The relationship between language and communication has always been intriguing to me. If I had the ability to change one thing about my childhood education it would be for a more intense and serious standard of learning another language. When travelling to various Spanish speaking countries, I realized how important it is to be able to communicate with other people, even if you do not speak the same language. Although, my desires to know how to speak another language stem from a place of respect and desire to be able to communicate. When travelling to Spain, it was an eye opening experience to be in a land where the first language that they speak is not English. I began to understand how non-speaking English individuals may feel when they are in America. It inspired a spot of compassion within myself to be able to speak in more than one language. My time in SPAN 111 and SPAN 211 helped me grow in that area.
While learning Spanish, I excelled most in the area of reading. For some reason, it was easiest to read Spanish compared to writing or speaking it. SPAN 211 challenged me during an assignment in which I had to compose a short Spanish paper. This was the longest piece of Spanish writing that I have ever completed. It was difficult at some points because my Spanish vocabulary was not vast in such a way that I knew how to convey or elaborate on what I was writing. Although it proved arduous at points, writing this composition in Spanish offered me the opportunity to develop my writing skills.