What better way to learn or improve your Spanish, than going to Madrid over the January Independent Activities Period? As part of the IAP Abroad programs, MIT undergraduates did just that: enrolling in 21G.793 Spanish III in Madrid, taught by Mariana San Martin; and 21G. 795 Advanced Spanish Communication in Spain, taught by Margarita Ribas Groeger.

Student videos

This video called “3 P.M.” was produced by the students of Advanced Spanish Communication as their final project in the form of a parody of the song “3 A.M.” by Jesse y Joy, to describe their experiences over IAP.  The pictures and videos were gathered by the students in Madrid, Barcelona, and other cities. Lyrics are by Darren Lim. Vocal is by Ryan Kim. Darren Lim, who compiled the visuals for the video said “Primarily, our main topics addressed in the video are the large amounts of food that we ate throughout our time in Spain, the places and locations that we traveled to together, and the idea that although one could face adversity while traveling, what truly matters is to enjoy one’s time while they still can.”

And this video “Español III Proyecto Final” is an assemblage of interviews and reports produced by students from Spanish III in response to a class assignment to research a specific neighborhood of Madrid; research its history; consider what are the significant, monuments, museums, sports; and Interview someone on the street and ask questions about what it’s like working and living there.