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“Gracias Image.” Book Hotels Now, Hotel R, www.hotel-r.net/jp/gracias.

Kaiser, James. “Traditional Costa Rican Dancing.” COSTA RICAN CULTURE, James Kaiser, jameskaiser.com/costa-rica-guide/culture/.

“Our Students Attend High School and Middle School Classes over the Internet.” About Us: A Classical Online High School and Project-Based Middle Schoo- Williamsburg Academy, Williamsburg Academy, www.williamsburgacademy.org/about-us/.

“A Spanish Book.” Recommended Books For Spanish Learners, Idle Wild, www.idlewildbooks.com/recommended-books-for-spanish-learners/.

“Spanish.” Idlewild's Spanish Language Course, Idlewild Books, www.idlewildbooks.com/languages/spanish/.

“Spanish Tenses.” Simple Spanish Verb Tenses, Enforex, www.enforex.com/language/tense.html.

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My reflection on what I have learned in Spanish 1.

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What differences have you seen between the Spanish language and your native language?

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What differences have you seen between the Spanish language and your native language?

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There were a few differences that I caught between Spanish and my native language, English. One difference, that is essential to the Spanish language, is having gender and number agreement between nouns, adjectives, and definite and indefinite articles. For example you would say las o unas chicas, los o unos chicos, el o un chico, or la o una chica. When using adjectives they have to agree as well. El libro es rojo, la mesa es roja, los libros son rojos, y las mesas son rojas would be a few examples. The adjective doesn’t change in English since you would say the book or the books are red and the table or tables are red. One thing that does change in both languages relating to that topic is the article. That changes to agree to the quantity of the noun. For example ‘is’ changes to ‘are’ in English, but once again in Spanish the change is more detailed since the verb ser changes to soy, eres, es, somos, y son.

Also another difference is the conjugation. In English the conjugation isn’t as prominent. I can elaborate using one common verb tener. In English and Spanish you change the verb based on the subject, but the difference is in Spanish the change is clearer and is emphasised more. When using the verb tener in the present tense, you change it to ‘tengo’ for ‘I have’, ‘tienes’ for ‘you have’, ‘tiene’ for ‘he, she, or you (formal) has/have’, ‘tenemos’ for ‘we have’, and ‘tienen’ for ‘you all have’. As you can see in Spanish the conjugation is more elaborate compared to English.

Two grammar aspects that were different were the punctuation and accents. It surprised me that in Spanish you needed 2 exclamation points or 2 question marks in one sentence. You need an upside down exclamation point or question mark at the beginning as well as having a regular exclamation point or question mark at the end of a sentence. For example in Spanish you would say ‘¡Me encanta mi familia!’ or ‘¿Cómo te llamas?’. The other thing that surprised me was the accents. Since I came from learning Chinese I expected the accents to dramatically change how you pronounce a word, but in Spanish it is really used for differentiating similar words in writing. For example you have ‘mi’ meaning ‘my’ and ‘mí’ meaning ‘me’. All of the accents are á, é, í, ó, ú, ü, and ñ. The last 2 (ü and ñ) are actually 2 extra letters in the Spanish alphabet that the English doesn’t have!

One other thing that stuck out to me was having the formal ‘you’. In English you use madam, sir, and proper grammar to show respect. In Spanish you highlight the respect by using the formal you. Using this form of you changes the conjugation all together so the respectfulness is easy to identify. Lastly, one surprising difference was that in Spanish you don’t capitalize the days of the week, months of the year, religions, nationality, and languages. These are 6 comparisons I observed during Spanish 1 and I can’t wait to find more as I pursue my path of Spanish.

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What did you find interesting and exciting about the Costa Rican culture?

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What did you find interesting and exciting about the Costa Rican culture?

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I found the Costa Rican culture fascinating to learn about! The cultural notes helped me get an insight into the Costa Rican life. The first phrase I learned was ‘pura vida’ which means pure life and it is a common Costa Rican phrase that reflects the relaxed lifestyle of the Costa Ricans.  Much of what I learned revolved around their relaxed lifestyle. One other thing was their farewells. Ticos only use ‘adiós’ when they aren’t seeing someone for a while, and other phrases such as ‘hasta luego’, ‘hasta la vista’, y ‘hasta pronto’ are more common goodbyes since they aren’t permanent. Body language is essential to know as well. Ticos have a toned-down quality in communication because they rely so much on the body language. Many foreigners can misinterpret what Costa Ricans are saying if they don’t pay close attention. This is why you have to be a careful listener and creative speaker when talking. You have to be a creative speaker since Ticans try to avoid any conversations about bad news, negative information, general criticism, and discussion on religion. The common conversation, or small talk, topics include history, art, culture, general politics, and polite inquiries about family members. As you can tell Ticans are conservative and believe in extreme politeness, and that is why hugging isn’t even common!

A second thing I found interesting is how important family is in the culture. In Costa Rica the children don’t move out until they are married, and once they do they normally live in the same town. In America it is usual for the children to move out when they go to college and live a couple states away from their own family. Also multiple generations live in the same house, so many of the day to day routines include the extended family. These activities include grocery shopping, meals, and babysitting. Another thing is parties are always a family gathering. The family gathers together with a meal, music, and dancing. Not only is the extended family close, the neighbors are also treated like family! That is because there is such a large sense of community in Costa Rica. I love how close the family and friends are and it makes you appreciate their culture for that! Peace and family are two main aspects of the Costa Rican culture that I wanted to emphasize my respect for!

