locals has only encouraged me further to reciprocate that openness and kindness to others coming into a space I am more familiar with. I had such a wonderful experience with the Francophone culture that I hope to continue my studies in the French language, allowing for better communication with that culture.

What is your advice for someone considering your program?

The advice I would give to any student looking to study abroad in any program is to live with a host family if possible. Living with a host family allowed me to ask any questions about culture, language and daily life that cannot be answered in the classroom. It also allowed me to feel part of the community that my host family was living in, saying hello to neighbors, getting to know the street etc.

The Parisian lifestyle can be a little daunting and often reserved, but having a local to talk to allowed me to understand the personal perspectives of the Parisians. Since all my classes were with other Americans and I was not fluent in French, connecting with Parisians was a little harder, but having a host family allowed me to be connected to the daily French life.