My friend in college, Gina, is fascinated by all the ways of communication. For my last and final post I wanted her to share with my classmates and everyone who follows my blog a little bit about herself. Gina is a friend I met at the beach when I was a kid and we go to the beach every summer together. She is a normal student like you and me who took Spanish in high school. As a freshman in college, she has recently been exploring the idea of using Spanish in her career. She wants to be able to communicate with clients in more than one language to make business more smoothly. Also, she has a passion for writing and would like to work on her formal Spanish writing in college. After talking Honors Spanish 5 last year, she went to Spain on a foreign exchange trip and it really opened her eyes about how much she needed Spanish to get by there. She had to describe where she wanted to go, what she wanted to eat, and other important questions to the natives there. I e-mailed Gina to ask her if she would share a little bit about herself in Spanish, and I also sent her a paragraph about my goals and ambitions as I mature. This is what she has sent me so far via Facebook messaging.
Kristen Sullivan January 25 at 5:47pm
heyyy girl:) I was so happy to see you over break! I miss you while you are away at college. For my spanish 1 class we focused a lot about our goals for spanish and you have achieved your goals and now are thinking about a career in it so I was wondering if you could sent me a little paragraph about yourself in Spanish and about your goals so I can share it with my class..?
Voy al centro comerical en Bridgewater y visito Forever 21. Forever 21 vende ropa bonita. Es para mujeres. En Forever 21, compro una chaqueta violeta de seda y está a la ultima moda. Forever 21 es muy barata. También, vende una pulsera y unos aretes de plata. Voy a la Pac Sun. Es para mujeres y hombres. Necesito un par de pantalones vaqueros. ¡Cuesta quinece dólares! Me gusta los pantalones de Pac Sun. También unas camisetas sin mangas azules, blancas, rosadas, y negras. ¡Las unas camisetas sin mangas son baratas!
http://classtools.net/widgets/quiz_3/ST4Zr.htm
To help yourself learn how to say phrases in Spanish that show you how to live a good life, click on this link. It will teach you how to say these useful phrases in a fun way. You can pick which came you want to play, answer the questions correctly, and you win! It’s easy as 1,2,3.
[7:50:55 AM] Kristen says: hola paco
[7:51:29 AM] Paco Benítez says: OH!! Hola!!!!
[7:51:34 AM] Paco Benítez says:
[7:51:47 AM] Paco Benítez says: cuanto tiempo!!!
[7:52:01 AM] Kristen says: como estas?!
[7:52:18 AM] Paco Benítez says: ahora estoy en la oficina trabajando…pero bien!!
[7:52:34 AM] Paco Benítez says: año nuevo , vida nueva!!!
[7:53:20 AM] Kristen says: si!! 2010!
[7:53:22 AM] Paco Benítez says: and you? good new year time?
[7:53:46 AM] Kristen says: si estoy muy bien
[7:54:08 AM] Paco Benítez says: ¿qué tal los exmamenes y los estudios…?
[7:54:16 AM] Paco Benítez says: *examenes
[7:55:08 AM] Kristen says: yo en clase de espanol aqui
[7:56:34 AM] Paco Benítez says: entiendo…y ¿te has propuesto alguna meta para mejorar este nuevo año?
I had a great time making this comic strip! It was a fun and exciting way to use my new restaurant vocabulary. If you scroll to the right, you can see the six panel comic strip and how the customer and waiter interact. The customer asks the waiter what the pizza tastes like by saying, “¿Qué tal está la pizza?” to get a better idea if she should order it or not. I think that question is a really important one to know when ordering in Spanish at a restaurant. I feel as like I can go into a Spanish restaurant and order with confidence now.
