Questions About Mexico

Hi everyone! Below are a couple questions that I received about Mexico:

Is it safe?

This is probably the biggest question that Americans would ask about Mexico. It can be agreed that like America, Mexico has its dangerous cities. The area I'm going to, Guanajuato, is much safer than certain cities here. Guanajuato is a lot like Cambridge, England, according to Dr. Wood, the director of the Mexico exchange. Part of the fear around Mexico comes from tensions created by America, such as the Mexican - American war, politics, trade, and immigration. Israel is considered safe by many Americans, but according to The Guardian, Israel is more dangerous than Mexico. Because we Americans appreciate Israel in a different way than Mexico, this bias is created around it.

You can see The Guardian's rankings here:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jun/18/global-peace-index-2014-every-country-ranked

Will you be trying the food?

Definitely! I love trying new foods, and I can't wait to do so in Mexico. The thing that worries me most though is the spiciness. While I do like a little heat, I am not sure about just how spicy my food will get there.

Where will you go to school there?

I am not entirely sure yet where I am going to school. I know that it is a local high school, and that I will be taking English classes to help the Mexican students. I am also hoping to take a biology class, since it would be really interesting to learn about the natural world in Spanish. By taking this class, I would also get to experience a typical academic setting that one might find while living in Mexico.

How will you keep up with school at home?

Before I leave for Mexico, I will meet with my teachers one-on-one to arrange a plan. The plan usually is something along the lines of a homework packet along with a list of things to do by a certain deadline. I do not have a solid plan yet from most of my teachers, and I will be meeting with them after December vacation.

Do you know your assigned host family?

Not yet, but as soon as I find out, I will be exchanging emails and information with them.

What are you doing to prepare?

In order to prepare for Mexico, my main goal is to be reviewing my Spanish knowledge. In Spanish, verbs have many different tenses. The ones that I want to make sure that I review before I go are the present, the preterite tense, the future tense, the command form, the imperfect, and the subjunctive. I have never seen the subjunctive form, and I will not be learning it before I go to Mexico, so it should be a fun challenge. I also am going to read some books on Spanish slang, idioms, useful phrases, and words to stay away from. For example:

"¡No puedo decidir que película quiero ver! ¡Estoy nadando entre dos aguas!"

Figuratively: "I can't decide what movie I want to see! I just can't make up my mind!"

Literally: "I can't decide what movie I want to see! I'm swimming between two waters!"


If you every have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know! I will try my best to answer them in my next post, which I still need to decide when I am going to write. I will not yet be answering the challenges my deafness brings in Mexico. Once I know more about what is going to happen, I will dedicate a whole post to writing about it.

Gracias, (Thank you,)

Ben

I am Going to Mexico!

     Hi everyone! This is my very first post to this blog, so I hope you like it.

     I am going to Mexico! I owe this opportunity to Mr. Wood and Mr. Fabrizio for making this exchange possible. I also owe this opportunity to my middle school Spanish teacher, Ms. Martin, and my high school Spanish teachers, Ms. Schulze and Ms. Cremin. Lastly, I owe this to my parents, who have taught me to love the world and do what is right.

     Ever since I read about Tenochtitlan in the children's book The Sad Night in fourth grade, I have dreamt of visiting Mexico. Mexico is a place that has a rich culture and history which I will get to experience.

     In Mexico, I will be going to Guanajuato, in the state of, you guessed it, Guanajuato. I will be staying there for two and a half weeks with a host family which is yet to be determined. For the last few days, I will be traveling to Mexico City, where we will see the ruins of Tenochtitlan.
   
     When I first told my parents about the trip, they said probably not, but that I should go to the meeting about it. After said meeting, I asked my parents again, armed with notes. They were still hesitant, but they talked to the head chaperone, Mr. Wood, who was able to answer their many questions, they are now mostly convinced that it will be a safe and worthwhile trip.

     One question that you probably have in mind is "What about our newly elected commander in chief?"

     Even though I am not particularly happy with the election results, I see the results as another reason to go to Mexico. Since our president has said horrible things about the Mexican people, one would find it reasonable for them to think that we Americans hate them. My ultimate goal in Mexico is to show my host family that we are not defined by our president, and that while we are under the name of a man who has said some very bad things, we as a whole are not that bad. In fact, since his opponent won the popular vote, the majority of us are actually on the Mexican's side. I see my trip as an opportunity to promote peace between Mexico and America, and not an opportunity to show that we Americans are defined by our leader.

     This is also why I refuse to unfriend any of my Republican friends on Facebook. If I did that, I would be telling them that I am a sore loser, and that I am giving into the dividing powers that this election imposed on us. Now is not the time to divide, but to stay together and strong. This relationship does not deserve to be just among our people, but among the peoples that our president has insulted. My drive to go to Mexico is now stronger than ever before, thanks to our new president. By going there, I am symbolically not giving into his horror. Through unity, I have won, not lost.

     While in Mexico, I will be doing everything that my host family does. I will eat with them, sleep with them, go to school with them, travel with them, and even help the students with their English homework. I believe that a crucial part of this trip is also to use as little English as possible, with the exception of this blog and videos that I post and any English classes that I attend at their school. By using English, I believe that it would be a symbol of arrogance since it would show that I do not put the time or effort into learning their language, and in turn, showing that it is not that important to me.

     This brings up another question: "As a person who uses cochlear implants to hear, what challenges will that bring?" Great question! First off, I will not be talking about charging my processors or usage of the Roger Pen system by Phonak. That is for another time. In my Spanish class, I acknowledge that I struggle with audio activities the most. Unlike those audio activities though, I can ask the speaker to modify their talking speed, or to repeat something. For example:

"¿Quiere arroz con pollo?" ("Do you want the rice and chicken"?)

"Más lentamente, por favor." ("Could you speak more slowly?")

or

"¿Quiere un bebida?" ("Do you want a drink?")

"Repita, por favor." ("Could you repeat?")

     The nice thing about Spanish is that it is very much like English. "Hola" means "Hello", "Planta" means "Plant", "Computadora" means "Computer", "Reconocer" means "To recognize", "Luego" means "Later". Also, in Spanish, you can use context clues to figure out the meaning of a sentence. If I am eating that rice and chicken from earlier, one might ask:

"__ gusta __ ____ con pollo?" (They said "Te gusta tu arroz con pollo?" or "Do you like your rice and chicken?")

"¡Sí, me gusta!" ("Yes, I do like it!")

     To wrap up, I would like to invite you, the reader, to comment or ask any reasonable questions you would like. You can email your questions to bborhegyi@gmail.com or, when I post this to Facebook, comment on that post, or comment on the blog itself. I will answer the first round of questions on Saturday, December 17th.

¡Hasta luego! (See you later!)

Ben