For Spanish 101, I was faced with a lot of challenges. During high school, I completed four semesters of Spanish, and I considered myself not fluent but rather capable in the language. When I began the class this semester, I believed it would be easy with my experience. I realized my weakness is my lack of use of the language; if I am not having regular interactions in Spanish, I will easily forget it. Class time really helped me overcome my weakness by letting me have the conversations I needed with the gentle corrections from the professor. I think that the introduction class prepared me fully for the next three semesters of Spanish that I will have to take.

For the class, I did a series of projects, which consisted of two written projects and two videos. The two written projects are below.

Project one:

¡Hola! Mi nombre es Lainey y mi apellido es Sharratt. Tengo diecinueve años y mi correo electrónico es lshar010@odu.edu. Mi número de teléfono es (816) 912 – 9222. Soy de Des Moines, Iowa. Mi fecha de nacimiento treinta julio del dos mil tres. Yo soy activa y cómica. Yo estoy contenta y yo tengo hambré y frío. 

Project two:

El lunes tengo que desayunar, ir a la clase de arte moderno, ir a clase de español. Martes ir a la siesta. ¡Me gusta! Luego ve a la clase de arte moderno y ve a practicar yoga. Miércoles tengo que trabajar, no me gusta trabajar. Luego ve a la clase de arte antiguo ya la clase de español. Jueves ir a practicar yoga y desayunar. Ve a la clase de estudio de mujeres. Ve a dormir la siesta y ve a cenar. El viernes es muy difícil . Tengo que trabajar son seis horas. Ir a dormir la siests ir a estudiar después de la siesta. Por la noche voy a bailar con mis amigas.  El sábado también es muy difícil. Media horas es trabajar hasta siete medias horas. Luego ve a practicar yoga y ve a estudiar. El domingo también es duro. Yo estudio todo el dia. No es bueno. Mi calendario es muy difícil. 

I believe that the growth seen between the two written projects is vocabulary, as I have struggled with conjugation and grammar.

During the class, it was required of me to analyze a Spanish-speaking culture, look at its values, and see how it differs from my school perhaps. The practice of studying another culture in this class was interesting for a language course, but it did help me understand more things. I believe that this practice has challenged my worldview by allowing me to look at university websites in other countries, and see how they differed from my own university website; there is really no large difference between the websites. I had previously believed that maybe Spanish-speaking countries would have no English translations on their websites, but this misconception was proved wrong.

This class has helped me remember basic introductory Spanish, which has been useful in previous jobs I have worked. Even recently, in my current job, I found a use for the Spanish I have learned. This may not impact a community on a large scale, but it does impact a person’s day, ideally in a positive way.

I never participated in TalkAbroad, but I can relate this prompt to the oral interviews I had with my professor. The oral interviews were rather difficult at first, as I consider them my first time genuinely speaking Spanish, but as the interviews occurred more often I began to get more comfortable with the language.

During the video projects, I participated in what I consider presentational speaking. I do think that I am good at presentational speaking, although I have difficulties with pronunciation. I stutter on my words and which syllables to stress.

When it comes to presentational writing, I do believe that I am not as good at it. I have many difficulties spelling Spanish words and placing accent marks in the correct area. This has not been discussed in class as much as perhaps pronunciation and vocabulary have been.

Listening activities I have participated in this semester are mainly class time and oral interviews. I believe that I am good at picking out certain Spanish words and understanding them, but I struggle to fully understand a sentence or question. It has been challenging, but expanding my vocabulary and better understanding the grammar of Spanish has helped me greatly.

LingroLearning has helped me improve my interpretive reading. I believe that regularly reading Spanish has helped me learn not only more vocabulary but also how to write better myself. I think that my ability has grown after having had to read so much this past semester.