En la manana, tengo que despertarme temprano para la escuela. A las cinco y media de la manana necesito levantarme y quitarme mis pijamas. Despues de vestirme en la ropa, tengo que lavarme los dientes y peinarme mi pelo con un peine. Yo como el cereal de “Honey Nut Cheerios” con leche. Yo bebo el jugo de naranja de Tropicana. Antes de ir a escuela cogo el bus. El nombre de mi escuela es Hunterdon Central Regional High School. En la noche juego al futbol. Yo como pizza de Alfonsos’s y bebo agua. Necesito banarme con jabon y champu. A las diez y media necesito acostarme. Continue reading →
Across the globe people celebrate Christmas in many different ways. Each and every country, and individual family, have different traditions for the holiday. In Germany, children in the family try and find the pickle in Christmas tree to obtain an extra present. In Ireland, children leave their shoes by their beds to receive candy when they awake. Christmas is universal whether you say Merry Christmas, or speak Spanish and say “Feliz Navidad”. Even though we live in America, listening to the Spanish song Feliz Navidad is very common. It’s a song that gets us in the Christmas spirit, while, at the same time, teaching us a few new spanish words. Even though we speak English, Spanish music is all around. Also, little things such as “Feliz Navidad” are easy ways to widen our Spanish vocabulary without even realizing it.
I got the privilege to talk to a native Spanish-Speaker in the ESL class named Adrinna. She was fun to talk to and very sympathetic with my spanish speaking skills. I think I improved asking more follow-up classes than I did in the first conversation. I was very pleased with how the conversation went and I would love to speak with her again soon. I felt like we had an actual intelligent conversation and I did just ask random questions like “Cuantos anos tienes?” out of no where.
Reflection Expectations:
Reflection
1. Cultural Learning
a. Adrinna shared a little bit with me about her home country of Mexico. She told me that she still has family living there. Her cousins, aunts, and uncles live there, but a lot of her family currently resides in the United States. She didn’t tell me much about her native country because she seemed very accustom and exciting about her life in the United States. However, she did tell me that she may be going back there for the holidays or spring break.
2. Personal Learning
a. One of my goals was to find out more about soccer or “futbol” in Spanish-speaking countries. Adrinna told me that soccer is what the people in Mexico are all about. She continued to tell me that her entire family, including herself, plays soccer. Her favorite team is the Mexican National team, but she doesn’t have a favorite team in the United States. She plays soccer non-competitively at Lenape Park in Flemington.
3. Linguistic Performance
a. One thing I tried to do well in this conversation was to develop the conversation. I really tried to focus on asking relevant questions about the information that Adrinna told me. I wanted her to know that I had a real interest in what she was saying by asking her follow-up questions. When she told me that she liked soccer I asked her, “Cual es tu equipo favorito?” to ask her what her favorite team was. When she said she went out with her friends on the weekend, I asked her who her friends were by saying, “Como se llamas tu amigos?”
b. To improve I think I still have a lot to improve when it comes to becoming more specific with the conversation. I think I could learn a lot more vocabulary and questions to have an even more intelligent conversation. I’m definitely working hard to get there, but I still have a lot more to learn.
El blog de Marcelo es buenisimo! Futbol de Argentina es bueno. Video de Marcelo es interestante.
Marcelo commented on a post on my blog and left his blog name so I decided to go check it out. It turns out his blog is awesome!! It has so many highlights, pictures, videos, and written descriptions about the Argentina soccer team. Ever since my travel soccer team went to see the national Argentinan team play at Giants Stadium against the United States National Team, I’ve been a huge fan. I’ve never seen a team play quite like them. It was truly amazing. Although the final score was 0-0 and they didn’t go into overtime because it wasn’t a play-off game, it was a heated and intense game. I now stay up to date with the Argentina soccer schedule and watch as many games as I can. I would LOVE to go see another game as soon as possible.
His comment on my post on my blog:
Hola Kristen, buenas tardes.
Te escribo desde Rosario, Argentina- Soy el administrador del Blog http://www.efemeridesdeportivas.blogspot.com
Muchas gracias por visitar mi Blog. Es un honor poder leer tus comentarios, los cuales no son solo tales, sino que agigantan y prestigian lo expuesto por quién subscribe.
Gracias x todo.
Felicitaciones al por mayor para tu BLOG.
Un beso.
MARCELO http://www.efemeridesdeportivas.blogspot.com
PD: Estoy a tu disposición para lo que pueda ayudarte.
Sñolo me gustaría que te afilies como seguidora de mi blog.
Saludos.
