Español 2
Throughout this year in Spanish 2 I will build a deeper understanding and background of the Spanish language and culture. In this course I will refine my ability to speak in Spanish about a variety of topics. The major focus for our class this year is to comprehend and apply Spanish language in four different modes: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Recently I took a trip to Spain to enhance my background knowledge on the Spanish culture. This year I will continue to strengthen my background and language abilities as well as continue to learn about different spanish cultures including Mexico and Spain.
Guía de Supervivencia
El Periodismo
This project was designed to allow us to learn more about the culture of a certain country of our choice as well as getting more experience from the Spanish language. We were given the task of writing either a newspaper article or a newscaster script to be put into a movie. Based off of what we wanted to do we were assigned groups in order to do this project. As a group we decided on a Spanish speaking country of our choice. I chose to participate in creating a newspaper as a group. Each individual was required to put in a section of work such as an advice column, horoscopes, comics, and recipes in addition to their individual work such as ads, current news, pop culture, and interviews to add to their share of work in the newspaper. This project gave students the freedom to create things that were of their interests.
I was eager to get into this project from the start. Given many different options to use our interests and ideas for our newspaper I connected to this project by using my interests in art and outdoors activities for my ads about Costa Rica. I chose to do one of my ads about a local Costa Rican artist and the other ad about scuba diving in Costa Rica. I enjoyed learning about a different styles of art and creating the quotes for the ads the most during this project. In addition to those ads I decided to take on the role of writing the horoscopes and the weather report. I have always been interested in the outdoor so it was interesting to learn about the climate in another country. Also I learned a lot about myself as a Scorpio while writing the horoscopes.
The most difficult part of this project was not having the background and knowledge in Spanish in order to say exactly what I would say in English. Another difficulty I had to face during this project was meeting all the expectations such as word limit because ads are normally short rather than long and lengthy. I had to preserver through this challenge and create a lot of sentences in Spanish that were simple and clearly articulated what I wanted to say. In the process I learned a lot about advertising while overcoming this challenge by using my words effectively.
As for myself I am now aware that in order to be successful with a group project there has to be a lot of communication amongst you and your peers. In order to be sure things were turned in on time we had to create a plan with each other so that the layout volunteer had enough time to refine our newspaper. It takes everyone to contribute in a group project. This requires helping out one another to be sure this task gets done.
Now that we have spent a month focusing on current events in Spanish speaking countries I have a better understanding of the Spanish culture and a better understanding for the language in general. If we were given the opportunity in the future to talk to a native Spanish speaker in their country it is important to know what is going on in their culture and country. Although we will never be fully immersed in the Spanish culture in a classroom it is important to know what is going on so that we are more knowledgeable and can gain a better understanding of the language, their culture, and their lifestyle.
I was eager to get into this project from the start. Given many different options to use our interests and ideas for our newspaper I connected to this project by using my interests in art and outdoors activities for my ads about Costa Rica. I chose to do one of my ads about a local Costa Rican artist and the other ad about scuba diving in Costa Rica. I enjoyed learning about a different styles of art and creating the quotes for the ads the most during this project. In addition to those ads I decided to take on the role of writing the horoscopes and the weather report. I have always been interested in the outdoor so it was interesting to learn about the climate in another country. Also I learned a lot about myself as a Scorpio while writing the horoscopes.
The most difficult part of this project was not having the background and knowledge in Spanish in order to say exactly what I would say in English. Another difficulty I had to face during this project was meeting all the expectations such as word limit because ads are normally short rather than long and lengthy. I had to preserver through this challenge and create a lot of sentences in Spanish that were simple and clearly articulated what I wanted to say. In the process I learned a lot about advertising while overcoming this challenge by using my words effectively.
As for myself I am now aware that in order to be successful with a group project there has to be a lot of communication amongst you and your peers. In order to be sure things were turned in on time we had to create a plan with each other so that the layout volunteer had enough time to refine our newspaper. It takes everyone to contribute in a group project. This requires helping out one another to be sure this task gets done.
