Proyecto Final de Español Dos by

What things are you now able to express in Spanish that you have learned in Spanish II (concepts)?

bfreyer1 — 2018-01-07 20:47:05 UTC

I’m now able to talk about how to get ready in the morning and what classes and clubs I take in school. I can express the process it takes to find and buy or rent a home and how to do chores around those new homes. I can talk about different cultures and ethnicity, and I can talk about more of my family. I can talk about new occupations and languages, and I can describe toys and the things found around my town. I can describe music and pets and lots of fruits. I can talk about more hobbies. I can give directions on how to cook and how to shop/pay, and I can talk about being sick and heroes.

Write an essay in Spanish describing your experience in Spain (during this course).

bfreyer1 — 2018-01-07 20:47:35 UTC

En España tomé muchas clases. Tomé el cálculo, el teatro, la biología, la historia mundial y la tecnología. Fui animadora para el club de ajedrez y fui miembro del club de fotografía. En la escuela, hice buenas notas porque presté atención y tomé notas.

En España alquilé el apartamento de la propietaria. Encontré el apartamento en os avisos clasificados en el periódico. Mi apartamento estaba limpio porque barría el piso, lavaba los platos y me arreglaba los cuartos. Mi apartamento era chico y humilde.

Mi familia en España era grande. Tenía una madre, un padre, una abuela, un abuelo, un bisabuelo, dos hermanos pequeños, y una hermana mayor. Mi mamá y mi bisabuelo eran cubanos y mi papá y mi abuela eran portugese, pero mi abuelo era castellano. Mis hermanos y mi hermana eran parte cubana, portuguesa y castellano. Mi familia encantaba abrazar y reír.

Me gustaba jugar fútbol en España. También hice aeróbicos y fui niñera para mis vecinos. En mi tiempo libre salí con amigos y aprendí a bailar flamenco. Trabajé en ser bilingüe y practique español.

En España comí nuevas comidas. Durante la siesta cada día comí tapas y empanadas. Con mi familia comí mucho de la paellas y el arroz con pollo. También compre en el mercado para mi mamá y compré un muchas de aguacates, papayas y chiles.

Tenía una tarjeta de crédito en España con mil euros. Fui a comprar mucho en El Corte Inglés y el Rastro. Nunca gasté mucho, pero compré muchas bufandas, anillos y sandalias porque son mis favoritos. Siempre compré todo en liquidación.

Pasé mucho tiempo en el comunidad en España. Tomé el metro hasta el centro de salud todas las semanas y compré en la panadería y la heladería. Todos los domingos, fui a la catedral y oré. A veces fui al ayuntamiento con mi papá también.

Record yourself speaking in Spanish

bfreyer1 — 2018-01-07 20:47:52 UTC

En España, mi vida fue muy diferente a la de los Estados Unidos. En la escuela, llevaba un uniforme y me fui a casa a almorzar, pero en los Estados Unidos no lo hice. Jugué fútbol en España, pero en Estados Unidos jugué al baloncesto. En los Estados Unidos vivía en una gran casa blanca, pero en España vivía en un piso de la ciudad. Tenía bonito azulejos españoles en él.

En España, viví con mi mamá, papá, dos hermanos pequeños, mi abuela y mi abuelo. En los Estados Unidos, viví con mi mamá y mi papá. Mi familia en España estaba más cerca que en los Estados Unidos. En España escuché y bailé al flamenco y yo salí con amigos al cafe. En los Estados Unidos escuché música rock y libros. Comí muchas tapas, las paellas, y las empanadas. En los Estados Unidos solo comí pizza y papas fritas.

En España compré en el mercado, la panadería, y la pastelería en vez de almacen. Fui a El Corte Inglés y El Rastro en vez de mi centro comercial. Viví en una de las diecisiete comunidades en España, la comunidad de Madrid, pero en los Estados Unidos, las comunidades son estados. Visité la estatua de Don Quijote y participé en la siesta todos los días. En los Estados Unidos, nunca tuve tiempo libre para gastar en mi comunidad.

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

bfreyer1 — 2018-01-07 20:48:07 UTC

The first thing that still gets me everytime I take spanish is that spanish nouns have genders and they have to agree with the verbs. Another thing that still trips me up in writing is that adjectives come after the noun, something that should be super confusing especially when speaking, but isn’t. I’ve also noticed how much simpler spanish language is than english. Yes it has lots of conjugations and irregular verbs, but english seems to be irregular in everything. In spanish if you want to make something negative, rather than say non-, un-, in- etc (which still confuses me in english) you just say ‘no.’ I also noticed the lack of variety in prepositions in spanish. When writing, I always felt I was being redundant because I kept reusing “en” or “de” because in english we have 150. With all of these differences, I overall just found the spanish language to be more blunt than english. Yes they may sometimes use more words to say things than in english, but they still do have less complications.

