Course: Spanish 111 Intensive Beginning to Language and Culture (Spring 2020)
I took the course Intensive Beginning to Language and Culture in the Spring Semester of 2020. Though I took some Spanish in high school, this was a class I was more anxious about taking, because learning languages is not my strong area. During the first couple of weeks taking the course, I was very discouraged. The professor started the class speaking in mostly Spanish, which I found somewhat intimidating since I had not taken a Spanish course in several years. Though I understand that immersion is the best way to learn a language, I was worried I would fall behind in the course. This class required more time and studying than other courses, but I was motivated to learn more to be able to follow along in class.
As the semester went on, I started to get more comfortable speaking the language and understanding it when it was spoken to me. At first I was uneasy to speak Spanish out loud when I was still learning it in a group of people, but overall I think having conversations in Spanish with classmates and doing more classroom activities allowed me to learn the language more quickly. Working in groups for many classroom activities allowed me to receive help in areas in which I was struggling and give help to others as well. Though at times it was uncomfortable speaking the language when I was still learning it, this method of teaching was much more effective than staring at a PowerPoint while the professor taught it. Interacting with others and applying what we had just learned allowed me to retain the information and see its real-world application.
Many of these in classroom projects were done at home after we moved to online instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of my favorite activities was designing pieces for fashion week and describing the materials and clothes in Spanish. Though I feel like I have much more to learn about the Spanish language, I will be taking Spanish 211 in the 2020 Fall Semester. I hope to learn more and hopefully do more fun and engaging projects like these that make me even more excited to learn the language!
