Throughout the semester, we learned numerous of different topics going from describing our families to living healthier lifestyles to my favorite topic which has to deal with sports. We then got into physical/mental well-being and leaned much more about health all around in the Spanish-speaking world. We are concluding on the final subject of the course which is having to deal with professions. I am not going to lie, I had plenty of obstacles to overcome this semester whether it had to deal with the textbook, projects or the talk abroad conversations themselves. Although we learned much about the terms and how to speak in several aspects, it took me longer to adjust and being able to effectively communicate amongst others on the topics learned. I think my big strengths are being able to write out in Spanish whereas orally speaking, I have much more difficulty adjusting. I think that my projects were easier to do other than the Talk-Abroad conversations because the assignments had to deal with communicating with someone else who is more fluent in the language than me, but I’m more comfortable speaking it than with someone else.

I learned a lot in classes whenever our Professora would actively teach us how to write and speak the certain ways so that the flow of communications is easy to interpret and effectively use. I learn a lot better when it came to her writing all of this new stuff on the board and being able to connect phrases with one another to speak on the topics. On the other hand, I think that the things I had the most difficulty learning was to be able to properly use each of the uses of terms/tenses and also conjugations.

Exploring Culture

Throughout the semester in our Spanish course, we have explored many different Spanish countries and have explored the different cultures they all have. We have done many assignments in pairs throughout lectures where we would have to look up details for the different countries that were assigned to our group and share our answers with the rest of the class. There have been other times where we as a whole would read out statements, writing compositions, phrases, vocabulary words, etc. Sometimes we watch videos in class that have to deal with other countries and their culture, for example, we watched a video where it was about the housing and residential life for universities in Mexico and had to do an assignment about that video along with compare and contrast to American Universities. I have learned a lot of new thigs that I had no idea it was a thing and whatnot before taking this Spanish course.

Engaging in Communities

Throughout the semester for this Spanish Course, we have had opportunities to engage in the community with several different examples that we have done. First off, we have many class activities where we communicate with each other in the Spanish language and have also done a few video projects where we would have to describe our family and also talk about preparing foods and our healthy lifestyles. I have engaged with my peers pretty easily and this course has brought me out of my shell in trying to better myself as a Spanish speaker by being able to communicate in Spanish among fluent Spanish speakers and doing numerous video projects where it was required.

Interpersonal Communication

Something that was different about this course rather than Spanish 101 was the fact that we had to participate in Talk Abroad conversations with foreign individuals from Spanish-speaking countries. In my first interview, I met with a guy that was in Madrid, Spain and I have to say that I was very nervous doing the conversation, but it really helped me learn how to properly keep the flow of the communication going and being able to talk about different things about our families. In the second interview, I would say that I had more of a difficult time when it came to the interview because the subject itself was kind of difficult to remember and the person I met with was from Uruguay and he kept asking questions I wasn’t sure how to answer. These conversations have really helped give me experience when it comes to having actual conversations with foreign people.

Presentational Writing

Throughout the Spanish course, we have had plenty of writing compositions and assignments where we would have to practice what we learned on pen and paper. I would have presented my writing composition as a visual example, but I don’t happen to have it anymore so I used a worksheet that we had done earlier in the semester to provide an example. In the course, we have done two test that have solely been about writing a paragraph down on pen and paper that were about me and the things we like to do around campus. I could get better at understanding the language, although it is somewhat easy to learn, there are phrases that I can get stumped on and with more practice and time put into learning the language, the better off I can get. I thought the second writing composition was more difficult to write than the first because it required more in depth writing to the topic we had to write about.

Interpretive Listening

Throughout the Spanish course, we have had to use LingroHub to help us learn the Spanish language and do our homework to go over in class. There are plenty of assignments that are on the virtual textbook that we have the opportunity to listen to the audio and interpret what they are saying and learn how it is pronounced. We have also listened to videos in class when Spanish speakers are talking on screen and our professor translating some things for us and being helpful while we try to learn. There are instances where we listen to the audio message and have to respond back by recoding our own verbal messages in Spanish and submit that as assignments. There were times where some audio massages that I listened to were stuff I had no clue about, but going and looking it up what they say and try to interpret a response could be difficult if you don’t know what to say.

Interpretive Reading

There were several occasions throughout the semester where we would have time in class to read along stories and work on our verbal communication by people taking turns reading. In some cases, there were things that we would have to read in order to answer questions to go along with learning the subject as well. Sometimes we would be assigned to do certain things after reading certain things in class with our partners.

As we come to an end to the second semester for the Spanish, I can say that the assignments this time around were somewhat similar, but they were more difficult to comprehend and complete. Having both Talk abroad conversations along with all of the other projects as well were tough to prepare for, but at the end of the day, we managed to get through the course and have learned a lot more to Spanish language. I have benefitted from this course a lot and being able to speak somewhat with my mother and her family will be nice to have after taking SPAN 101 & 102F.