BSU Basque Studies Sends Students Abroad!

After completing 4 semesters of Basque Language classes at Boise State, John Cortabitarte of Boise, and Annie and Alaina Gavica originally from Paradise Valley, Nevada each received $1000 from Boise State Basque Studies to attend Maizpide Euskaltegi in Lazkao, Gipuzkoa, Spain. Maizpide is specialized language school designed to teach Basque language and essentially train students to teach the language to others. Sessions usually begin and end in month-long segments, and John, Alaina, and Annie were able to catch part of the May session for Level 5/6. Once there, the Basque Government generously paid for their room and board and tuition to the school.

While at the school, they had 6 hours of language class per day that included conversation, worksheets, watching and discussing videos and listening to Basque radio and translating text. The classes were separated by lanuage ability, but within the entire school there were no more than 75 students.

Euskal Telebista correspondent, Igor Lansorena visited Maizpide to interview the "Americans that have come to learn Euskara". To read the interview, you can click here. The following are the videos that were taken during the interview, both in English and Basque.

Boise State Basque Studies was very excited to be able to send students to the Basque Country to improve their Basque after only 3 years of being active at Boise State University. The program hopes to be able to do this again with Boise State Basque Studies students in the future.

Click here to view their photos from the trip!


John, Alaina and Annie's Interview in English




John, Alaina and Annie's Interview in Basque