Emma Chereskin, a sophomore a Clayton High School has used her foreign language classes to her advantages and put her knowledge to the test when she traveled to Spanish speaking countries

Chereskin has not only visited one, but three Spanish speaking countries – Spain, Mexico and Ecuador. Chereskin described her experience as an eye-opener.

“Seeing and experiencing other cultures really helps you to understand the world better,” Chereskin said. “It’s truly amazing.”

Of her many experiences, Emma says that the Christmas markets really caught her eye because it showed a sense of community she never quite saw in the United States.

The experience is one she will never forget. Looking back, the hardest part for Chereskin was having to actually use the language.

She described the fact that you can’t just walk out of the classroom and turn the switch off, you are constantly immersed in the language.

“It’s all day every day with no breaks, it’s intense,” Chereskin said.

She said that her trips really helped her to understand the culture of the different Spanish speaking countries.

“You learn things that you don’t learn in the classroom, like slang,” she said.

The trip was something she would definitely do again, and something she recommends to everyone interested in a country or a language.

Noah Engel is another sophomore at CHS who has broadened his knowledge of language by traveling to China.

He lived in China when he was younger and says, “taking Chinese has really helped me remember a lot of that (referring to when he lived in China).”

Noah remembers a particular time when knowing the language worked in his advantage.

He was walking around the market one day with his nannies. He then wondered off and found a barber with a shaver. He asked the barber for his shaver and proceeded to shave strokes of hair off of his head. He says that if he had not known Chinese, he would have never been able to give himself a new hairdo.

Both Engel and Chereskin have used learning foreign languages to their advantages when traveling to foreign places. They agree that knowing the language was a key part to enjoying their trips.