REFLECTION

Taking Spanish 102 have given me the right tools, skills, and helped me to further understand the language. I have learnt that the key to speaking the language is proper pronunciation of the verbs and sounding the accent where they are needed. Although the semester was short, It was intensive and lots of information were provided to us. I found that Spanish 102 to be more challenging than Spanish 101 because with Spanish 102 I had to speak more in Spanish and know when to used the right verb and tenses. It took a lot of studying and practicing to get the material. At the start of the semester I remember vividly crying and complaining to the professor because I was failing the quizzes. She encourage me to study the material and don’t get discouraged. I did exactly that and I found that by practicing and going through the material things became much clearer.

One of the most challenging thing for me was the conjugations and reading the compositions in Spanish for the exams. To overcame that I had to memorized the rules of when to apply those endings and with the compositions I had to used context clues to know what was going on. The main objective that I need to work on is continue to learning new vocabularies and also understanding someone speaking the language even when they are speaking fast.

Compositions, by writing them not only did it helped me in studying but also made everything makes sense. I was able to see my mistakes and was able to practice my Spanish by completing these compositions. For me, my favorite topics were the Affirmative Tú Formal and Informal commands. I also loved Indirect Object Pronouns and the Gustar and similar verbs. The reflexive verbs were my least favorite because those are special and has similarities with the Indirect object pronouns and you really had to pay attention to the sentence and when to apply it. i sometimes get confused with those. I have realized that writing is not only effective for English speakers but it is very effective and useful when it comes to Spanish Speakers because by writing more in Spanish has sharpen and better able me in communicating better in the language.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class, I was very skeptical at first since it was my first time taking an online class but honestly the professor made it fun. She gave us assignments where we got to interact with classmates through discussion posts. Even though we weren’t meeting in the class room it felt like we were in the classroom by engaging in these discussion posts weekly. We explore different topics such as family, Sports and Activities, Foods, Profession, Medicals. By learning these topics you get to learn new vocabularies and ideas which better help me in engaging in conversations at work with Spanish speakers.

EXPLORING CULTURE

In exploring different culture has helped to broaden my knowledge and understanding of cultural perspectives. On Lingrolearning, doing those assignments I would have to do thorough research, and by doing these research on some of Spanish speaking countries and learning about there cultural lifestyle has helped me to see beyond just hearing the name of the country. It actually made me see the individuals as the person they are and accepting them.

By reading different articles, books, and watching videos had shed better light and help me to better understand the values and attitudes of the Hispanic culture. Visually seeing and hearing individual talked about there own culture and way of life is beautiful. Something about the connection it gives. The way they dress, speak, the kind of music they listen to, and the foods they eat I was able to embrace their culture , have a bond and look beyond the stereotype. It opened up my mind to new changes and see from a different perspective of how people in different countries live.

I always hear people talk about Mexico people being bad, but through exploring and researching I found these hearsaies to be false. Take it for example researching about Chile and Spain in one of my assignment on the Topic of Bias and Gender roles. I had to work through the stereotype of what women in Spain endure. The harsh treatment, the name calling just because they are females the society do not considered them to participate in soccer and labeling women as “irresponsible of getting pregnant”. The Challenges these perspectives reveal to me are the harsh reality that many people endure through the eyes of an individuals native environment and social influence.

ENGAGING IN COMMUNITIES

The value of the importance of engaging in my immediate community and global community is highly effective because it promotes interaction, stability, growth, and unity among my fellow peers. Not only that but it allows decision-making, and increases the acceptance, knowledge, and perspective of everyone. It also has highlighted and showcased my creative thinking skills among the community.