Now that we have spent a month focusing on current events in Spanish speaking countries I have a better understanding of the Spanish culture and a better understanding for the language in general. If we were given the opportunity in the future to talk to a native Spanish speaker in their country it is important to know what is going on in their culture and country. Although we will never be fully immersed in the Spanish culture in a classroom it is important to know what is going on so that we are more knowledgeable and can gain a better understanding of the language, their culture, and their lifestyle.
Dia de los Muertos
This project was designed give us an understanding of common mexican holiday called, "Dia de los Muertos" to honor the dead and improve our spanish vocabulary and background. This project gave me an opportunity to learn about and honor my grandpa that I never was able to meet.
The most interesting thing I learned was that they will celebrate by making their loved ones favorite food to put on the alter along with many other things that tie back to memories or represented that person. They believe that when the dead arrive, they will "eat" the food, leaving it tasteless because they absorbed all the nutrients and flavor from the food.
Not only did I learn a lot about another relative, but I was challenged by the writing piece. We were required to use new content and tenses to describe the person we chose to talk about during this holiday and project. At first I wasn't excited to create an art piece that had to have a skull because in America, skulls represents the scary and sad memories of death. This project required me to be open to different cultures and looking at death in a different way. Although I thought this project would be depressing, I found it really uplifting and happy rather than sad. This holiday is meant to celebrate their life, much like a birthday! Once I understood the true meaning of this holiday, I was really excited to create an art piece in honor of my grandpa.
In my art piece I included a smiling skeleton to represent him. Since my grandpa had many heart problems, including four open heart surgeries, I chose to use my bright colors wisely to represent different things about him. The splattered bright pink and red paint across his heart represent his non working heart, but at the same time show how down to earth and amazing he remained through all of his struggles. Although he had a heart with many problems, he cared so much for everyone around him and had an optimistic view on life. The roses in the corner of my painting represent his family and bright personality. I chose to use roses because his wife, Rose Marie was a huge part of his life as well as his children.
Overall, I was really happy with my final refined art piece and short paper in spanish. If I were to do this project again or have to opportunity to refine my work with more time I would have created another canvas to place over the skeleton painting and fill it with objects, flowers, and happy objects that represented my grandpa. Also I would have wrote my paper differently. I was struggling while producing my writing because I had figured out what I wanted to say in english and then expected to translate it directly to spanish. This lead me into many challenges and difficulties I had to face due to the little spanish I know. It would have been way easier and would have required less refining and editing if I would have begun writing in spanish first instead of translating from english.
The most interesting thing I learned was that they will celebrate by making their loved ones favorite food to put on the alter along with many other things that tie back to memories or represented that person. They believe that when the dead arrive, they will "eat" the food, leaving it tasteless because they absorbed all the nutrients and flavor from the food.
Not only did I learn a lot about another relative, but I was challenged by the writing piece. We were required to use new content and tenses to describe the person we chose to talk about during this holiday and project. At first I wasn't excited to create an art piece that had to have a skull because in America, skulls represents the scary and sad memories of death. This project required me to be open to different cultures and looking at death in a different way. Although I thought this project would be depressing, I found it really uplifting and happy rather than sad. This holiday is meant to celebrate their life, much like a birthday! Once I understood the true meaning of this holiday, I was really excited to create an art piece in honor of my grandpa.
In my art piece I included a smiling skeleton to represent him. Since my grandpa had many heart problems, including four open heart surgeries, I chose to use my bright colors wisely to represent different things about him. The splattered bright pink and red paint across his heart represent his non working heart, but at the same time show how down to earth and amazing he remained through all of his struggles. Although he had a heart with many problems, he cared so much for everyone around him and had an optimistic view on life. The roses in the corner of my painting represent his family and bright personality. I chose to use roses because his wife, Rose Marie was a huge part of his life as well as his children.
