I chose my comments on these cultural blogs because I feel as though I examined them more adequately and cross-culturally. I enjoyed reading these blogs and I felt as though my responses were well thought through and relevant to the topics.
I enjoyed the post on Literatura y cultura, because I think much can be learned through literature. I also think to really understand your own culture or another culture you must spend time away from it to find the similarities and differences, and really place significance on what it means to you.
I also liked the post on Grocery shopping because it shows small differences economically and what it means to the country and to the people when services are no longer needed as they once were. I think this is an issue that is relevant in not only Spanish speaking countries, but around the world.
I chose the first project I created this semester because I think I put a lot of time and effort into making it. For the project, I made a Powerpoint presentation about a famous contemporary photographer from Spain named Alberto García Alix. I spent two weeks researching information on the photographer and looking at his photographs. I discussed different aspects of his life, his famous work, how he was inspired and I analyzed 4 of my favorite photographs, explaining why I liked them. I also included a video of Alberto García Alix explaining the technicality of photography. I thought this project was relevant to what we were studying in class because it related to Vistas chapter 16, El Mundo del Trabajo and chapter 17, Un Festival de Arte. I enjoy photography a lot, and I thought it would be interesting to research what life would be like as a famous photographer. I wanted to post my Powerpoint presentation onto a website called Slideshare.net, however, because I had included websites in the Powerpoint, I was unable to size the file correctly. I feel like this projected not only helped me understand the concept of the chapters in Vistas more adequately, but I was introduced to new vocabulary as well as a more cultural feel towards photography. What I enjoyed most about this project is that demonstrates my cultural growth as well as the presentational writing goal because I wrote about something that is personal to me. In the future I hope I am more confident on my verb choices and conjugations in my writing, it is something I struggle with and I hope to gain more confidence.
I chose my second writing sample for my eportfolio because it gives a better representation of my writing style and progress for the year. For the second writing sample our class wrote about Vistas chapter 15, El Bienestar. I chose to write about my health and athletic activity in high school compared to in college. I think for this writing sample I had a better understanding of the vocabulary, where as in the first sample I had to look up many external words because I didn’t know how to get my message across without a specific word. In the future I know I need to remember to pay attention to gender and the differentiation between prepositions such as a, por, para and de. I also would like to understand the grammar tenses more in depth and feel more confident when conjugating and using verbs. I think during this writing sample I felt comfortable in the verb tenses, which makes a huge difference in how my Spanish writing turns out. In order for me to write well in Spanish I have to have listened to Spanish audio or talking right before. It makes it easier for me to think of words and ideas in Spanish if I’ve spent time thinking in Spanish previously. I think my writing sample relates to the presentational writing goal because I connected texts relating to topics that are of personal interest and experiences. I hope to continue to expand my vocabulary and confidence to push this goal further. Reading and writing in Spanish is unique to me because it has many words that sound similar to the word in English, which is very helpful for students who are learning the language. It makes me feel good to read a passage and recognize words. Even if I haven’t learned them, I can make an inference to what they are. What I enjoyed most about this writing sample is that I had a good bank of personal information to use in it’s creation and I was aware of the vocabulary that went along with it. I know that I still have a lot to learn in Spanish, but I feel confident enough to write short passages about things that are relevant to my own life.
I chose my second audio sample for my eportfolio because I think it is a better representation of my speaking progress this year. This sample is the audio version of my first writing sample. Our class wrote our writing samples on Vistas chapter 13, La Naturaleza. I chose to write about my favorite place in nature, which is the area surrounding my cabin in northern Minnesota. I also talked about how my family is interested in motorsports, and the effects that they can have on the environment. After submitting my final writing sample, I received more feedback on it from my coordinator and language partner before changing it to a script for my audio sample. I think that this audio sample is better than the first because it is more personal and I have more emotion when I’m talking. Before recording I read my script multiple times, marking words that I had difficulty pronouncing or words that needed emphasis on different letters or syllables. I also worked hard to achieve a natural speed of speaking as well as intonation. In the past I have struggled with rolling my ‘r’s’, so I spent a lot of time practicing and marking all words that had ‘r’s’ in them. I recorded the sample multiple times before I felt that one reflected my best work. Listening to this audio sample at the end of the semester, I think I could produce a better one, which makes me feel like I am definitely progressing. I think my audio sample coincides with the presentational speaking goal, because I am describing my personal experiences and events and I hope to continue to expand my vocabulary and confidence to push this goal further. In the future, I know I still need to work on my pronunciation and the rolling of my ‘r’s’ as well as the formation of sentences with correct verb tenses. Over all, I enjoyed that this audio sample demonstrated all of my own work, from my writing to my speaking. I think speaking Spanish is unique because it gives a person more social influence in a variety of situations. Many people in United States speak Spanish as well as English, and I think this gives them an over all advantage linguistically. To be bilingual in today’s society is becoming more important with the influence from other countries on our own, and I feel proud to be more culturally aware and on my way to achieving my goals of being bilingual.