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What do you hope to learn if you continue to study the Spanish language?

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What do you hope to learn if you continue to study the Spanish language?

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I hope to learn more about the culture of other Spanish speaking countries. I find it very interesting to see the comparisons between my native language’s culture and another. It was interesting to learn that Costa Rica has a different culture and language than other Spanish speaking countries. In Spanish 1 we focused on the culture of Costa Rica and I know there are so many more Spanish speaking countries with an unique culture as well. One country I would want to learn about in the future is Spain. One thing I learned about Spain that sparked my interest in it was that they have their own conjugation form which translates to ‘y’all’ in English. Also since the Spanish language originated in Spain I feel there will be more history there behind the language and culture.

Also I can’t wait to be able to speak in all of the tenses. This is because I will be able to describe and talk about a bigger variety of things. When you are learning a new language, it makes you realize how much you know in your native language. For example, I never really realized that English had conjugation or stem-changing verbs and that I used them all the time. Same goes for using the tenses as well, so in Spanish when I can only talk in one tense it feels restricting. When I learn all the tenses and more vocabulary, I’ll be able to speak more fluently.

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We have learned elements of a language in a different teaching/learning style than you may be used to. Talk about your experience with learning Spanish in an online class. What did you like about the course? What did you not like and/or what could be improved?

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We have learned elements of a language in a different teaching/learning style than you may be used to. Talk about your experience with learning Spanish in an online class. What did you like about the course? What did you not like and/or what could be improved?

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This was my first time doing an online course, so during my experience I found many pros and some cons. I liked how you could work at your own pace. If I was learning in a class, the deadlines would be daily, while during this course I was able to have longer time to finish all the work without the stress of having daily assignments due. Also since this is an online class, I am able to have all my assignments at the same place, so it was easy to go back and either resubmit my work or review it. When I am in school, my assignments are mixed between online and paper so it is hard to find everything and effectively review all my work. Being a very organized person, I appreciated how all the lessons where in a similar order and in the modules tab you were able to see the whole overview of the course. Lastly, I am a slow note taker because I write slow and can’t see very well, even with my glasses. This online course gave me the opportunity to write notes at my own pace and I was able to skim through all the notes to get an idea of how to organize them successfully. Overall, there are many positives for me because this course kept me organized.

The negatives of this course revolved around the teacher to student interaction in general. It was hard to transition from learning in a classroom to a computer. I ask a lot of question so for my it is hard to voice my concerns through text without being misinterpreted. I also didn’t like how most of the tests were computer graded. That is because if your answer wasn’t exactly the same, for example having an extra space or period, the question was marked wrong. A way to fix that would be to make the written response questions teacher graded. I know that would take longer and be more work for the teachers, but it would let the teachers get a better idea on how to help you and with the more specific critiques, it would easily give you a chance to fix those tiny mistakes. Not being able to talk to a teacher face to face did create difficulty in my learning.

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What things did you do that helped you learn Spanish in this course? What things can you do to improve your own Spanish learning in the future?

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What things did you do that helped you learn Spanish in this course? What things can you do to improve your own Spanish learning in the future?

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A variety of things have helped me learn Spanish in this course. Obviously since I managed my time and turned in all my assignments, that helped me keep up with my skills on a daily basis. Throughout the whole course I have had trouble memorizing all the new vocab, but using quizlet has helped me. Whenever I got new vocab I went to Quizlet, studied the flashcards, and tested myself on all the vocab. One last thing that helped me learn Spanish was having all the extra time. At the beginning of the course I got ahead so I didn’t have to worry about Spanish when I went on trips, but I actually kept up with Spanish while I was away. This gave me extra time to focus on my assignments and provide more detail and thought into my answers. Using my time wisely and thoroughly reviewing, I was able to grasp all the basics of Spanish 1.

There are many things I can do to improve my Spanish. I can attempt at having conversations with others to improve my comprehending skills. This would help me become faster and more fluent at understanding the language. All of this would help elevate my skills. Also to improve my reading I can buy Spanish newspapers, and try my best to understand and hopefully as I learn more I’ll be able to read more of the paper. I can also start reading the back of packages to try to read the directions or the Spanish subtitles that all around me. When you start looking, you realize there is more Spanish around you than you think, you just need to take advantage of it. Once I take advantage of it and use it more often, I’ll be able to improve my own Spanish learning.

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What things did your instructor do to help you with your learning? Was there anything that your instructor didn't do that would have helped you?

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What things did your instructor do to help you with your learning? Was there anything that your instructor didn't do that would have helped you?

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My instructor was very interactive with her students! She sent many announcements to keep you updated and even had messaging assignments to check up with you. My instructor quickly answered all my questions via email or text whenever I was uncertain. Also she always provided links and comments on my assignments so I could further my learning. One other thing was that my teacher actually gave me feedback that pointed out my bad grammar in writing assignments. I appreciated that because my teachers at school would normally answer my question with a question and leave me in the dark still not fully comprehending the topic.

There was one thing that would’ve helped. I feel when you submitted your speaking assignments, your teacher could have critiqued you harder and maybe even provided an audio comment. The audio comment would have helped me hear the difference between myself, a beginner, and my teacher, a fluent speaker.  Overall my teacher did an amazing job helping me through the course!