Week One Journal Entry
In my first week of learning Spanish I decided to study where it is spoken and about the culture in those areas. Language is a huge part of culture so it is important to learn about it. Spanish is the official or co-official language in over 20 countries and millions outside those countries speak it. I spent the week researching information about the Spanish culture, including their food, traditional clothing, music and dances. I looked up articles online about Hispanic culture and I also asked my Spanish-speaking friend, Ana, about her culture. Ana agreed to let me interview her so I asked about the culture and traditions in El Salvador, which is where she is from. I learned that people speak different dialects of …show more content…
For this week I planned to learn how to pronounce the words I learned. I felt overwhelmed from schoolwork and I didn’t want to put much time into learning Spanish. Since I had declared Spanish as a minor I felt like it was wasting my time to try to learn now; in my mind I kept thinking I would just start learning next semester. Putting in effort to learn the language began to stress me out resulting in me avoiding it. During this week while I was working at a library, I saw a section for books on learning different languages and found a book titled “Spanish for Educators” The title stood out to me because I felt like it was made for me, so while I was at work I was just flipping through the book, but I wasn’t really processing the information. I decided to also get a cookbook because I thought it would be cool to try to understand the directions based off my knowledge and try to apply my knowledge to actually use the book to cook. I also got a phrase book that included a CD, which I thought would be helpful. I began to feel motivated again because of the helpful materials I found, but once I got home I put all the books aside and worked on other homework. In my mind I felt like doing an essay for another class is more important because I knew that by the end of the project I didn’t have to be fluent in the language and wouldn’t be tested on my knowledge. At …show more content…
I do feel like I refreshed my knowledge on the language since high school and it is easier to remember the definition of certain words. A lot of the words I learned went to my short term memory based off the rehearsal and memorization of the words from week two, but overall after week two I was super unmotivated and stressed. I did not continue to practice the new words so I do not feel confident to have a basic conversation. But after this project, I realized many of the Spanish words I learned are in my long-term memory from previous knowledge. There was a proactive interference between the new and old words because I would use mix up the definitions between the old words I knew and the new words I learned. In the end I think I learn better with a group and not on my own so in the future I’m definitely taking that into consideration. I wasn’t able to reach my mastery or performance goals in learning Spanish, but this project made me realize what ways don’t work for me when trying to
In my first week of learning Spanish I decided to study where it is spoken and about the culture in those areas. Language is a huge part of culture so it is important to learn about it. Spanish is the official or co-official language in over 20 countries and millions outside those countries speak it. I spent the week researching information about the Spanish culture, including their food, traditional clothing, music and dances. I looked up articles online about Hispanic culture and I also asked my Spanish-speaking friend, Ana, about her culture. Ana agreed to let me interview her so I asked about the culture and traditions in El Salvador, which is where she is from. I learned that people speak different dialects of …show more content…
For this week I planned to learn how to pronounce the words I learned. I felt overwhelmed from schoolwork and I didn’t want to put much time into learning Spanish. Since I had declared Spanish as a minor I felt like it was wasting my time to try to learn now; in my mind I kept thinking I would just start learning next semester. Putting in effort to learn the language began to stress me out resulting in me avoiding it. During this week while I was working at a library, I saw a section for books on learning different languages and found a book titled “Spanish for Educators” The title stood out to me because I felt like it was made for me, so while I was at work I was just flipping through the book, but I wasn’t really processing the information. I decided to also get a cookbook because I thought it would be cool to try to understand the directions based off my knowledge and try to apply my knowledge to actually use the book to cook. I also got a phrase book that included a CD, which I thought would be helpful. I began to feel motivated again because of the helpful materials I found, but once I got home I put all the books aside and worked on other homework. In my mind I felt like doing an essay for another class is more important because I knew that by the end of the project I didn’t have to be fluent in the language and wouldn’t be tested on my knowledge. At …show more content…
I do feel like I refreshed my knowledge on the language since high school and it is easier to remember the definition of certain words. A lot of the words I learned went to my short term memory based off the rehearsal and memorization of the words from week two, but overall after week two I was super unmotivated and stressed. I did not continue to practice the new words so I do not feel confident to have a basic conversation. But after this project, I realized many of the Spanish words I learned are in my long-term memory from previous knowledge. There was a proactive interference between the new and old words because I would use mix up the definitions between the old words I knew and the new words I learned. In the end I think I learn better with a group and not on my own so in the future I’m definitely taking that into consideration. I wasn’t able to reach my mastery or performance goals in learning Spanish, but this project made me realize what ways don’t work for me when trying to