Overall, I was really happy with my final refined art piece and short paper in spanish. If I were to do this project again or have to opportunity to refine my work with more time I would have created another canvas to place over the skeleton painting and fill it with objects, flowers, and happy objects that represented my grandpa. Also I would have wrote my paper differently. I was struggling while producing my writing because I had figured out what I wanted to say in english and then expected to translate it directly to spanish. This lead me into many challenges and difficulties I had to face due to the little spanish I know. It would have been way easier and would have required less refining and editing if I would have begun writing in spanish first instead of translating from english.
Mi Abuelo James Arthur McCartan
James Arthur McCartan vivía desde 1939 a 1982. El murió a la edad de 42. El nació y crecía en Butte, Montana. El vivía en una casa de dos dormitorios con sus seis hermanos, y padres. Uno de sus hermanos murió a una edad temprana. Su padre bebía mucho y su madre, Loretta McCartan, principalmente lo cuidaba y sus hermanos. Jim teína una familia católica fuerte. Ellos estaban a la iglesia cada domingo y Jim trabajaba en Butte, Montana para ayudar su familia. Ellos trabajaban duro y tenían una vida dura, pero ellos también estaban contentos.
El quería proveer una vida mejor para sus niños. El quería proveer sus niños y nietos las oportunidades que el nunca tenía. El casaba inmediatamente después el graduó de la escuela profesional y ellos se mudaron a Portland, Oregón donde el empezó su agencia de arquitectura. El tenía un negocio prospero y escuelas de diseño, oficinas, edificios, y casas. El empezaba a encontrar éxito en su empresa cuando se volvió muy enfermo con un corazón defecto a la edad de cuarenta. El finalmente murió a la edad de 42 después de 4 cirugías de abierto corazón. El tenía un defecto en su corazón porque su válvula no trabajaba. Sus niños eran jóvenes (18, 16, 13, y 4 anos) cuando el murió.
El tenía un pronostico similar en vida a mío. Jim estaba un hombre muy extrovertido y feliz. El era la vida de la fiesta. El disfrutaba vida al máximo, amaba su familia, y quería vivir lo mas de cada momento. El amaba al aire libre y amaba acampar, pescar y caminar. El enseñó sus niños cazar a edades muy jóvenes y llevaba ellos cazar y acampar. El amaba decir cuentos sobre "Johnny Feather" quien era una indio que se encontraba en unas situaciones extremas, pero siempre escapaba. Yo voy a siempre recordar mi abuelo como la vida de la fiesta y como la persona artística y amable que era.
El quería proveer una vida mejor para sus niños. El quería proveer sus niños y nietos las oportunidades que el nunca tenía. El casaba inmediatamente después el graduó de la escuela profesional y ellos se mudaron a Portland, Oregón donde el empezó su agencia de arquitectura. El tenía un negocio prospero y escuelas de diseño, oficinas, edificios, y casas. El empezaba a encontrar éxito en su empresa cuando se volvió muy enfermo con un corazón defecto a la edad de cuarenta. El finalmente murió a la edad de 42 después de 4 cirugías de abierto corazón. El tenía un defecto en su corazón porque su válvula no trabajaba. Sus niños eran jóvenes (18, 16, 13, y 4 anos) cuando el murió.
El tenía un pronostico similar en vida a mío. Jim estaba un hombre muy extrovertido y feliz. El era la vida de la fiesta. El disfrutaba vida al máximo, amaba su familia, y quería vivir lo mas de cada momento. El amaba al aire libre y amaba acampar, pescar y caminar. El enseñó sus niños cazar a edades muy jóvenes y llevaba ellos cazar y acampar. El amaba decir cuentos sobre "Johnny Feather" quien era una indio que se encontraba en unas situaciones extremas, pero siempre escapaba. Yo voy a siempre recordar mi abuelo como la vida de la fiesta y como la persona artística y amable que era.
Ojos Y Orejas Project
For this project we were required to create a visual of our learning style and create a metaphor of an animal that most likely would be most like you and your learning style. My learning style is like a bunny!
Bibliography
"Fluffy Bunny." Cutest Paw Fluffy Bunny Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.cutestpaw.com/images/fluffy-bunny-3/>.
<http://www.cutestpaw.com/images/fluffy-bunny-3/>.