What happens when you take 15 English-speaking people and 15 Spanish-speaking people, all strangers, and get them to live together and speak to each other for at least 16 hours per day? This is the social experiment that Pueblo Ingl?s conducts every eight days in several remote villages throughout Spain. The goal of the program is to help Spanish speakers learn English by immersing them in the language. They are forbidden to speak Spanish and must conduct sessions with a native English speaker, perfecting idioms, phrasal verbs and colloquialisms.
For the past eight days, I have been staying in the tiny village of La Alberca, Spain, as an Anglo member of this program. I had no idea what I signed up for.
After spending more than two months travelling alone, I was excited to get to Madrid and see other English-speaking people, but at the welcome reception I grew nervous. The program required a massive commitment. From breakfast at 9:00 a.m. each day until the program closed at 1:00 a.m. each night, we spoke with the Spaniards and with one another. We participated in one-on-one conversations with an assigned Spaniard five times each day, gave presentations in English, interacted via group debates, lived in an apartment with a non-English speaker and ate every meal with the group. We were given one free hour per day—after the first day I realized that I needed that time for a nap.
As is true of any group of that size, some personal connections were stronger than others. But I have never laughed more or laughed harder with a group of strangers. The group ranged in age from 22 to 71. The English comprehension level of the Spanish-speakers varied, but most only spoke English in a work setting. They had almost no grasp of conversational phrases, and many had never held a lengthy casual conversation in English.
I was there to teach, but I learned far more than I taught. I learned that I speak too quickly for non-native English speakers to understand me. I learned how often I exaggerate, how lucky I am to get to travel, and how fantastic it is that we don’t have a singular global language. I learned how hard these Spaniards work so that they can speak the language I take for granted every day and I learned how rare it is to have an opportunity to gain a different worldview.
The experience was simultaneously challenging, exhilarating, frustrating and deeply emotional. I spoke more and shared more with complete strangers—who could only understand my every other word—than I have with my closest friends in years. Over the past week I gained a foreign family that I’ll likely never see again. As one of my new Spanish friends said, these people will “always live within my heart.” I couldn’t have said it any better.
Information on Pueblo Ingl?s can be found here: .