If you are going to do an Au-Pair we are sure, that you are already very excited about your upcoming travel and the time you´ll spend abroad. So today we´d like to show you different ways, how you could make use of your time until you travel to learn more about the Chilean culture and especially about the Chilean Spanish.
We have gathered some ideas about what you can do in your home country to get to know more about Chile and the start to prepare for the “Chilean Language shock” 🙂 :
1. Inform yourself about the Chilean culture wherever it is possible. A rainy weekend is the perfect opportunity to get to a library, a bookstore or simply to the internet to search for articles and books about Chile.
2. Perhaps you know somebody who has been to Chile before, or you know a Chilean yourself? Meet this person for a cup of coffee to talk about life in Chile.
3. Foreigners often have difficulties with the Chilean Spanish, particularly with the strange pronunciation and special words that are used. Get started with the settling in to the Chilean Spanish at home by training especially your ears to hear this peculiar accent. There are some entertaining ways to do that:
- via internet you can listen to Chilean radio, on www.emisora.cl you find most of the important radio stations of the country, we recommend Radio Concierto, Radio Bio-Bio or Radio Uno
- on Spotify or Youtube you can search for Chilean music and have fun making your own Chile-Playlist – here some names of bands and artist you should have a look at: Ana Tijoux, Gepe, Manuel García, Javiera Mena, Francisca Valenzuela, Nano Stern, Chico Trujillo, Los Tres, Los Prisioneros, Inti Illimani, Los Jaivas, Violeta Parra, Victor Jarra
- search for Chilean movies, like La Nana, La vida de los peces, No!, Violeta se fue a los cielos – there are quite a lot Chilean movies
If you already start at home to train your ears for the Chilean Spanish you will faster adapt to the language once you arrive. Another advantage of immersing into Chilean culture on this way is that you will already know about bands, artists and movies when you come to Chile and these topics are often the perfect starter to a nice conversation.