Mission Bay High School Spanish teacher Annie Santana will move to the island of Robinson Crusoe, Chile, in July to participate in a Fulbright teacher exchange program. As an ESL teacher for one year, she will immerse herself into the culture of the Chilean education system while she maintains contact with her students and friends at home.
Santana said she developed a love for travel during her senior year of college at the University of California, San Diego.
“I lived abroad my senior year. I went to Spain,” she said. “I developed a passion for traveling.”
During the seventh year of her Spanish teaching career, Santana decided she was ready to advance to the next level of cross-cultural experiences ” teaching abroad. After thorough research of different programs, Santa decided that Fulbright best met her needs.
The Fulbright option will allow Santana to leave her position at Mission Bay High School for one year, remain employed by the district and return to her San Diego classroom next July. While she is in Chile, she will be able to communicate via the Internet with her students and a Chilean teacher who will take her place at Mission Bay High School as part of the exchange.
“The students that you have, faculty members that you know, you take them with you in terms of communication,” she said.
Teacher and student interactions across the continents will allow “students to become more familiar with the world around them ” not just San Diego, but the actual world around them.”
Santana said that “House of Spirits” by Chilean Isabel Allende portrays Chilean culture and helped her prepare to be immersed in a new culture.
So far, Santana knows that Chile enjoys more economic stability than other Latin American countries, and that the large influence of German immigrants adds a unique flavor to the cultural mix.
“I’m very interested in the differences [between Chilean and other countries] since I’m familiar with different Latin American cultures,” Santana said referring to her own Mexican heritage.
School operations, societal norms, and the general day-to-day routine also interests Santana.
“I think there is going to be all types of challenges,” she said. “Just being able to understand what’s appropriate ” every culture has their customs,” she said.
Santana anticipates that she will have to adjust her own style of Spanish in order to function in Chilean society. Chilean Spanish has a different accent and vocabulary from the Spanish she teaches at Mission Bay High School. Just as English slang varies by region, Spanish word usage also varies by region. She purchased a book on Chilean Spanish to prepare for this change. Also, her classroom in Chile will look very different from her classroom in San Diego.
“Here, a lot of focus is placed on discipline,” she said. “The challenge for me in that respect is going to be keeping a safe distance between myself and the students.”
Class sizes are much smaller in Chile and the culture facilitates a much closer teacher-student relationship. One political change for Santana will be dealing with student protests. Recent public school protests voiced unhappiness about the disparity between public and private funding. Perhaps this is not as much of a problem on the island, Santana said, but she is already aware of it as a potential area of concern.
Overall, she is thrilled and honored to have this teaching opportunity.
“I think experiencing the people, speaking with them and learning about their culture ” that is going to be the most exciting part,” she said.