Por Que Espanol
Why Spanish?
As Chris Cummings says: "As a society, becoming a bilingual nation is a big advantage. After Chinese, Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the world. Across the world, there are between 450 and 500 million Spanish speakers."
I want to learn Spanish because after high school, I plan on traveling Europe. Because many European nations speak languages similar to Spanish, it is a good link language to have in order to communicate efficiently. Beyond Europe I plan on going to a four year college, for what I’m not sure. Many colleges, in order to encourage commitment and diversity encourage, or flat out require at least three or more years of foreign language study. Spanish is not only a valuable tool, but is also vital to connecting to people unlike yourself, it is for these reasons that I want to learn it.
As Chris Cummings says: "As a society, becoming a bilingual nation is a big advantage. After Chinese, Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the world. Across the world, there are between 450 and 500 million Spanish speakers."
I want to learn Spanish because after high school, I plan on traveling Europe. Because many European nations speak languages similar to Spanish, it is a good link language to have in order to communicate efficiently. Beyond Europe I plan on going to a four year college, for what I’m not sure. Many colleges, in order to encourage commitment and diversity encourage, or flat out require at least three or more years of foreign language study. Spanish is not only a valuable tool, but is also vital to connecting to people unlike yourself, it is for these reasons that I want to learn it.
Travel skit
This project was a summation of the facets of this years education, as such it involved cultural research, and vocabulary study. The skit we created to adhere to these pillars also required refinement and memorization to be practiced professionally in a public setting. Our cultural research of Cuba, the setting of our skit, is displayed inside of our skit, for instance many hotels in Cuba still use keys instead of key cards, also in Cuba most people do not have toilet paper. To comprehend and enunciate many of the words within the skit we required extensive vocabulary research. These words are seen through out the play.
This skit also developed our abilities to speak foreign language in public. We were able to learn of various quirks and altercations of specific countries- the ins and the outs. We also learned the importance of items of interest, how using them it is possible to gain a greater understanding of the conversation as a whole.
This skit also developed our abilities to speak foreign language in public. We were able to learn of various quirks and altercations of specific countries- the ins and the outs. We also learned the importance of items of interest, how using them it is possible to gain a greater understanding of the conversation as a whole.
Park elementary reflection
For the last two Tuesdays, we experienced Park Elementary through the eyes of a bilingual student. During the course of these excursions we did our best to mentor and help, and observe the unique challenges that bilingual students face in a classroom. We prepared for this by studying common, and basic Spanish phrases to aid us in casual conversation, reviewing phrases such as how old are you, what is your favorite class? When it came down to it we would carpool to park during lunch, join the students for their classes, and leave after the majority of the day was over.
My personal experience at park was a little awkward, because I had a different student for each trip. The first student I worked with was Edline, who was understandably very shy. I spoke a great deal of Spanish with Edline, but I don’t feel like I learned anything about growing up bilingual. On the second trip however I was able to make some actual connections with Esbin, who was far from shy! I helped the enthusiastic Esbin through reading, and math. I mostly helped him with Math, basic addition in fact. He had a lot of difficulty with it, but I could relate. Try as I might, I don’t feel like I helped him much if at all, I did however attend an extra bilingual math class with him. It’s weird, I can see he’s smart, he knows how to do whatever individual math problem you tell him to do, but can’t seem to make a connection to see what addition is, but knows what happens when you get two more or ten more respectively.
This got me thinking on how difficult it must be for bilingual kids to make connections in general. When you think and speak in two different languages, agua can be the water you get out of the tap at home, and water is what you get out of a fountain at school. When two different words mean the same thing which do you use in what occasion? When you are told to think one thing half the time and something else the other half, you have to use a whole other layer of thinking to determine how to answer, or say anything at all. When you consider this, bilingualism is far more thought intensive than monolingualism. The question then is does this eventually help or hinder the student?
The experience at park affected me personally by forcing myself to be reminded of what we all ultimately are. Free thinking pack animals who like to feel special in some way. My highlights of the experience were the recesses, specifically the recess I got to spend with Esbin, we got to play basketball, which was pretty great. The best part was watching the other first graders reactions to someone twice their height playing basketball and still missing, which was funny to say the least. If I were to go again I would try to get paired with the same person the entire time, preferably somebody enthusiastic so I actually get responses from them.
As a virtually monolingual language learner this made me think back to the day we spent looking at why bilinguals are smarter, they make more connections. Some of my most interesting thoughts and connections were provoked by simply looking at how people younger than ourselves see the world - seeing all the possibilities and hindrances that that brings. What opinions would kids formulate if we did not enforce upon them our own? Also...on an unrelated note, I think it’s fair to mention that walking past the kindergarten classrooms made me realize how I never fully appreciated nap time… silly but true.
My personal experience at park was a little awkward, because I had a different student for each trip. The first student I worked with was Edline, who was understandably very shy. I spoke a great deal of Spanish with Edline, but I don’t feel like I learned anything about growing up bilingual. On the second trip however I was able to make some actual connections with Esbin, who was far from shy! I helped the enthusiastic Esbin through reading, and math. I mostly helped him with Math, basic addition in fact. He had a lot of difficulty with it, but I could relate. Try as I might, I don’t feel like I helped him much if at all, I did however attend an extra bilingual math class with him. It’s weird, I can see he’s smart, he knows how to do whatever individual math problem you tell him to do, but can’t seem to make a connection to see what addition is, but knows what happens when you get two more or ten more respectively.
This got me thinking on how difficult it must be for bilingual kids to make connections in general. When you think and speak in two different languages, agua can be the water you get out of the tap at home, and water is what you get out of a fountain at school. When two different words mean the same thing which do you use in what occasion? When you are told to think one thing half the time and something else the other half, you have to use a whole other layer of thinking to determine how to answer, or say anything at all. When you consider this, bilingualism is far more thought intensive than monolingualism. The question then is does this eventually help or hinder the student?
The experience at park affected me personally by forcing myself to be reminded of what we all ultimately are. Free thinking pack animals who like to feel special in some way. My highlights of the experience were the recesses, specifically the recess I got to spend with Esbin, we got to play basketball, which was pretty great. The best part was watching the other first graders reactions to someone twice their height playing basketball and still missing, which was funny to say the least. If I were to go again I would try to get paired with the same person the entire time, preferably somebody enthusiastic so I actually get responses from them.
As a virtually monolingual language learner this made me think back to the day we spent looking at why bilinguals are smarter, they make more connections. Some of my most interesting thoughts and connections were provoked by simply looking at how people younger than ourselves see the world - seeing all the possibilities and hindrances that that brings. What opinions would kids formulate if we did not enforce upon them our own? Also...on an unrelated note, I think it’s fair to mention that walking past the kindergarten classrooms made me realize how I never fully appreciated nap time… silly but true.