Barrington High School is offering world language students the opportunity to embark on international trips. 

Students have the chance to experience the culture and history they’ve been learning in the classroom, as well as improving their language skills. Spanish students have the opportunity to spend two weeks in Spain this summer, in preparation for the AP course. There’s an upcoming trip to Quebec, Canada in February, which is led by Mr. Avendano, where French students will be able to participate in the annual Winter Carnival. Latin students have a nine day trip to Rome and Athens this Spring Break, and next summer there will be a trip to China.

“We have quite a few trips planned for this year. We do have a fine tradition for appreciating the fact that experiences that we have in the classroom can be complemented by experiences we have in the real world,” said Dr. Wolfkiel, the head of the World Language Department.

The trips are also planned with the students’ interests in mind. For example, the French students travelling to Quebec have the opportunity to actually participate in the Winter Carnival, which include activities such as sledding, tubing games, and dog sledding.

“This type of educational travel provides a real way of using the language and the things that you are learning in the classroom, meeting people, being exposed to different cultural perspectives and just different ways of doing things that I think open up the students and allow them to grow.”

Mr. Avendano calls this “interpersonal speaking.”

“We take any level, and in class we try to prepare them by constantly speaking in French. We try to force them to speak as much as they can. It’s called interpersonal speaking, where get them into groups and we do interpersonal speaking practices, and this week we did the assessment, just to get them talking,” he said.

Mr. Condrad, the Latin teacher, is looking forward to having his students see the historical sights in Rome.

“I’m looking forward to having my students see Pompeii. We spend a lot of time in history classes and in Latin classes talking about the eruption of Vesuvius, and I think it’s a really neat thing to see the remains of a city, not just a normal archaeological site that’s flat, but still with walls and it gives it that three-dimensional feeling, and I think that’s a really neat aspect,” he said.

Students are already looking forward to the trips. Junior Kate Tierney is excited to spend four days in Quebec with her friends.

“A couple of my friends are going on the trip, so I’m excited to spend like four days with them in a foreign country, because that’s gonna be pretty awesome. I also really enjoy speaking French. Whenever the opportunity comes, I try to take it, so spending a couple days only speaking French is gonna be awesome,” Tierney said.