{"id":423,"date":"2023-05-26T01:59:03","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T01:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/basicspanishdraft2\/?page_id=423"},"modified":"2023-06-23T03:32:06","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T03:32:06","slug":"101-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/roberthightspanish101\/101-2\/","title":{"rendered":"SPAN 101"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reflection:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming into this class, I already had a basic knowledge of Spanish. I understood grammar, tense, and had a decent vocabulary. My biggest weakness was being able to hear and understand what I was hearing. This class helped expand my vocabulary even further, and served as a refresher for grammar. But most importantly, the videos and audio clips that were provided by the class, the videos created by other students, and conversations with my professor helped me to actually hear and understand Spanish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing that I found challenging was reading entire paragraphs and understanding exactly what was being said. Going outside of normal conversational Spanish and looking at paragraphs about nuanced topics was a new experience for me, and one that was immensely helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recognize that I still have a long way to go. Personally I believe that the only way to achieve fluency in any language is to be immersed in it or to learn it at an early age. But this class certainly helped me get further along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Culture:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the interesting parts of this class was exploring the culture of Spanish-speaking countries, predominantly Spain. It was interesting diving into different cultural aspects such as festivals, interaction with others, and universities in Spain and their rich history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communication:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I stated before, my greatest struggle was being able to hear and understand Spanish. I was able to practice speaking it on my own, but without anyone to talk to in Spanish that was as far as I could go. The first step in this class for me was to have a conversation in Spanish with my professor at the beginning of the semester. I could speak clearly enough but could only make out a few of the words that she was saying back to me. Moving further into the semester, I took the time to listen to the videos provided by the class. I would often just listen carefully and try to comprehend what was being said. After having done that throughout the semester and having expanded my vocabulary, I was able to clearly understand everything the professor was saying on our final conversation at the end of the semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presentational Speaking:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was one thing I probably did the best before starting this class. I was able to clearly communicate simple ideas, and could read aloud in Spanish with relative ease. Towards the end of the semester I was getting to the point where I could speak in Spanish without having to prepare my conversation in my head ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n