Spanish professor, Elise Thomasson set up a day for her students to call The Gadsden Hotel in Douglas, Arizona in order to make a room reservation in Spanish. The class is designed for students to gain more skills that will help them in their future careers.
The students began reviewing what they would say when booking the hotel room. Thomasson passed out a worksheet to prepare them and the students had time to practice with each other before making the call.
Assistant Manager of The Gadsden, Adam Carrasco, said the hotel is full of culture and history. Many of the students in Thomasson’s class are hospitality students, so Carrasco said it’s very important “to know a few words to show respect to other cultures.” The Gadsden is close to the border so Carrasco said as an assistant manager he has to communicate in both spanish and english, along with many other languages.
“The Spanish language means a lot to their culture,” Carrasco said.“One thing that my students should do when they become professionals is to know at least a few words to make [Spanish] people feel comfortable and to give respect,” Thomasson added.
Carrasco set up a mock hotel reservation for students to use their skills they have been learning in Thomasson’s class. The students went through a series of questions including their name, the date, how many people would be attending and how many beds they would need.
Each student had the opportunity to practice their Spanish with Carrasco. This allowed them to gain real experience with the language and put their hospitality skills to use, according to Thomasson.
Thomasson requires students to have at least eight hours of Spanish immersion. Students can do this in a variety of ways, for example, they can practice at a Spanish restaurant or watch TV in Spanish. For most students, making the call with Carrasco was their first time interacting with a Spanish speaker.
Thomasson congratulated her students for achieving this challenging task, then explained that it just takes practice and time to learn a language.
“It takes three months to learn the phonology [of the language]. After that, it’s going to take about a year of speaking nothing, but Spanish before you can be pretty confident that you’ll know about 80 percent. That final 20 percent is what takes years,” Thomasson said.
After the activity, everyone in the room shared what they felt before, during and after. They also shared what they thought about learning Spanish.
“I have read that adults are afraid to make mistakes and that’s what holds them back when learning a language, so I have learned to just say something, whether it’s right or wrong,” student Adele Maas said.
Thomasson shared that it’s important for her students to realize that there are different kinds of people and this allows them to connect in a cross cultural way. She believes that doing this for her students is important because it allows them to add to their resume.
“I really couldn’t be prouder of them. I know it seems basic at first, but they did a hotel reservation and that’s very scary if you think about it,” Thomasson said.
Sinclair also gives the opportunity to explore the border during the annual BorderLinks trip with the Sociology, Geology and Social Work Department. Sociology professor Kathy Rowell and Geography professor Mohsen Khani organized this trip to help students learn about sociological, geographical, political and economical issues at the border.
“Over fifty students and six faculty have participated in the past ten years,” Rowell said. “Students will have the chance to meet undocumented migrants being detained by the U.S. government, as well as meet with Border Patrol Agents. They will also see first hand what is happening at the wall and learn about environmental effects on the desert from migration.”
Rowell said studying abroad is always an opportunity to learn more about the world, along with learning about your own culture.
“This will be my eleventh time and this trip reinforces my thinking on the need for economic social justice on planet earth,” Rowell said. “I hope to bring back a group of students who have increased their ability to be critical thinker. Students report being more committed to global citizenship and working to become more informed citizens from participating in this trip.”
For more information about the BorderLinks trip visit www.borderlinks.org or Kathy Rowell at 937-512-3203 or for more information about Thomasson’s class contact her at 937-512-2844.
Claudia Gomez
Reporter