• Describe what happened (what we did, where we went, the purpose of the activity, how we were organized, tasks students had to complete). We did an experimental learning activity and went to South Omaha to pick up trash, learn about South Omaha, and interact with shopkeepers and vendors. This activity helped us improve our Spanish as well as prepare us for our checkpoint 5.

• Describe your feelings

  • Before going to South Omaha, I was a little nervous because I've never done an experimental learning experience before, so I didn't know what to expect.

  • While completing the service activity, it went way better than I thought it would. I felt good and proud to help out the community and for me it was also fun to walk around and pick up trash surprisingly.

  • Did anything change for you? What? Why? Right before we met up, I was really nervous but as we are walking around South Omaha, I was not feeling nervous anymore as it started to get more fun the more that we were walking around and exploring the area.

• Identify at least 3 vocabulary items and 3 cultural highlights you learned by engaging in this experience. I learned abogado, vestido de fiesta, and saludable. Abogado is attorney, Vestido de fiesta is party dress, and saludable is healthy, which was posted outside of a store that sold fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. Some cultural highlights that I learned was that the plaza was where people just hung out, the murals on the walls that all told a different story, and the historic architecture that was really colorful.

• Describe 1 interaction or situation (involving classmates, storekeepers, people in the street, etc.) that stood out to you  —you want to identify something special (funny/ unusual/ surprising) which you got to experience only because we were out in the community and not in the classroom. 

  • Write the description as you would relay it to a family member or someone considering going to a shop/restaurant on 24th Street. Something that stood out to me was as we were walking around, I kept noticing stores that we're very interesting as they were selling a bunch of random stuff. It was almost like if you needed something that you could find it in the store or maybe in the store next to it.

• In what ways this Experiential Learning (EL) activity is similar/ different from other class activities?

  • What have you learned from it? What challenges did you encounter? This visit to South Omaha helped me practice some of the vocab words for the checkpoint which helped me a lot as I didn't really know them before going there. Some challenges that I encountered were as we were walking around it was kind of difficult for me to remember the words, so taking pictures of the stores really helped me remember them and memorize it faster.

  • How do you compare it to other EL activities we have completed this semester, like Talk-Abroad conversations and guest speakers? It was actually way harder than other activities we completed this semester. For example, the talk abroad activity. Since it was online, I was more comfortable talking to my partner that I chose in the activity but having to use my Spanish speaking skills in real life was very difficult for me, as it's really hard for me to form sentences. It just feels more awkward in person opposed to online because when I was talking to my partner online, I was also not feeling as nervous as I did in person.

  • How do you compare South Omaha to the neighborhood where you live? It's way different because it feels more like a city vibe and I live in the suburbs, so it's just houses around me. I like it more in south Omaha because it's very colorful and everything is in a walkable distance from each other. I like to walk around, and I can take walks in my neighborhood, but it doesn't really get me anywhere as I'm just walking around the houses. It would be nice to walk around and maybe walk to the grocery store or walk to the bakery or walk to get a haircut etc.

  • What insights did you gain about our local and state Latino population by reading the Quick facts OLLAS reports? Why is this important/ not important to you when thinking about your personal, academic, and career goals?  An insight that I gained when reading the quick facts was realizing how many Latino people there actually are in Omaha. This is important to me because I’m studying accounting and want to be an accountant, so if I have clients who are of Latino background, who maybe don’t speak English that well, I would have basic knowledge of Spanish, so I can help them do their taxes and they would feel more comfortable coming to me.

• What advantages/ disadvantages you find in EL tasks? Advantages I experienced were that I got to see the community and learn a little bit more about where the Latino population goes for their business needs and it was eye opening to see how connected everyone was in their community. Disadvantages I experienced were picking up the trash, as it was really windy and not knowing that much Spanish, so I didn’t really have a full interaction with the community.

• How has this activity changed your perspective on community engagement? What is one thing you will do outside of class as a result of this experience? It showed me that we are not as connected as a community because we have neighborhoods that are divided by different races. If I see litter on the ground, I will pick it up to keep our community clean.

• How has this activity changed your perspective on the value of intercultural awareness? We are more similar than different. I have seen that my culture and Latino culture share a lot of the same values. For example, we both share a level of hospitality as we are both known for welcoming guests with generous food, often cooking for large groups of people. Both cultures are very vibrant and appreciative of music, color, and celebration.

