On Sept. 17th, Mrs. Malo’s 5th period spanish class entered the library to take part in a Skype video call with fellow students in Argentina. As part of an enrichment activity made possible through modern technology, the students got to see a bit of the school life in Argentina. Although the students lived in different hemispheres, Skyping allowed for a face-to-face conversation. The Canyon Vista students were enrolled in Spanish 1B (the most basic level in a series of Spanish courses) compared to the native speakers living in Argentina. Even with their limited vocabulary, a conversation was kept up throughout the whole call. The Canyon Vista students and the Argentine students took turns in asking questions to each other. “I think it was a nice experience because we got to see what schools were like in Argentina,” says 8th grade Sonya Swami. By talking with native Spanish speakers, Mrs. Malo’s class got to observe the special dialect they spoke in and learned more about the language.

However, with Skyping came its own problems. Since the activity was very last-minute planned, many technical difficulties arose. Other schools were Skyping at the same time and made it difficult to hear what the other side was saying. The video call would lag at times and the sound quality wasn’t exactly great. A lot of Mrs. Malo’s students were confused at what was going on during the call.

On the bright side, this unique experience offered insight into schools outside of the United States. It broadened the student’s knowledge of Latin American culture. An important part of learning a language is also learning about the country’s culture behind it. Skyping with Argentina was an important step towards that.