My name is Leaticia Kiam and I am a sophomore at Old Dominion University studying Nursing. I am also in the women’s Rowing team and I’m originally from Cameroon in Central Africa. I currently reside in Norfolk, Virginia. With my page, I hope to share all that I have learned in Spanish one during this semester, talk about my challenges and how I overcame them.
What I struggle with at the beginning of the semester and how I over came it: I have always have difficulties with the vocabulary this semester. To help myself understand what I was doing, I made flashcards, and study all the vocabulary and conjugations in the textbook. It really help me understand what I was struggling with.
Exploring Culture
Spain is famous around the world for their music, and dance. By learning Spanish, a person will be able to communicate with Spanish speakers. Latin America countries are our most important trading partners. Being able to speak Spanish greatly enhances your resume and you can travel to a Spanish country and really know the culture.
In the Hispanic world, religion has traditionally played a significant role in their daily activity. The church influences family life and community affairs, giving spiritual meaning to the Hispanic culture. More than 90% of the Spanish-speaking world is a Roman Catholic. I can relate from it because religion has a big impact in my culture as well. Negative portrayals of latinos and immigrants are pervasive in the news and entertainment media. As a daughter of an immigrant, it can very sad to hear the negativity of what comes when a person has to deal with that type of struggle.
Engaging in Communities
Traditionally, the Hispanic Family is a close group and the most important social unit. The term familia goes beyond nuclear family not just parent and siblings. Hispanic families ties are very strong , instill in their children the importance of honor, good manners, and respect authority and elderly. The reason why I connect so much to the culture is because I have the same values.
Interpersonal Communication
One os my favorite activity during this semester was when we had to describe our family member and explain how big or small our family is.
I love talking about my family. I enjoy the joy and happiness that we have having every family members are around. Having a family makes everything so much easier because anytime I need them, I always know that I can depend on them.
Presentational Speaking
Some of many Prueba Oral that we had during this semester was on answering each question in Spanish using complete sentences, recording the answers all together and submit it at the end of the assignments.
This activities really helped me with the speaking portion of the class. By the end of the semester was able to speak and describe in Spanish what I like to eat, what do I do every weekend, what do I like doing at night, what do I like doing during my free time and if I like going to the movies.
Presentational Writing
every week there was assignment given on VHLC. On does assignment we had to complete sentence with the verb that was given and in the correct form of the verb.
Interpretive Reading
One of the interesting chapter that we read during the semester was on soccer. The title of the topic was on Real madrid Y Barça. It explained the rivalry between the two teams about it being more than soccer. It was very nice to know that my country in not the only one that goes off for soccer and it doesn’t really matter how long it takes.