• How did this experience create new understandings of the South Omaha community, the Spanish language, and or civic engagement? I learned that the community is very tight knit as they are very connected with one another. I learned some new words that I didn’t know and it helped me with checkpoint 5 as well. I learned that the community really cares about the neighborhood as it was really well kept and clean. There was not really any litter on the streets.

-          Feelings: Before going to South O I was excited to go and be outside of the classroom and in a new environment. While completing the service activity it felt nice to clean the area up, but sadly my glove happened to tear and I couldn’t replace it. I’m not sure if anything changed for me, maybe that my confidence in speaking Spanish improved a bit.

-          Vocabulary: 1. Colilla; cigarette stub 2. Caminadores; toddlers 3. Panadería; bakery

-          Cultural Highlights: 1. I noticed that South O is a very colorful and beautiful part of the city. 2. Theres also a lot of mural art down there, adding to the beauty of the place and story and history. 3. I noticed there were a lot of stores that didn’t specialize in just one thing, but kind of was a “come in and see what you like” situation.

-          1 interaction: When we were looking at the daycare, Cece had pointed out that toddlers were called “walkers” or caminadores in Spanish. There was a laugh shared and it was agreed that was a cute name. Little walkers.

-          EL similar/different from other classes and thoughts: Being thrown in and talking with native speakers was difficult, but valuable. Its like being thrown into a pool and learning to swim. I preferred this EL activity over the talk abroad conversation because there was less pressure and its easier to talk or make a connection with someone in person. I like that South O is walkable and everything feels local, in my neighborhood there’s a strip of stores and restaurants, but it doesn’t feel as intimate or personal as it did in South O – there’s a bigger sense of community there. The OLLAS report stated that about 40% of the Latino population are aged 17 and under, I believe this is important to my career goals. I plan on going into art therapy and one of the populations I considered were children and teenagers. Speaking Spanish would mean I have a greater reach overall, but also an opportunity to help almost half of the population in a selected area. I might make attempts to have minor interactions in Spanish as a result of this class, like ordering food or small talk. This experience helped me understand the beauty and art that is in the South O community with all of the murals and mosaics. I knew it was a colorful place to begin with, I just didn’t realize how much color and life there was.

My Spanish class went to historic 24th st to pick up trash and practice our conversational Spanish skills. I felt a little rushed because I came to group straight from a doctor appointment in Elkhorn but was excited nonetheless. I love South Omaha. I live in a community of mainly Spanish speakers and do lots of business in South O , on 24th st specifically. My pets’ vet is on 24th and I get my tires from California Tires. My feelings did not change after our group ended.

I learned the words “abarrotes, infantes, y abogado”. I learned that there are many stores that sell “everything” which is interesting. I would love to see what they sell inside. Cultural highlights may be there are stores for shoes and vacuums. I have never heard of someone taking their vacuum in to be cleaned or fixed. I figured people just bought new ones. I appreciate the value of those objects and that they should be fixed instead of replaced right away.

Nothing too unusual happened. I wish we could have gone into the stores.

I think my EL activity is different from other classes because those classes are textbook heavy, whereas language learning is a lifestyle thing. You need to be able to connect all language to normal life and regular shops. You have to speak the new language as much as possible to cement it in your automatic memory. I think it’s very similar an activity to Talk Abroad but it’s visual. You can see different Spanish speaking culture instead of talk about it. I did not like having police coming to talk to us and try to entice us to join with incentives for knowing multiple languages. I think actually a Latino firefighters union would have been much cooler.

I live basically in South Omaha and it is different from other places in Omaha for just having so much Latin culture and so many businesses in Spanish. I have lived for a little bit all over Omaha from 172nd and Q to park avenue and Poppleton. I love this side of saddlecreek the most because of how community centered everyplace is, even non south Omaha neighborhoods. I genuinely feel a need to say hola to my neighbors everyday whereas in west Omaha people don’t talk to each other.

I learned not much about omahas latin community because I already have looked into it for previous school projects and  curiosity. I have many friends who are Chicano or immigrants from Latin countries. I do think there is such a large community of Spanish speaking people that I will be able to practice my Spanish all the time .

I did not find our activities hard at all except remembering when I was scheduled online. I have trouble with that. Outside of class I will definitely be going to the el vaquero importe para compra.

