Sveiki! My name is Emma, and I’m a rising second year in the College double-majoring in Political Science and Law, Letters, and Society. This past summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Riga, Latvia, and study the Latvian language thanks to the Foreign Language Acquisition Grant!
To begin with the question on everyone’s mind, why did I choose to study a language with only 1.5 million native speakers over my summer? Well, there are two main reasons. Firstly, as a first-generation Latvian-American who unfortunately didn’t grow up speaking Latvian at home, the opportunity to come to Riga and learn the language was an important step in my journey to reclaim my ethnic heritage. Secondly, as an aspiring Latvian repatriate hoping to build a career engaging critically with the Latvian Government on international relations and human rights issues, learning Latvian is an essential step towards making my dream career a reality!
To give you a sense of my summer, I’ll take you through my typical day-to-day life in Riga! I usually woke up around 8:00 a.m., and ate a quick breakfast of fresh berries from Riga’s Central Market and a kārums (sweet cottage cheese curd snack) before heading out for the day. Since my language classes took place in the evening, I filled my daytime interning at Riga Stradiņš University’s China Studies Centre. Not only was my internship a great professional experience, but it was also a great opportunity to meet local Latvian speakers and colleagues with whom I could practice the language in a real-world setting! Around 3:00 p.m., I would leave RSU’s China Studies Centre and head back into the city center. At this point in my day, I typically had around two hours before my language classes began, so I would head to one of Riga’s many parks to soak in the sunshine (or alternatively a cute cafe if the weather was not so park-friendly) and complete my homework from the night before. Before I knew it, it was nearing 5:30 p.m. and time to head to the Pygmalion Language Centre for my class!
Between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m., I was tucked into my language class at the Pygmalion Language Centre, with my nose buried in my workbook or connecting with one of my classmates over our shared language struggles. While the size of my class fluctuated slightly as the summer went on, there were never more than five students, including myself. As such, not only did I get plenty of face time with the language instructor, I also got to know my classmates quite well! My classmates range from undergraduate students, like myself, to professionals with over twenty years of experience living and working in Latvia, and I always learned a lot from listening to their life experiences! Three hours of stumbling through sentences later, my language class is over for the evening, and I head back to my flat. I was usually tired out from the day’s activities, so after I arrived home, I typically only cooked a simple dinner, my favorite being pelēkie zirņi ar speķi (grey peas with bacon), before washing up and drifting off to bed.
During the weekends, I tried to make the most of all of the amazing museums, festivals, thrift stores, and beaches Riga has to offer! Some of my favorite moments include seeing THE Tautumeitas perform at Positivus 2025 (which, if you’re a Eurovision fan, needs no further explanation), dancing through the night at Rīgas Zalumballe to celebrate Jāņi (Midsummer), and celebrating Riga’s 824th birthday by visiting pop-up crafts markets and watching a children’s magic show in Latvian in the park! During my time in Latvia, I also had the opportunity to visit a few smaller towns outside the capital! From eating sklandrausis (a sweet potato, carrot, and rye tart) in Cēsis, to wandering past the famous Venta waterfall in Kuldīga (which, fun fact, is the widest waterfall in Europe), to taking a dip in the Baltic Sea in Saulkrasti, these trips were such a highlight! It was also interesting to pick up on the subtle differences in how Latvian is spoken region to region, despite being such a small country!
Overall, my FLAG summer in Latvia wasn’t just about learning vocabulary lists. Between chatting with locals in the central market, laughing with classmates in class, and stumbling through new phrases, I found myself living the heritage I had always wanted to claim. Along the way, I collected stories, friendships, and plenty of mistakes that made the language and culture come alive. And somewhere between all of that, Riga slowly transformed from a framed image on my family’s dining room wall into a city I could truly call home. For that reason, I would like to thank several people who have facilitated this life-changing experience. First and foremost, I would like to thank the UChicago Study Abroad Office for supporting me in my endeavors. I would also like to thank the Pygmalion Language Centre in Riga and my teacher, Ginta Krūmiņa, for their continuous support and guidance throughout my learning. Lastly, thank you to my family and the friends I made along the way for their support! Uz redzešanos!