Throughout my first semester of college, I’ve encountered numerous challenges in my language course. Initially, I was not as interested in the language as I am now, but through the semester, I have developed a deep fascination for it. I view each day as an opportunity to tackle new challenges and push myself further. The in-class activities are particularly engaging and aid in retaining the language material. For instance, repeating new words aloud after my professor has helped me learn the correct pronunciation and usage. The most difficult aspect of the course was the oral exams, and I found myself quite nervous during these tests. Nonetheless, I always managed to impress myself with my performance. One essential factor that helped me this semester was taking my time to think through each question before responding. I also refrained from using online translations and instead tried to figure out the meaning of words independently, which allowed me to absorb the material better.

This video is from one of our initial projects at the beginning of the semester. Looking back, I am proud of my effort to correctly pronounce the Spanish words. However, I can see that I appeared too robotic due to over-concentration. During the presentation, I made a conscious effort to maintain eye contact and slow down my speech. I realized that my main issue was speaking without thinking, but by taking a moment to gather my thoughts, I discovered that I knew more than I initially thought.

Under this text here is yet another instance where I’ve shown noticeable improvement in my pronunciation skills. It’s all thanks to the latest project we tackled in class. As for me, I can’t help but feel more confident in my speech towards the end of the semester. I believe the progress I’ve made is attributed to my increased comfort and relaxation when speaking. I know what I’m doing now, and I’m even excited to film the video, sort of like showing off what I’ve learned. Overall, I had a blast working on this assignment, and I’m certain that I gained the most Spanish vocabulary from it.

One of the things that made a big difference for me in this class was avoiding the internet altogether. Trust me, it’s a complete game changer. I know it can be tempting to rely on Google Translate, but let me tell you, it’s never 100% accurate. A native Spanish speaker can always tell if a sentence has been translated, and that’s not a good look. After just two weeks of class I decided to ditch Google Translate. I immediately felt like I was learning way more, and became excited to come to class. Using a translator is just taking the easy way out and you won’t get much out of the class that way. If you’re willing to put in the effort and give it a chance, you’ll be surprised how much you can truly understand without relying on technology. So, put your head in the game and give it your all before you default to Google Translate.

“Los días semana voy a la escuela y hago ejercicio. Los lunes, miércoles, y Viernes asisto a clase, almuerzo, estudio y voy a casa. Los martes y jueves hago ejercicio y completo cualquier trabajo escolar que tengo. No suelo participar en la siesta. Cuando lo hago es cuando es necesario. Los sábados y domingos voy a trabajar a las cuatro de la tarde. Salgo del trabajo sobre las once y media de la noche. Almuerzo con mi Papá todos los domingos por la mañana después de la iglesia. Tiendo a cocinar los viernes por la noche.”

^Here’s a snippet of my week’s schedule, where I share my day-to-day activities. I particularly loved this unit because I was able to grasp the concept quite well. It was an exhilarating feeling when I could finally type in Spanish independently, and the sense of accomplishment was undeniable.

Exploring Culture

In our class, we recently delved into the topic of the Spanish tradition known as ‘The Siesta.’ To be honest, I was quite unaware of this practice until now. However, being someone who greatly appreciates Spanish culture, I found it fascinating to learn about. It’s amazing to consider that without Spanish influence, we would lack a significant portion of the products and knowledge we possess today. I particularly admire the value Spanish culture places on hard work and integrity – traits that I, too, hold in high regard.

In my opinion, both Spanish and English cultures hold good morals and hard work in high esteem. It’s truly admirable to witness the dedication of Spanish citizens who put in at least 8 hours of work every day. Another aspect of the Spanish culture that resonates with me is the emphasis placed on family. Personally, I cherish my family deeply, and I can relate to this aspect of their culture profoundly. I have never held any preconceived notions or stereotypes about this culture. I believe in keeping an open mind and learning as much as possible about different cultures around the world.

Engaging in Communities

I believe being active in your community is amazing way to bring people together and teach others about your culture. I believe in peace and harmony within the people around you and with the world. It is important because there is not enough love in the world. We need to grasp more humanity in this world.

Interpersonal Communication

In the previous paragraphs, I shared some of my visual and oral projects from my Spanish class. Although they felt tedious in the moment, I am genuinely grateful that we were required to complete them. The knowledge and skills that I have gained from these projects are truly invaluable. I’m pleased with the level of seriousness I have brought to this class. My active participation in class has been highly beneficial to me. The opportunity to correct my mistakes in real-time and receive immediate help from our fantastic professor, Professor Vera-Guerrero, has been immensely helpful. Her teaching style is both engaging and effective. She ensures that everyone understands the topic at hand by going over it repeatedly until we get it right. She’s also been a great help in improving my Spanish pronunciation. I owe much of my progress to her guidance. Interestingly, I have started to pick up bits and pieces of Spanish words when I hear them in public, which inspires me to continue learning more.

Throughout this semester, I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the assignments given to us. However, if I had to choose, my top three favorites would be the oral exams, video projects, and surprise quizzes. It’s ironic because at the beginning of the semester, my quiz grades were not the best, yet I found value in them because they taught me the importance of being prepared for a pop quiz at any time. These surprise quizzes encouraged me to review my vocabulary daily so that I would not be caught off guard. The first oral exam was a learning experience for me, as I made mistakes with my verb conjugations. This motivated me to study diligently and ensure that I didn’t make the same mistake twice. To be completely honest, one of the main reasons I am so motivated to improve my Spanish is because I am afraid of making mistakes in front of my professor, Professor Vera-Guerrero. She is an intimidating figure, but her high expectations have pushed me to do better.

The video projects were another highlight of the semester for me, as they helped me to improve my memorization skills. My partner and I often had to redo our video projects multiple times due to laughter and mistakes, which caused us to memorize our lines thoroughly. In-class conversations with my classmates also made me feel like I was part of a community, and it was comforting to know that I wasn’t the only one struggling at times.

Above all, the most valuable lesson I learned from this class is that hard work pays off. Even though my primary motivation has been to avoid embarrassing myself in front of my professor, I have realized that this mindset has pushed me to become a better student overall. I strive to impress my professors and prove that I am a dedicated and diligent learner.

We’ve completed four projects so far that have been incredibly valuable to my learning experience. The first project required us to write a paragraph about ourselves, including our hobbies, birthdays, and what life is like outside of school. It was the easiest project in the class. Project #2 involved filming a conversation with a classmate where we discussed our majors, classes, and our favorite class. Project #3 involved writing our schedules in Spanish and identifying the verbs used. It was the second easiest project. Project #4 was the most enjoyable as we had to walk around campus and describe specific buildings in Spanish. Collectively, all of these projects have improved my Spanish speaking abilities by 100%, and I wouldn’t do anything differently. Each project was an excellent learning experience. have had so far a total of 4 projects. Each have been very beneficial to my learning experience.

Presentational Writing

We did not do much of this type of learning assignments in my class. Everything was pretty much oral. The only written project we had this semester was Project #3. We were tasked to write our full schedule down on a calendar. We had to know the times, dates, classes, and the verbs to describe our activities we engaged in. This was beneficial, but not as much as the oral assignments.

I think that I could improve in my phobia of saying the wrong thing or pronouncing something incorrectly.

Interpretive Listening

In our homework in Linguafolio, we had many assignments that had audio. We had to use our ears and be able to identify what was being said. This helped me a lot because now I can kind of figure out what is being said around me when I hear spanish.

Interpretive Reading

Everything in this class was helping my eyes learn Spanish. I am a very visual learner so this helped me a lot. We had to read 99% of our assignments in Spanish.