A letter from an alumna—The love of language
My proudest “Dickinson moment” was pinning the patches to my robe on graduation day (a Dickinson College tradition)–one flag for each country where I studied abroad: Spain, Dominican Republic, Austria and Argentina.
Four years earlier, I had chosen Dickinson College because of its reputation in language and international education. As a freshman in 1997, I was already fluent in Spanish. I was eager to improve my Spanish and begin learning German. During my first two years, I learned the basics of German grammar, visited the German table and watched German television and films. At the same time, I lived in the Spanish house, was active as an officer in the Latin American Club and practiced academic writing in Spanish in classes taught in English, through the Foreign Language Integration Course option.
 At Dickinson, faculty members bring the world to campus, language learning extends beyond the classroom and study abroad “lives” on campus through the many students who bring their stories and experiences home with them. I did not have the opportunity to study in Mexico or Egypt, but I know–from my Dickinson friends–what the streets look like, what the people sound like, what the air smells like and what the food tastes like in those countries. At Dickinson, it is normal for the Spanish and French houses to share a building, just as it is normal that two languages be integrated into one program of study. As a participant in the Dickinson College International Mosaic Program in Patagonia, Argentina (2001), I sat in on a bilingual interview with the son of German immigrants to Argentina. The interview was conducted by a close friend (an international student from Bremen) and observed by a sociology professor who has conducted research in Asia, Europe and Latin America.
After research and study abroad, I applied for a (postgraduate) Fulbright fellowship to Germany. I had only taken five semesters of German and studied one semester in a German-speaking country. Most of my extracurricular activities and research and study-abroad experiences were related to Latin America and Spain. But Dickinson had prepared me for a new challenge. My trilingual life as I know it today blossomed during the 14 months I spent as a Fulbright scholar in Leipzig, Germany, interviewing teenagers about national identity and xenophobia.
After September 11, 2001, I encountered increasing anti-U.S. sentiment in eastern Germany. However, I was able to engage neighbors, teenagers, university students and youth workers in conversations about the negative, stereotypical perceptions of Americans. Fellow students in my Spanish-German translation course and intensive Italian course at the University of Leipzig could not believe I was American and multilingual. One youth worker in Leipzig–who described to me the anger she felt toward Americans and toward the U.S. government during the Vietnam conflict and during the U.S. war on terror–later told me I was a good ambassador for my country.
When I was a high school junior I told my parents I wanted to study languages. While they never attempted to dissuade me, they urged me to think about how Spanish and German would lead to “making money,” a question I was not too concerned with at age 17. The language education I began in Beverley Eddy’s German 101 class in Bosler Hall got me my first “real job” as a legal secretary for the German group at an international corporate-law firm in Manhattan. Since then, I’ve done German-English, Spanish-English and English-Spanish legal and marketing translations in the legal field. Most importantly, my parents are proud of how my language skills have developed and are happy to see me on the path to doing work that I love. As I write this letter, I am in the process of applying to graduate schools. Spanish-speaking Dickinson professors of anthropology, history, Latin American studies, political science and sociology are advising and supporting me in my pursuit of an academic career in sociocultural and visual anthropology.
At Dickinson College, I made connections to people as passionate about a multilingual and cultural life as I am, and I graduated prepared to shape such a life on a personal and professional level. Language learning is not just a fond memory of my college years; it is a part of my everyday life and a part of who I am.
Rosemary McGunnigle ’01
Self-developed major in Latin American & Latino studies
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