Editor’s note: This story originally ran on UChicago News and is part of Dispatches from Abroad, a series highlighting UChicago community members who are researching, studying and working around the world.
This past summer while studying in Beijing, University of Chicago student Sarina Zhao spent plenty of time strengthening her Mandarin language skills in the classroom, but it was during evening opera performances and talking to cab drivers that she felt truly connected to Chinese culture.
“I learned a lot about changes in modern Chinese culture,” said Zhao, a second-year in the College. “Obviously, I learned things about Chinese history as well, but I was really not expecting to learn so much from my teachers or from taxi drivers, people who live in Beijing, about how Chinese people think nowadays.”
To study in Beijing, Zhao received a Foreign Language Acquisition Grant (FLAG), a UChicago program that awards College students $7,000 to spend a summer abroad gaining language skills. Students must research and apply for a program of their choice that is at least eight weeks and includes at least 15 hours of language learning per week. Each participant chooses their own program, timeline and living situation.
Kylie Poulin Zahora, associate director of Study Abroad at UChicago, loves that FLAG “doesn't impose boundaries in terms of the opportunities available. It really forces students to think about what their goals are for the experience, and then follow through to actually pursue them.”
Furthermore, she sees FLAG as an opportunity for growth outside of the classroom. “FLAG really builds a curiosity for the world that you don't lose. Once your eyes are open to a certain extent, it's hard to revert back to the version where you didn't know all the things you learned abroad and I think that's something that changes a person.”
Life and language learning in Spain
For Seth Julie, the summer after his first year in the College was an opportunity to gain valuable life experiences while strengthening his Spanish language skills.
“Any opportunity that I can have under my belt to bring to a classroom is amazing,” the second-year student said. “The more experience I get being around native speakers and having experiences in Spanish-speaking places is only going to benefit my studies.”
This past summer, Julie lived in Madrid, taking four hours of Spanish language classes a day. The most surprising parts of the FLAG experience, Seth explained, were the international connections that language cultivated.
“To be in a class with a 45-year-old person from South Korea who you think you have nothing in common with and get along with them in the search for more proficiency in a language just because you enjoy it was pretty cool,” he said.
This unexpected aspect of his experience is part of what makes FLAGs so unique. Since students are free to tailor their experiences to their criteria, they are able to learn from the vast range of people that they meet, whether in class, in host family situations, or simply on the street. To Julie, this experience was “a totally different way of learning a language than in an American classroom,” and afforded him the opportunity to widen his own worldview even within organized class times.
Whether it be battling an allergic reaction days into his trip or buying a gym membership, Julie faced challenges that pushed him. However, these challenges are, looking back, his biggest moments of growth.
“When you go abroad, almost any perceived negative is a positive,” he said. “You’re basically learning at every step of the way.”
He urges all students interested in pursuing a FLAG or any other international travel experience to keep an open mind, even when it seems like things are going wrong. Through his FLAG experience, Julie observed that “the second you take the first step then the second and third and fourth, they start to come supernaturally.”
Julie reflected fondly on his time abroad and explained that his experience continues to shape his academic path. Julie is pursuing his Spanish minor with a greater understanding of Spanish culture and a heightened level of confidence that he acquired while abroad last summer.
Connecting culture and language in Beijing
As a heritage Mandarin speaker, Zhao saw the FLAG program as an opportunity to strengthen her Chinese language skills and “immerse myself more in the culture, since I hadn't been back in so long.”
Zhao spent the summer of 2024 in Beijing studying Mandarin at Tsinghua University while living in the International Student Dormitories. “It was really nice, because all of my teachers taught foreigners for a living, and the program was for people who were learning Chinese as a second language, or for heritage speakers,” she said.
While in Beijing, Zhao was able to take part in a wide variety of cultural activities ranging from day trips to the Forbidden City to operatic performances. It was through these extracurricular activities that she truly connected to Chinese culture and strengthened her cultural awareness of the country.