Me gusta Uncle Will’s Pancake House. Voy a Uncle Will’s para desayuno. Venden huevos, tocino, los cereales, tostado, y los panqueques. Tienen el chocolate ,auga, el jugo de naranja, el cafe y leche tomar. El menú es muy grande. Aceptan tarjetas de crédito. Muy bueno restarante comer el desayuno en LBI.
Uncle Will’s is my favorite restaurant when I go to visit my grandparents in LBI. It’s such a fun place and we always go there at least twice in the week from breakfast. In my opinion, they have the best breakfast food in all of Long Beach Island. See my comment and critics on Uncle Will’s Pancake House at the website below.
One thing that I need a lot of help on in this class is knowing when to use ser versus estar. Because they are VERY similar I often mix them up. I realize that I really need to master how to use both of these verbs. To assist me in learning when to use ser and estar I tried to find games that really taught me the difference between the two verbs and in what situations to use them in. It really forced me to learn the verbs. The first time I did the game, I did pretty poorly, but as I kept playing and I started to improve. To see evidence of me using these new skills check out my about page. Recently, I updated it and used ser and estar to help me better describe things about myself. After working hard by using the quizzes, I now know that I can use the words in the right way. The website I used to help me practice the words is http://www.spanish.cl/Grammar/Games/Verbos_Ser_Estar.htm
After playing this game, I’m going to describe the situations of when to use estar or ser and provide examples for each one.
Using Ser
physical decription personality and character, nationality, race, gender, profession, origin.
Things which “take place” or “occur”: Dates, days, seasons, time, events, concerts, parties.
What things are made of
Possession
Examples:
Él es aburrido.
La clase de español es a las diez y media de la mañana.
Son las tres.
Soy de California.
Using Estar
Feelings/moods/emotions, physical conditions or appearances, civil status (married, single, divorced, dead)
Location of things and people (but not events)
How things taste at a certain time
Examples:
Estoy en la clase de matemáticas.
María está bonita.
Newark está en New Jersey.
Estamos bien.
Prior to playing this game and learning more about ser and estar, I decided to use these new skills and went back to the first page I made; my about page. I used ser and estar to assist me in making my about page more descriptive and personal.
El blog de Aroya es muy interesante. Tiene los fotos de España en Navidad y Año Nuevo. La Navidad en España se celebra muy grande. Es un evento celebrado con familias y amigos. Tienen una fiesta. Reciben regalos.
The blog of Aroya shows all the celebration that goes into Christmas and New Year’s in Spain. It shows how they have a lot religious celebrations around Christmas time to celebrate the birth of their savior Jesus. In Spain, there is a lot of hype around this time of year. They love the Christmas season because it is a time to do good deeds and be with family. The focus more religiously on Christmas, and they have big parties on New Year’s. The whole country puts a lot of time, energy, and money towards the Christmas season. They are greatly looking forward to this Christmas which is approaching quickly. The whole community gets together to decorate and put lights outside their houses. One tradition in Spain on New Years is to quickly consume 12 grapes just as the New Year approaches. The 12 grapes symbolize the 12 months of the year and that it will bring the good luck in fortune in the 12 months to come. Although people in Spain have some different traditions then people in the United States do, we still are connected over the believing in God and the Christmas Season.
Last year, there was a girl named Andrea in my Interior Design Class. Partners were assigned from are teacher, and she ended up being my partner for the whole semester. She had a little bit of an accent, but I never really thought a lot of it. Yesterday, when we collaborated with the ESL Biology students and she was one of them. I thought it was awesome that she speaks Spanish. I would’ve never known that she spoke Spanish because she spoke English flawlessly. I spent a lot of time talking to her. She was very easy to talk to and was very sympathetic in helping me out with my English. She told me that she was born and Mexico and lived there for a lot of her childhood. She still speaks Spanish at home, but she enjoys speaking English. I would love to talk to her again because one day I would love to speak Spanish the way she learned to speak English. I talk to her in Spanish on Facebook. She is an amazing person.
I got the great opportunity to e-mail with one of the students coming to our school this year as part of the Argentina exchange program, Maria. She is a very nice girl and I can’t wait to meet her in person! She seems a lot like me. I want to continue exchanging e-mails with her to get to know her better and broaden my Spanish vocabulary. In the most recent e-mail Maria sent me I learned that “vacaciones” meant vacation. Its mind-blowing to me that they are on their summer vacation now while we are in the middle of winter. They have a sunny Christmas instead of a white one which I am used to. This is one major difference between life in the United States and Argentina.
Hola Maria!
Me llama Kristen. Vivo en Ringoes, New Jersey, United States. ¿Dónde vives? New Jersey es muy bonita. New Jersey tiene muchas granjas.¿Cómo es quiere donde tu vives? Yo soy atlética y simpática. ¿Cómo eres? Tengo 14 años. ¿Cuántos años tienes? Yo soy baja, pero quiero ser alta. Me gusta fútbol y básquetbol. Me gusta jugar al fútbol con mis amigos. ¿Qué te gusta de deportes? ¿Cuáles equipos te gusta?
Me gusta jugar al fútbol cuando hace buen tiempo. Cuando hace frío, me gusta ver películas. Me gustan las películas de terror pero no me gustan las películas de ciencia ficción. Mis clases son las matemáticas, inglés, español, y la historia. Español es mi clase favorita. ¿Qué es su clase favorita? No me gusta matemáticas. Es muy difícil. ¿Qué clases no te gustan?
Tengo un hermano. Se llama Ryan y es muy cómico. ¿Cómo es tu familia? ¿Qué te gusta hacer con su familia? Mi mejor amiga es Carly. Tiene 14 años. Ella es muy bonita y atlética. Nos gusta ir al cine y central comercial. ¿Cómo son tus amigos? ¿Qué te gusta hacer con sus amigos?
Yo quiero visitar España. Es muy bonita y interesante. Necesito muchas cosas. Necesito ropa y dinero. ¿Dónde quieres visitar? ¿Qué necesitas? ¿Qué quieres hacer en su viaje? Mucho gusto. ¡Quiero hablar contigo luego!
-Kristen
HI Kristen ! Well, thank you for the e-mail. did you write it in the spanish class ? it look like a composition i recived lots of mails and i’m very happy because i wanna make some friends before i go.
i really like english and i use to talk with a friend in south africa who speak it. but I don’t like the english class, my teacher is always annoing me and make’s me do extra work.
I have a big family, lots of cousins and uncles. I have two dogs called Goku and Oliver.
Please write soon and tell me about your school
Nestor is a really nice guy! I enjoy talking to him so much. I felt like this was the first time that I actually had an intelligent conversation with someone in Spanish. We didn’t just talk about how old we were and ask generic questions, but we talked about things that actually mattered to me. We chatted about his profession of being a graphic designer. I thought that was really cool! We also discussed colleges for a long time. I told him that I thought I wanted to go to Penn State when I’m older, but that I wasn’t quite sure. We also talked about where we live and the positive and negative things about them.
[8:06:49 AM] ksull15 says: como estas?
[8:07:59 AM] Néstor López de Arróyabe says: hola kristen
[8:08:03 AM] Néstor López de Arróyabe says: qué tal?
[8:08:08 AM] Néstor López de Arróyabe says: yo bien, gracias
[8:08:09 AM] Néstor López de Arróyabe says:
[8:09:00 AM] ksull15 says: bien gracias tambien! en la clase de espanol y tu?
[8:13:00 AM] Néstor López de Arróyabe says: yo estoy trabajando
[8:13:07 AM] Néstor López de Arróyabe says: haha
[8:13:32 AM] Néstor López de Arróyabe says: esperando a salir enseguida Continue reading →
Yo fui de compras en Liberty Village. Liberty Village es en Flemington. Yo fui de compras en Liberty Village con mis amigas Carly, Alyssa y Jess. Yo celebre el cumpleanos de mi abuela. Mi abuela es 70 anos. Yo celebre el cumpleanos de mi abuela en mi casa en Ringoes, New Jersey. La dia de grasiosa es muy divertida. Mi familia y yo comimos mucho! Yo hable con mis primas. Mis primas son Nicole, Lydia y Grace.
After looking at and reassessing my personal goals I came to the conclusion that I’m very content with the goals I chose at the beginning of the semester. I really looked hard and contemplated on changing my long term goal, but in the end I decided it was perfect for me.
I already accomplished my short term goal which was
“A) My short term goal for this semester in Spanish 1 class is to become more comfortable using Twitter, Friend Feed, and Skype. By becoming more comfortable using these wonderful technology sites I think it will be much easier for me to start to communicate with students and teachers from other Spanish- speaking countries.”
Because I already accomplished this goal by using all of the internet connection sites and through a lot of hard work through Epals, Skype, Tweetworks, Soziety, and Diigo, it didn’t need to be changed. My midterm goal was mostly what I wanted to work toward, but I think the goal needed to be expanded a little more. The original midterm goal was
“My mid-term goal is to become more confident in my conversations while speaking in Spanish. Sometimes I find myself having trouble knowing what to say to a question and to fully understand what the other person is saying or asking me. It’s very difficult to have a full conversation with someone if I’m not positive what they are asking and not confident how to respond. I definitely need to work on this if i want to become more comfortable speaking the language.”
I think this goal suits me well because I’m still having trouble speaking in Spanish and I’m not completely confident at it yet. It’s definitely something I want and need to work towards. I understand what people are saying in Spanish very well, it is the forming sentences and saying it out loud that I have trouble with. The only thing I would like to change about this midterm goal is to also work towards not responding in English when I don’t know how to say something. I want to force myself to work it out in Spanish. My long term is something that I’m actively working towards. My original long term goal is
“My long-term goal is to be able to have a full conversation with someone from another country using the calling feature on Skype. I want to be able to completely understand what the other person is saying and have an actual intelligent conversation like I can have in English. I want to be able to entirely comprehend what the other person is saying so we can carry on a conversation.”
I really don’t want to change this goal. This is something I set for myself that I really want to accomplish more than anything in this class. I’m working hard towards it by using Skype and having short conversations, but I’m really looking forward to having the skills to carry on a long meaningful one. I’m keeping this long-term goal because I want to work hard to reach it.
I talked to Magnus through Skype. He explained to me many things. We instantly made a connection through reading and movies and talked about that for some time. After this chat conversation I had another chat conversation with him on Sunday night where we discussed our interests even more. I really enjoyed talking to Magnus. I felt like we really had an intelligent conversation because I asked about his likes and we made connections based off those. Although in this chat we only talked for a little bit of time, it was the first chat I had with him and I felt like the “follow up” questions really broke the ice and now I feel as though I can chat him anytime and we can talk freely and he can help me with my spanish.
[11/27/2009 5:55:11 PM] Kristen: hola magnus
[11/27/2009 6:09:26 PM] Magnus El Tico: hola
[11/27/2009 6:09:47 PM] Kristen: como estas?
[11/27/2009 6:10:06 PM] Magnus El Tico: bien y tu?
[11/27/2009 6:11:48 PM] Kristen: muy bien
[11/27/2009 6:11:57 PM] Kristen: cuenteme un poco de ti..
[11/27/2009 6:20:22 PM] Magnus El Tico: me gusta el teatro
No quiero que Oprah vaya! Me gusta la programa de television de Oprah. Es muy bueno y interestante. Oprah es intellegente y divertida. Ella dinero a organizaciones de caridad. El blog de dentrotele tiene mucho que decir sobre Oprah.
Ever since I was a little kid, I grew up watching the Oprah Show with my grandma. As a child I thought it was just a “grown-up” show, but as a matured into a preteen and a teenager I grew to love it. It was a show that talked about real issues and taught me so much. When I would come home from school I would turn the show on while I started my homework. Recently, Oprah announced that she would no longer be doing the show after September 2011. So many views were heart-broken. Oprah is a great role model who overcame adversity and became someone great. The thing I like about her the most is that she remains humble and gives so much back to charity. I will greatly miss her show. In the blog Dentrotele, it talks about how she is going to start a new fiction series on HBO and do many other things, but I don’t think it will be the same as the same old Oprah Show. After 25 fantastic years with so many viewers, the Oprah Show is ending.
In the article I found in Vitonica’s blog it talks about how a lot of children in Spain are increasingly becoming obese. This interested me because I’ve always had a curiosity about how what people affect them. This blog entry informed me that in Spain, many people are taking a stand to eliminate ”special toys” and “prizes” from fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s and Burger King. The reason for this dramatic action is to help lower children’s attention to these places. When you think about it, when you were a kid were you rather go to a healthy place or a fun place with bright colors and toys? The answer is simple; toys. I think the movement to get rid of the toys will help the fast food places seem less attractive to children and will be the first step in the right direction to help lessen obesity. The United States should model themselves after Spain and become a part in this movement.
Beyonce is a truly remarkable person. Not only is she a powerhouse on stage, but it is what she does off the stage that truly impresses people. She is a role model for all young women. A new and upcoming star, Lady Gaga, is all the talk lately. Her voice captivates millions. However, her childhood was not always easy. To follow her dream, she took any show she could get to fulfill her need to entertain. Eventually, her talent was discovered. The fantastic blog that I read about them talked about how they were coming together to the song “Video Phone.” I’m so excited that they are coming together to do this song. They are both admirable women in their own right.
Me gusta el equipo de Argentino. Argentino is mucho bueno. En el blog de fútbol, habla sobre los momentos de Argentino. El nombre de el blog post es Efemérides del Fútbol Argentino. Pienso que al fútbol de Argentino es muy interesante.
In the blog, I found many interesting facts about Argentinean soccer. I learned about the great history of their old team. Also, I learned about the many accomplishments and successes of South American team. In my opinion, Argentina is one of the best national soccer teams in the world. I agree with the author of this blog about all the achievements of this team, and how hard they worked to reach these goals. Two years ago I saw this team play against America in Giants Stadium. I never knew what an amazing team they were. The way they communicated and played together was astonishing to me. It was a moment I would never forget. Since then, I’ve been very interesting in the Argentina soccer team. They truly are an impressive team as the blog states.
My amazing English teacher was discussing her trip to Spain the other day in class and she told us something very interesting. When she went to Spain that week, they were having their annual “bull chase”. I thought this was the craziest thing I had ever heard! Who would chase bulls and get severely injured for fun. Because I found this so peculiar I decided to do some research on it. I found out that every year in Pamplona, Spain on July 7th they have their annual “running of the bull”. Basically what happens is the release a bunch of crazed bulls into a street 754 meters long and try and chase them down. The reason for this insane competition was supposed to be for men to prove their manhood and show off their strength. After researching this crazy Spanish tradition I thought, “I wonder if we have any traditions that people from Spain think are strange that we think are perfectly normal?” It’s weird to think about. The bull chase really interested me and showed me even more about Spain’s amazing culture.
Who thought that something as simple as the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants could help me learn Spanish? Spanish is everywhere! Ever since I was a little kid, I have always loved cartoons. I found them fun and easy to understand. The thought came across my mind the other day, “Do spanish-speakers watch cartoons?” I went on youtube and found millions of episodes of Spongebob and other cartoons in Spanish. I was interested immediately. I found it so interesting that a concept such “spongebob” could be loved so universally. It made me realize that the world is so small. Watching some of these cartoons helped me understand some words, and I was able to pick out words that I already knew. I’ve learned that when you relate things you like to something you are learning and trying to understand, it makes it much easier and not to mention, more fun!
Mi casa es muy muy limpia y bonita. Mi dormitorio es azul y verde y blanco. Tiene dos lampadas, una cama, una mesa y una televisión. Yo necesito limpia mi dormitorio todos los días. Hago tarea en mi dormitorio. Mi cocina es muy blanca y moderna. Tiene un refrigerador, un horno, un fregadero. Necesito cocinar y comer en mi cocina. Mi baño es verde y rosado. Tiene un fregadero, una ducha y un inodoro. Necesito limpia el baño. Mi cuarto de estar es muy moderno. Tiene dos sofás y una televisión. Necesito aspiradora en mi cuarto de estar. Veo televisión y películas en mi cuarto de estar. Oficina es muy bárbara. Tiene dos computadoras y el baño. Necesito hago tarea en el oficina.
After researching many Spanish-speaking places, I came across Peru. I was instantly entranced by its beauty. It amazing history and landforms caught my attention. The eastern part of Peru experiences a very tropical climate and is home to many different species of animals. The largest city in Peru is Lima. Lima looks like an amazing place. Its architecture is truly wonderful. Also, the Inca Empire from the 15th century is supposed to be one of the most historical sites in the world. After researching Peru and all it has to offer, I know that I want to visit it someday in the near future and experience it first-hand. It would be exciting to compare and contrast the United States of America from a South American Country.
The new Voicethread Project we are doing is very helpful when learning new things and broadening our Spanish vocabulary. My voicethread focuses on the different classes we take in school. Each slide shows a picture of one of the classes along with a voice comment by me on how to saw each word in Spanish. Along with that, I use each word in a sentence to help show how to use it in context. This is very helpful to people who have never heard these words before. Feel free to practice your pronunciation by commenting and repeating what I say. This will help you to pronounce the word right and remember how to use it correctly.
This weekend as I was looking songs up on youtube, I came across a Beyonce video in Spanish. Beyonce is such an amazing artist and role model. When I came across her video, I watched it a million times. I did some background research and found out that she learned Spanish at a young age. This video led me to find many other of my favorite artist’s videos in spanish. It was really great because I was able to pick out key words in their Spanish songs because I already knew the lyrics to the english version. It was a creative way to help me broaden my vocabulary. I hope to one day maybe even sing a full song in Spanish and understand what I’m saying as I’m singing it. Beyonce’s video inspired me to explore many different types of Spanish music.
2. Even though I didn’t always word my questions correctly, I tried my best to explain to Maria what I was trying to get across. For example when I asked her what sports she liked, she got a little confused, but was able to respond after I tried to ask the question again.
Things I can Improve on:
1. Asking better follow-up questions. When Maria told me information about what she liked to do and what kind of movies she liked, I felt stuck. I couldn’t think off the top of my head what a follow up question would be, so I just moved on to a completely new subject. Next time I talk to her, I hope to ask her more in-depth questions about her interests and comment on them.
2. Getting rid of the “uhhh’s and ummm’s.” Like a lot of new Spanish-speakers, I tended to use um and uh as filler words when I didn’t know what to say to something she said or asked me. Next time we talk, I would like to focus on say “ehhhhh”, “ahhhh”, or “bueno…” instead of going back to my english filler words.
I was really excited to chat with Paolo! It was nice to talk to a teenager my age about things normal teenagers talk about. At the end of the conversation, I got a little confused by what he was asking, but we cleared it up. It turns out, he was just asking if I had any other instant messaging username. I really enjoyed this conversation, and I talk to him often. Later that day, he told me that two of his favorite soccer teams were playing, Americo and Puebla, so I watched the game. Above is part of the game and highlights. The game is narrated in Spanish, and I was able to pick out key words that the announcer was saying.
[9/20/2009 5:17:34 PM] *.:¨:.>pAoLo<.:¨:.*: hola
[9/20/2009 5:17:56 PM] Kristen: como estas
[9/20/2009 5:18:29 PM] *.:¨:.>pAoLo<.:¨:.*: bien y yu
Recently, I chatted with many Spanish-Speakers via Skype. It helped me spell things in Spanish and form sentences correctly. Oscar told me that he was from Guadalajara, Mexico. I was very interested in his hometown because I’ve never heard of it. Above is a picture I found of the beautiful city. This is my conversation with Oscar…
[9/20/2009 5:17:01 PM] Oscar: hola Kristen
[9/20/2009 5:17:17 PM] Oscar: o como estas?
[9/20/2009 5:18:46 PM] Kristen: muy bien y tu?
[9/20/2009 5:18:54 PM] Oscar: muy bien tambien
[9/20/2009 5:19:35 PM] Oscar: do you preffer to speak English or Spanish?
[9/20/2009 5:20:27 PM] Kristen: I’m trying to improve on my spanish so I’m trying to answer in spanish
This weekend I connected with a native Spanish-speaker named Oscar via Skype. I was able to carry on the conversation for 12 minutes. It really helped me learn new things, and made me realize that I know more Spanish than I thought I did. I was able to keep up the flow of the conversation as well as ask him personal questions. When we talked in English for the last few minutes and he had trouble saying science fiction movies in English, I was able to say it in Spanish and then tell him how to say it in English. Also, he helped me learn how to describe New Jersey, when he described his home country of Mexico. We were able to make a connection over soccer and talk and share about of favorite teams. Next time, I think I can do better by asking more thoughtful follow-up questions after he makes a comment. Also, I think I can make the conversation last longer in Spanish.
Unfortunately, for some reason Call Graph only recorded what I said, and didn’t pick up what he said. It was very frustrating and we tried numerous times to get Call Graph to record him, but it didn’t work. Below is the recording of just my voice talking to Oscar.
This weeek, our Spanish 1 Class connected with the Native Spanish-Speakers from the ESL class. Our job was to record a 5 minute conversation with them soley in Spanish, and then another conversation in English to help them. I was in a group with Carly and Jed. I really enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to use all the speaking skills I have learned so far in this class and apply them to a real-life conversation. I will attach this recording so everyone can listen and give me advice on what to do better for next time.
This week in class we did projects on voicethread.com. I absolutely loved this project. We had to create slides of pictures of ourselves, family, and friends. This project allowed me to experience learning how to speak and pronounce Spanish in a creative way. It really forced me to look up how things were said and spelled. I looked this up on wordreference.com. Wordreference.com is a great tool that was bookmarked on Diigo. It’s a great site to help with finding words in Spanish and use them in different contexts. It is a very resourceful site. Another thing that was awesome about the VoiceThread project was comment on other people’s project. It allowed me to use different phrases in Spanish to point out similarities and difference and make connections with people. This project really helped me work towards my goal of having and "intellegent conversation in spanish" because it forced me to think of things to say about the person on the spot. I think we should do more VoiceThreads as our vocabulary improves.
Here is my Spanish song. It is a song about all the character words of our school and words that you should just live by. It’s about respect, responsibility, peace, integrity, courage, tolerance, caring, patience, trustworthiness, fairness, citizenship, and last but not least. These very important characteristics and values are incorporated into a Spanish song. This song is to the beat of the song Lipgloss and the words are in used in different contexts and spelled out. Carly C and I had a lot of fun creating this Spanish Character Song. It helped us with our pronunciation and spelling of words in a fun way. We learned a lot from this project. Enjoy!
This week I moved forward to achieving my short term goal. I talked to 5 native Spanish speakers through Skype. It really helped with my Spanish. When I was talking to one girl Jacklyn, you told me that no one really said “cómo eres” in Venezuela, they say “cómo soy” instead. In addition to her helping me, I helped her with her English at the same time. Another native Spanish-speaker I chatted with was Oscar from Guadalajara, Mexico. While chatting with him, I learned a lot about his culture and life in Mexico. His descriptions in Spanish helped me understand how to describe a place and experience his hometown in Mexico. I was very happy that I interacted with these Spanish-speakers because I feel like now if I have any questions about Spanish I can rely on them. I feel as though I have almost finished achieving my short term goal
This week I started achieving my goals by creating a Diigo, Soziety, and Epals account so I could start connecting with people there. Through Soziety I connected with one woman from Spain. We chatted on Skype and she corrected my Spanish and told me all about her culture and life in Spain. I think if I keep making connections like I did with the woman Whitty I will be able to achieve my short term goal of becoming more comfortable using Skype to talk to native spanish speakers.
Increase your knowledge of some of the most common regular and irregular verbs in Spanish in the present tense and go from rags to riches! Tags: present tense verb game activity […]
Free on-line Spanish flashcards with sound for learning basic vocabulary like foods, clothing, furniture, body parts, cooking, school, animals, transportation airport illness etc. includes quizzes Tags: school activity […]
type in any word you want to know in spanish in english, and get the how to spell it in spanish, plus how to use the word in various sentences! Tags: translate dictionary activity unit1 practice […]
This website helps incorporate fun activities while learning how to match up the gender of an object and whether it is plural or singular. Tags: number gender activity unit1 practice […]
kristen s