What did you find interesting and exciting about the Spanish culture?

bfreyer1 — 2018-01-07 20:50:07 UTC

The first thing I always remember first is that they don’t have front yards. I’m not sure why this stuck with me, maybe because I’m always in mine, but I found that very interesting. I also found it interesting they were a constitutional monarchy, just because you don’t ever learn about countries specific forms of government unless it’s communist, so I was surprised by this because I was ignorant before. I also found it interesting that spanish was the third most widely spoken language as I thought it’d be more than that, and that their language varies by region. I was excited by the nature and tourist attractions in Spain, and am extremely interested in the cruise line that travels from here to there.

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

bfreyer1 — 2018-01-07 20:50:25 UTC

If I continue to study the Spanish language, I want to learn more about its variance in various spanish speaking countries world wide. Comparing spanish in Costa Rica from Spanish 1 to Spain in Spanish 2 is interesting because they have the same fundamentals, but they’re so different. I’d like to learn about these differences in other places and even within those places. Spain varies region to region by language, and I’d like to learn how other countries and their regions do too.

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.

bfreyer1 — 2018-01-07 20:50:42 UTC

I am not the kind of student who just suffers quietly in the back of the room because I am too afraid to speak up and ask questions when confused. So not being in an actual classroom setting, communication was something I thought may be a problem. However, having a teacher who replied quickly every time made learning online not much different than in a classroom. However, I still felt I didn’t benefit from an online class as I could have a normal class because I personally was too worried about stressing on how to get my weekly assignments done (as it was a fifth period for me) than about taking the time to thoroughly learn everything I should have. I know now at the end of the semester I could tell you lots of things I learned this year about spanish 2, but in a year, I’m not so sure I still will be able to. It’s not that learning online didn’t teach me anything, but I think it’s just that seeing a teacher, hearing their audible voice, and having to write down the new information continuously rather than typing it at nine p.m. whilst struggling to keep your eyes open, would have been more beneficial for my long term memory.

What did you like about the course? What did you not like and/or could be improved?

bfreyer1 — 2018-01-07 20:51:03 UTC

I liked the quizzes and tests, because as frustrating as it was to try and understand the low audibles, they forced me to think even when I didn’t want to. I liked the speaking assignments where they provided a recording for how to pronounce the given paragraph because while this may seem like busy work, it helped me learn how to speak better. I would go through the paragraphs and see if I already knew how to say the words--in order to save myself some time--and would finish with only 1-2 words I believed I didn’t know. Almost always though, after listening to the recording, I would know those words, and be wrong on some others. I think this process I went through everytime helped me a lot. I didn’t like the writing assignments because once again, they make me have to think ~ugh~ but as much as I hate to say this, thinking is a good thing, and they forced me to understand the grammar that otherwise I would have never known existed. This is mainly due to how the grammar practice quizzes could be improved tremendously. They never related to the grammar taught in the videos right before, and almost always had to do with how to conjugate simple endings. I wish the practice quizzes would have more directly related to the new information because it would have saved me a lot of confusion on new information.

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?

bfreyer1 — 2018-01-07 20:51:20 UTC

I have a long google document of my spanish one and two notes that are color coordinated and organized which helped me a lot in referencing information and saved me a lot of time when I wanted to use a word, but wasn’t sure if I had learned it, how to spell it, or if I was just confused over it, because control f is allowed me to quickly unconfuse myself. After looking something up in my notes this way once and deliberately studying it for a few moments, it would usually stick with me in a way it didn’t the first time I typed it on the page. I also used spanish411.net a lot to help clear up any confusions I had over any grammar or irregular verbs etc. In the future, I think working with a person more personally would help me improve, whether it be an in class teacher or just a tutor.

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

bfreyer1 — 2018-01-07 20:51:43 UTC

As I talked about before, my teacher was very quick to answer questions and understanding of my schedule when it came to RLC’s etc, which was extremely helpful in my not stressing out. My teacher provided lots of helpful resources beyond our work in the announcements etc, and provided me personally with links to answers when I asked for them. I know if I would have asked for more help on anything she would have provided.