By Elizabeth Calderone ’14

Sitting in Ms. Ram’s Spanish class, students diligently concentrate on mastering verb forms and vocabulary words. Her love of the language is evident as she gesticulates while teaching. “Sólo hablarás en español,” she tells her students. While this is the second trimester of the year for them, this is Ms. Ram’s first. She was voyaging through Europe this fall as we navigated the new schedule.

Ms. Karen Ram teaches both Spanish and French at Williston. During the first two months of the school year, while we were alternating between blue and green weeks, Ms. Ram spent time alternating between French and Spanish as she and her husband traveled through the picturesque and historical countries of France and Spain. They had the opportunity to explore the villages, towns, cities, museums, and cafes of foreign places. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with my Spanish teacher and ask her about her travels.

Ms. Ram began her odyssey in a tiny town along the coast. “We spent four weeks in Brittany, France, a small village … in a house that was about 300 yards from the Atlantic Ocean.” An interesting part of this experience for her was the lifestyle. She described how she and her husband rode bikes 3 miles daily purchasing local fresh bread, pastries, meat and vegetables. She was surprised that this little village had two bakeries and two butcher shops, “where we could purchase exotic meals like rabbit and cow’s tongue.” They experienced a relaxed pace of life where everyone took their time, nobody was impatient, and nobody was in a rush. “We didn’t have a car for a month. You really get a sense of what daily life is like in a small town.” Unlike the United States, it’s common to go grocery shopping daily for necessities. Ms. Ram recalls that it “became our daily routine for a month.” She loved having the time to relax and enjoy the French culture.

Ms. Ram and her husband even had a chance to experience the local healthcare system first hand. When they went to see the local doctor in town, “I asked ‘how do you get an appointment to see the doctor?’ The people smiled at us and said, ‘You wait.’ So, it was a tiny room with 10 chairs, and you wait your turn.” The relaxed lifestyle gave Ms. Ram time to read books in French and in Spanish, some translated from other languages. This included a few by one of her favorite Norwegian mystery writers.

After that experience, she traveled south and spent several days touring in Bordeaux, France. This was followed by a few days in Bilbao, Spain, home of the Guggenheim museum. The pure magnitude of information, history, and art in the museums was astounding. Then it was onto the Eastern coastal city of Barcelona, Spain for a week. Ms. Ram had been to Barcelona some 25 years ago while a graduate student. She enjoyed revisiting this international destination with a different purpose from her initial stay over two decades ago.

They returned to France, spending a day in the city of Montpellier, a city 4 hours up the eastern coast. This was followed by a few days in Lyon, “the gastronomical capital of France, with really great food,” and finally ending the excursion with a week long stay in Paris.

Ms. Ram explained that before they arrived in every city, they had researched what they wanted to do. Upon arrival, they could then spend hours walking around and looking at the specific sites. They enjoyed the variety of museums, architecture, and atmosphere. Reminders of America were easy to find. “We saw Starbucks, we saw Dunkin’ Donuts, we saw McDonald’s… we completely avoided those.” They preferred to enjoy the local cafés and restaurants with specialties from that area. With adaptive thinking, she explained how they were able to shift their focus and assimilate comfortably to have a better experience. “When you open your mind to other ideas, you can appreciate other cultures by living them for an extended period of time.”

She was also struck by the friendly nature of the local people. “We walk in, and people say hello to you.” Whether it was the doctor’s office, the butcher shop, or the café, people were glad to take as much time as necessary to serve and help them.

While at a café in Lyon, they met two gentlemen from Holland who were giving a workshop to graduate students. They joined Ms. And Mr. Ram, along with another traveler from the United States. “We had a great conversation about politics and about books. We talked about French people, Spanish people, and American People. It was wonderful to get a perspective of your own culture from somebody of another culture.”

Ms. Ram was amazed by, “how much Europeans seem to know about the world,” as well as impressed at how many Europeans are fluent in English. “They do not expect Americans to speak anything else except English, and were surprised to learn that I could speak French and Spanish with them.” She described the rewarding overview of her trip. “It really opens your mind to other ideas and allows you to appreciate other cultures. When you spend a week, you only get a taste of this. But with an extended period of time, you really live the culture.”

In Williston language classes, we speak in the language we are learning. We temporarily leave our English world. By stepping through the door and into the classroom (as Ms. Ram demonstrated on the first day), we listen and think in a foreign language for one hour. Upon departure, we quickly return to the comfort of our native tongue. It was fascinating to hear from Ms. Ram how much she gained from existing in a multitude of different cultures for two months.

Ms. Ram’s experiences in her travels have opened her eyes more to both French and Spanish cultures. Now Ms. Ram brings all of her enlightened knowledge to her students everyday in class. As I enter her classroom saying “¡Hola Señora! ¿Cómo está?” I now realize how much Ms. Ram conveys to her students. She is teaching us much more than just a language.