In Spanish 101 I was able to gain good introductory Spanish speaking skills as well as knowledge of Spanish speaking cultures. I started the class with zero experience in Spanish and quickly grew to knowing how to hold a basic conversations such as knowing how to describe how I am feeling, what I need and have to do, what I enjoy doing, information about my classes and University, and describing actions.

I noticed a big weakness I had was pronunciation of the language. I would say the words and phrases with an English accent which could totally change the meaning and understanding of a word. To get over this problem I spent a lot of time with a close friend who took many classes in Spanish where we would try and just speak Spanish for a period of time. This allowed me to practice with the pronunciation. This weakness sprouted from the challenge of doing this course all online. This was challenging to me because I couldn’t physically practice the language with the class or professor. I overcame this challenge however with practicing with family members, and my roommates/friends.

Lingro Learning was very difficult at first for me to understand, but after about 2 or 3 weeks in the class I got adjusted to the language learning website and started being able to use it as a tool for me to excel in the class.

I had strengths with the grammar parts of Spanish such as conjugations of verbs and the use of ser/estar/hay as well as ir/tener. With a lot of practice I was able to retain when each should be used and in their correct forms.

Below is a document showing my ability to describe myself through one of the projects we had to do.

project-1

Below is a pdf showing me describing someone I admire. I use different verbs to describe why I admire this person, my mom, as well as what she knows with the use of Saber and Conocer.

project-5

The following video is a video of me describing some different places from a my University and where I live that I enjoy going to. This was towards the end of the semester and I was starting to get a better grasp at the pronunciation of the Spanish words. I was also able to show my excellent ability to conjugate ser/estar and saber/conocer.

Exploring Culture

Lingro Learning helped me a lot in the investigation of Hispanic culture. There were many assignments where I had to search things such as universities from other countries, language tendencies, and social media preferences.

I learned a lot about Spanish culture. For example I learned what a siesta is, which is a short nap in the middle of the day that is part of many Hispanic cultures. I found out that the siesta also has been on the decline due to longer and more intense workdays, such as the typical 9-5.

I also spent some time researching some big figures in Puerto Rico that are looked up to in the culture. One of which was Roberto Clemente, who was a professional baseball player. He was born and raised in Puerto Rico however went to the mainland United States to take part in the MLB.

Engaging in Communities

It is extremely important to stay engaged in the community. Hard times will tell you especially that the people around you are those who will help. A community effort is important, and it can be seen today with the Corona virus. It is important for the community to stay involved and together when doing our best to stay healthy.

Interpersonal Communication

In this course I took part in many conversation assignments where myself and a partner took a video of us communicating in Spanish. It started out rough the first few assignments but then began to get a feel of how to speak in Spanish and hold a back and forth conversation. These helped me a lot in understanding how to use Spanish to talk to someone and learn about them. Below is a video of one of these conversation assignments where we talk about ourselves and who we are.

Presentational Writing

This semester we had many project assignemnts where we had to utilize the vocabulary and grammar to complete some sort of conversation/presentation. One of them that was my favorite and outlined my skills a lot was when I was to describe someone I found admirable. I used my mother and below is my letter to her letting her know she was nominated by me for the best person award.

project-5

Interpretive Listening

Many of the quizzes we had this semester were made up of audio recording of a sentence in Spanish that we had to listen to and understand what they said. This was good for me because I had to work not only on my speaking of Spanish but also listening and understanding when being talked to in Spanish. I learned how it is much more difficult than just reading Spanish words on a screen, you have to stay ready and adaptive and thoroughly know meanings and uses of a lot of vocabulary.