I already have a lot of cultural awareness because in Georgia where I lived for the first 11 years of my life many of our neighbors were refugees and immigrants from middle eastern countries. We learned a lot about Islam and Judaism because of it. I think for other people maybe born and raised in Nebraska this kind of activity would be very beneficial. I think there is no major culture in Omaha and that it is beneficial to know other cultures exist and are just as valid.

Again I don’t think this trip necessarily did. Anything crazy for me so I will just continue to speak Spanish and shop at supermercaditos and panaderías. I love my neighborhood and my neighbors.

I am familiar with the area, so going into this activity I already knew what to expect. However, I did expect there to be more trash to pick up. I was excited to do something apart from our typical class structure.

Three vocabulary words that I further learned in this activity were abogado, tienda, and vestido. While already having learned these words in class or on our online modules, seeing examples of the vocabulary in real life helped me to connect more with the language. Cultural highlights that I noticed include how colorful the area is compared to other parts of Omaha. I also noticed the prominence of Catholicism within Latino culture with some of the murals, products, and displays in the stores. Finally, I noticed the amount of options there is for similar products. For example there were multiple different stores selling a similar array of goods and multiple different desert shops.

One interaction that stood out to me was when I was checking out at the International Bakery the cashier initially started speaking to me in Spanish. I heard the same cashier speak to some of my classmates in English, but she assumed I knew the language.

I have never done anything like this experimental learning activity, though I think it is an amazing way to practice what we have learned. Immersion is very important when learning a language, even though it may feel a bit intimidating. It is sort of like taking the training wheels off and really getting yourself out there. You have to get over your own anxieties in order to practice a language. I only see advantages in this style of learning when being paired with more typical in class learning. Doing different kinds of activities come together to form a more complete learning experience. Prior to this activity I was already pretty aware of Latino culture due to having many Latino friends who have helped me gain an understanding of it. I have always been intrigued by different cultures and enjoyed partaking in them. South Omaha is predominantly Latino, so that culture holds great importance to Omaha as a whole.

Our Spanish class went to South Omaha on 24th Street to pick up trash and practice using Spanish in a real-life setting. At first I was partnered with a random lady from another Spanish class, but she left, so I worked with Cecilia for the rest of the time. We walked around picking up trash like old cigarettes, glass bottles, and other stuff. At the end, we weighed all the trash we collected, and me and Cecilia ended up winning for having the most weight.

Describe your feelings:

Before going, I was actually excited because I had been there before with my family. I already knew some of the area and wanted to go back. While doing the activity, I felt comfortable and relaxed but still nervous about other stuff happening like someone wanting to fight for no reason. I dont trust people, I trust the people in our class. It was different being outside and actually doing something instead of sitting in a classroom. I also liked exploring the area more.

Did anything change for you? What? why?

Nothing really changed in a big way, but it made me realize how much more interesting like the paint of the bird on the wall it is nice to learn outside of class. It also made me pay more attention to the community and the environment.

Vocabulary (at least 3):

Gasolinera – gas station

Panadería – bakery

Calle – street

Cultural Highlights (at least 3):

There are a lot of small local businesses, especially family-owned shops

Food is a big part of the culture (like conchas and horchata)

The community felt small barely anyone there but made since due to time and ICE

1 interaction or situation that stood out:

One thing that stood out was how much trash was on the side walk and streets even the grass but we were there to pick up trash so I should have know that

In what ways is this EL activity similar/different from other class activities?

This activity was very different because we were outside in the community instead of in a classroom. Usually we talk with each other and practice speaking, but this time we actually saw how Spanish and culture connect in real life. It made learning feel more real.

What have you learned / challenges?

I learned that using Spanish in real situations is more useful than just practicing in class. One challenge was trying to focus on vocabulary while also picking up trash, but it still helped me learn.

Compare South Omaha to your neighborhood:

South Omaha feels more active and connected compared to my area. Hear there is just alot of people minding their own business and have homeless people

What insights did you gain?

I learned that South Omaha has a strong Latino community and culture. This is important because it shows how language and culture are connected and used daily.

How did this change your perspective / what will you do outside of class?

It made me more comfortable being in that place where people speak Spanish. I would go back to places like the bakery and try to use more Spanish when ordering or talking to people.

If you want, I can: