Spanish Language Learning

 

I started my journey learning languages in second grade as our school had all students take Spanish from second grade until sixth grade. After that we had the option to take French, Spanish, or Chinese and I stuck with Spanish since I really enjoyed the language. Flash forward to high school and I had the opportunity to take a Spanish course through UW-Oshkosh which allowed me to advance my skills resulting in me passing out of Spanish 101 here at MSU, Mankato.  I was able to take Spanish 102 the spring semester of my freshman year. Then  during the fall semester of my sophomore year, I took Spanish 201. Although I would have loved to continue to learn the language, I was not able to fit in any more classes due to  being a nursing major. Through both classes I was able to strengthen my knowledge on what global citizenship meant as well as increase my Spanish speaking and writing skills.

 

As a part of my Spanish 102 class we were tasked with completing a final project revolving around the culture of a Spanish-speaking country. I chose Costa Rica and found it interesting to research and learn about the culture of a country different than my own. I created a video including important information about the country followed by a narrative paper pretending that a friend and I went on a trip to Costa Rica. Using the information I learned about Costa Rican culture, I included the products and practices into the video and paper to create the story (Knowledge and Understanding Level 1). Simple activities such as parades, dancing and eating different food are very popular in Costa Rica whereas in the United States activities such as work and sporting events are  people's priority (Self-awareness Level 2).

 

In my Spanish 201 class during Fall of 2020 my class was given a very unique, educational opportunity to meet and talk with students from ITESO, a university in Guadalajara, Mexico. This was such a cool experience for me as I was able to learn about their culture while speaking Spanish with them. It did push me outside of my comfort zone as it was harder to understand them due to the speed at which they talked and their native accent. I talked about Día de Los Muertos and Cinco de Mayo with a student at one point which was very interesting as I learned that they do not really celebrate Cinco de Mayo. It is more of an Americanized holiday which caused me to think about the festivities I usually partake in on that day and how off they are in terms of the culture in Spanish-speaking countries like Mexico (Knowledge and Understanding Level 4). Typically, I will have tacos and chips and salsa when in reality the tacos I am having are made of ground beef with lots of toppings which is not how traditional tacos are prepared.

              

Through this experience as well as others I feel as though I  gained a better understanding of how significant  an impact language has on culture.  Although culture is not simply the language within a group of people, but includes traditional drinks, food, dances, entertainment, clothing, religion and more. For example, in Guadalajara, I learned that they drink lots of tequila while dancing to mariachi music during the night life. Common dishes in that part of Mexico are chicken with rice and vegetables or rice pudding. Since the students were from Mexico and lived a bit of a different lifestyle, it was difficult at times to connect with them in the same way I would with someone from the United States, but there were similarities between our cultures at well which helped with this. In addition, most of the students I talked to said they also have learned English since they were young which helps to bridge that gap in culture (Communication Level 4).

 

My sophomore year I became more involved in Spanish Club as I was the secretary. Through this student group I was able to help put on fun events each month such as an informational session with someone who had studied abroad, a day where we learned traditional native dances, or even took a virtual tour through Colombia. To create the virtual tour, the vice president and I found videos of popular tourist attractions and places within Colombia to guide our tour while we added our own input in as well. From this I was able to connect American culture to Colombian culture and learn how the Spanish language differs slightly in this country as opposed to other Spanish-speaking countries (Knowledge and Understanding Level 3).

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Along with these fun activities, I also was able to talk with Jose, a student who is a native Spanish speaker. He was very understanding of me and would help me when I did not know how to say a word in Spanish that I was trying to use. This helped me to further build my knowledge of the Spanish language. I was able to communicate with Jose in normal conversation whether that was talking about classes, what we were doing later that day or just getting to know each other more (Knowledge and Understanding Level 2 and Communication Level 3). To me, I thought it was very cool to be able to attend a Spanish Club meeting and not only interact with students in English and Spanish, but also have someone who could act as a mentor for us when speaking in Spanish.