Spanish Language and Culture was one of my most challenging classes. It was difficult for me to learn Spanish in a different environment from high school because I was good at reading and writing Spanish, but not speaking it. So going into Spanish 212, I had to start speaking Spanish a lot more than I was used to doing. It was like trying to speak when you have the word you want to say on the tip of your tongue which is frustrating to do almost every day.
The parts of the class that I found really interesting was in what we were studying in the class. We were not just learning about the language, but also the culture that went with so many countries that speak Spanish. So we got to learn how much these countries differ from each other in a variety of ways even though they all speak the same language.
Artifact
I chose this photograph as my artifact because it is from one of the homework assignments I did for the class. The idea was for us to pick a holiday and write about it telling why we liked it so much. So I chose El dia de los muertos ( the day of the dead ) which is celebrated in Mexico. My interest in this holiday comes from the idea that people can celebrate the dead and their memories instead of just mourning them. This idea really spoke to me because I thought celebrating a natural occurrence and being happy about the lives we lived was really amazing.