Feeling Like an Outsider

Written by: Maggie Neuman

Location: Burgos, Spain

Major: Business

As my time studying in Spain is coming to a close, I’ve been doing some serious reflecting on what I have learned from this experience. Part of my job in writing these blog posts is to help encourage other students like me to study abroad by sharing all of the incredible experiences I’ve had. It’s true that if you study abroad, you’ll be able to do amazing things like see a live flamenco show in Granada and window shop in the streets of Milan. But hopefully at this point you already know how much fun you can have if you study abroad. Today I want to tell you about something even more important I gained from studying abroad. Presuming that most of the people reading this are from the United States, I need to first remind you of how much privilege that we have because of that. Though the United States are far from perfect, by being born there, we have many opportunities that many other people in the world don’t have. Even just speaking English as a first language is a HUGE privilege no matter where you end up. In most international locations, it is an expectation that people will be able to speak English in addition to the official language of the country. Moving (temporarily) to a new country has made me think a lot about what it must have been like for immigrants to move to the United States and this is what I want to talk about today. I knew when I decided to study in Spain that I wouldn’t fit in perfectly due to language barriers and simply not being from Europe where the values are different than in the United States. At times I have felt like an outsider because in reality, I am. Sometimes when I walk down the street in Burgos, people look at me funny maybe because I don’t dress like the typical Spanish young people or maybe just because my face looks different than that of a typical Spanish person. My Spanish certainly isn’t perfect but it has greatly improved since being in Spain. Even still sometimes people ask me where I’m from because clearly I’m not from Spain with my Spanish language imperfections. Sometimes people try to speak English to me even though the main purpose of coming here was to get better at Spanish. Things like this are a constant reminder of being an outsider here and how hard it can be to fit in to a new place. Now that I’ve got my lamenting out of the way, now I need to mention the fact that even though it hasn’t been great to feel this way, this experience of being an outsider has been minimal in comparison to other people’s experiences particularly in the United States. Even though the United States is a country built upon immigrants, there is currently a mindset against immigration in the political climate which has led people to have unrealistic expectations of people who do immigrate to the United States. People are told that they have to learn English almost immediately after moving without a second thought of how difficult that can be. This is in part because people in the United States aren’t really expected to learn a second language (beyond a basic level) since English is most people’s first language there. Immigrants are told to get a job which is hard enough when you are born in the United States with the connections and language benefits that provides. On top of these unrealistic expectations, immigrants have to deal with feeling like outsiders. This is magnified when people have different colored skin because it allows people to make judgements regarding someone before they even get a word in. Obviously anyone rational knows that race has nothing to do with people’s worth. However, that doesn’t stop the prejudice that we all have and need to be knowledgeable about. Being knowledgeable allows us to not let this prejudice control our actions and cause discrimination against people who don’t deserve it. Given how big of an issue immigration is in the United States, I think it is important for everybody to make an effort to experience at least to a degree what immigrants go through which can be done through studying abroad. Again, I need to clarify that my experience was amazing in comparison to many people because moving was done in a controlled environment. But I do think that feeling out of place (even if just a little bit) has made me more empathetic and given me a better understanding of what immigrants in the United States go through. This difficult aspect of studying abroad should not deter you from wanting to do so, though feeling like an outsider will be challenging, it will ultimately help you improve as a person. I think if everyone studies abroad and has international experiences as a young person that we will all be more empathetic towards people and the struggles that they go through. There is a lot we can learn by being educated regarding our personal prejudices but I don’t think you can truly understand what others go through unless you put yourself in that situation (to the best of your ability). I have hope that we can do better than those before us and create a more open and accepting world for everybody which will start by trying to understand people whose lives are different than ours.

Categories: Business Broncos, Spain, Changes