Exploring Culture

Spanish 221 was quite an interesting class to take mainly because it was Spanish 3 and Spanish 4 put together. The workload was a lot, but I was still able to stay on top of my work. In Spanish 221, we used LingroLearning just like how I did the previous 2 semesters of Spanish.

We used LingroLearning for homework, classwork, and projects throughout the course. What helped me most through the class was the professor and how enthusiastic she was when she taught our class, which I really enjoyed. Learning about different Latin cultures was done in every unit on LingroLearning, which allowed us to be more informed and intrigued by different cultures and traditions in the Latin community.

Engaging in Communities

Engaging in your community is very important because it gives you a sense of where you come from or where you belong. Personally, I am not really a fan of being engaged with random people I don’t really know, but being able to step out of that comfort zone really allows you to be aware. Just because someone doesn’t really engage in the community, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Put yourself out there!

Interpersonal Communication

Talkabroad was very interesting this semester because it was 30 minutes long this semester and because we did 3 different talkabroads about different topics. I chose to do mine with 3 different people to be able to understand different dialects from different countries. Talkabroad is a very good way to efficiently communicate and learn Spanish with other people.

We did 3 talkabroads this semester. The topics for each talk abroad were: La mode y el ecotursimo, el arte y la reinterpretación de la historia, and lastly los estereotipos, la identidad y las experiencias que nos definen. Each topic was different and introduced us to different vocabulary. I think this semester, I was more anxious with the talkabroads because they were longer and more in-depth into what we were learning. I enjoyed talking to 2 out of the 3 girls because, in my first talkabroad, I was the one asking questions and understood more of what we were supposed to do/talk about than the other girl. Overall, talkabroad was very helpful in my speaking this semester.

Presentational Speaking

In each class, we had conversations about what we had done in our homework. There was never a class that we would go in and not converse with one another (unless it was a project day). This semester we got to choose what projects we wanted to do and from what I recall, we did projects that required us to speak.

Each presentation that was done was different because the topics were different and the vocabulary was different as well. One of the projects I enjoyed doing was the ecotourism project because it allowed me to speak about my country (Morocco) and show people the different things that can be done in Morocco. Also, we had a stereotypes project and an influencer project where we would talk about the different stereotypes that are present in our society and the influencers we like, and why we like them. I think I did pretty well completing these projects, but one thing I would change is to be more prepared to talk in the presentation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F_XZNUTcj593lGHAFWz636riyLZieSRC/view

Presentational Writing

We wrote a lot in this class because what class would you not write in? Each project allowed us to write about and gave us a better understanding of what we needed to do better in writing or how we could improve.

All the projects were created for us to be able to write and be able to allow our classmates to understand what we wrote and why we wrote it. One of the projects was about Finita and her life coming to America. I think that was my favorite written project because it was a story that we told based on what we learned. It just allowed us to use our imaginative creativity to write a story. I think the difficulties came in when you would lose the word you wanted to write down and have to write it down in English in order for the teacher to understand. I think I excelled at being able to learn from the corrections given by my professor and apply these corrections to the final paper.

Interpretive Listening

Interpretive listening was done throughout the semester in the class. From listening to the professor talk, to listening to the conversation with your classmates, and listening to the conversation with native speakers during your talkabroad. Listening allowed us to be more aware of the language and allowed us to comprehend more than we thought we could.

On lingrolearning, we had homework that would allow us to listen to something and then figure out how it’s either conjugated or we would pick a picture that goes along with what the person is saying. I found this very helpful because the Spanish would go a little faster, so it would help me pick up context clues in order to figure out what is what. Something that was difficult was trying to tell what letter is what because V and B have the same sound and so do K and Q, so it would just cause some confusion. My takeaway experience from listening was that I can comprehend more than I think I can.

Interpretive Reading

I don’t really think reading was that hard because I mean it’s reading. It’s something that’s in front of you, that you need to see and understand. Every class, we would have to read something and even on the homework, everyday we would read. It’s just a basic necessity in your everyday life.

Reading was present on the homework each time, which would allow us to understand what we are supposed to do or what we need to figure out. There would also be Textos, which would be stories or videos that we would need to read/listen to in order to complete the homework. I don’t really think reading was challenging because it’s kind of a simple thing to do. My takeaway from reading was that you are able to understand more and put it to use in your everyday life.