Interms with the Spanish culture its even better because as a individual learning the language I get to see that their are many different people who learn the language different and hence speak it differently. I also, realized that by actively engaging in these communities has helped and giving me the confidence in speaking the language more. Take it for example at my work place i.e. Navy. There are diverse people working there. There are lots of Hispanic workers who fluently speak Spanish. They find it very surprisely when I respond to them in Spanish, I might not say much but they are actually proud because I can some what relate to them in their own native tongue. That to me boosted moral.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1z4zN-g8MuWX6R2s1gBUzFgbBpWc3RGJ-&authuser=1

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

This semester I had two talk abroad presentations. Each of them we had 15 minutes to communicate. In the First 1, we had to talk about our Families, and in the second one, we had to talk about foods and some activities that we do to keep us healthy.

I really enjoyed my talk abroad presentations. The reason why I stated that is because it has helped me more to interact with fluent Spanish speakers and boosted my confidence in speaking the language. During the first talk abroad I was very nervous and shy. I sometimes could not understand what she was saying and often times had to asked her to repeat herself. I also, found myself forgetting the words I wanted to say.

The second talk abroad went more smoothly. I had learned from my first presentation that I needed to be relaxed, listen attentively and I was better prepared. The most difficult part was the pronunciation of some of the words. I overcame that by speaking slowly and breaking the words into syllables. Also, it was nice of the native speakers to correct me if I wasn’t pronouncing the words correctly.

PRESENTATIONAL SPEAKING

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1z4zN-g8MuWX6R2s1gBUzFgbBpWc3RGJ-&authuser=1

The presentation speaking I completed this semester was on the Health Care System in Spain vs The American Health Care System. The topic was very touchy because of the fact that America can do so much better when it comes on to giving the best healthcare to its citizens because they have the resources to do so. The most difficult part of this presentation was talking about the horrible treatment military personnel receive from care providers. I overcame that by pausing and taking a deep breath.

PRESENTATIONAL WRITING

For this semester I have done several Discussion Board posts on several topics such as: The importance of Family structures to Hispanic Culture, Sports Activities, and Favourite Food just to name a few

Writing on these topics has helped my writing skills tremendously. Take the first topic as an example “The importance of Hispanic culture” I got to read articles about the Hispanic culture and then compare the Hispanic culture with my own culture. I got to learn things I did not know about the Hispanic culture before and then applied that knowledge to my writing. From writing one post to the next show’s improvement because each post was different and authentic. I was ready and eager to write about sports I participated in and part of my lifestyle. Honestly with this activity, I didn’t find any challenges or difficulties with it because I enjoy this part of the curriculum. The only take away I would say is that I could spend a little more time reviewing my work to make sure my verb agreement and tenses are correct. other than that I love it.

INTERPRETIVE LISTENING

Throughout the semester we were given assignment where we had to watch videos and answer questions. This activity was a bit challenging one because it called for active listening and attention to details. I had to listen carefully to people describing there preferences in Spanish or explain what they like to do. I was not fond of this activity because sometimes the person in the audio speak so fast and either had an accent so it made it difficult to understand. Also, throughout the semester I had quizzes with audio where I had to listen and write the correct words or phrases based on what I heard. The most challenging thing about these exercises was that some of these people speak extremely fast and the different accent and pronunciations of the words made them difficult to understand. Overall, these activities have sharpen my listening skills and better helped me in understanding native speakers.

INTERPRETIVE READING

In our text book, Lingrolearning we were giving texts or passages and or menu where we had to interpret based on the chapter or topics we were on. Being that I am just learning the language it was difficult in some cases but fun at the same time. I have provided three screenshots of some reading that I had to do. The first one was basically a college student who was frustrated because the semester was difficult and he had a lot of classes so he had to study a lot and could not participated in sports. These were written in Spanish and you had to interpreted what the passage was talking about. the second screenshot was a passage where you had to skimmed through and identify the correct words that they asked. this a perfect example of using context clues because even though you might not know every words in the passage context clues could help.

To over come those challenges I had to have an open mind to the language. This was my strategy throughout the course. If I did not understand something I would try to used context clues or i would asked the professor to explain or look it up using the vocabulary chart . By reading more in Spanish has helped me in better understand the language and increased my vocabulary a ton