I was terrified of mistakes. By day three, I had forgotten to be
I study International Business in Dublin and I have an exchange in Salamanca next year. My grades in Spanish were fine, but speaking was another story. I was the person who nodded and smiled and hoped nobody asked me anything.
My university recommended the Twenty program, and I signed up with two friends. Everyone there was between eighteen and their late twenties, students and young graduates from Europe, the United States and Asia, plus Spanish volunteers our age.
The first one-to-one was with Álvaro, a medical student from Granada. Within ten minutes we were arguing about music and I had made about forty mistakes. He didn’t care. He just wanted to know why I liked such terrible bands.
That is the thing about Pueblo Español: mistakes stop being important because people are genuinely interested in what you say. By day three I had forgotten to be afraid.
The evenings were brilliant: games, a talent show, and long chats outside after dinner. I now have friends in Granada, Valencia and Madrid who have promised to visit me in Salamanca. I believe them.
EMMA WALSH
Ireland · Twenty program
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