Foundational Spanish
Portfolio
SPAN 202
Experiences:
​This semester we learned about a multitude of topics from food insecurity to stereotypes. As far as what experiences outside of the classroom that I have had that relate to what we studied. I would have to tell you about two different experiences. The first one would be the use of apps such as Duolingo ,Spanish Dictionary and Quizlet. The use of those apps allowed me to practice what we learned on a regular basis as well as review past topics that I have learned from previous spanish courses. The second experience would have to be through the use of the social media app TickTok. By using that app and other apps like it I was able to see content about food insecurity and how prices here in the U.S had risen and are starting to fall. I also witnessed how people came together to boycott many big name corperations and how it started to affect their businesses some of them to the point of bankruptcy in some countries.
Discipline:
I would say that for this semester out of the five courses that I took Short Story probably had the most impact overall as far as connectivity goes. For example, over the Thanksgiving holiday, I was assigned to read a story about a man who gave dream walks to tourist groups which is something that is a part of native American culture. The story is titled Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience. Overall, the story covers stereotyping as well as customs, traditions, and transformative experiences.
Another story from my Short Story class that connected what I learned in Spanish this semester is a story called Chokechain: It's a story about a transgender college student who comes home from college to find that his parents have bought a robot. Only it's an android of their identity pre-transition. As the story continues the main character is forced to confront their anger at both the android and their parents. Overall it's a speculative fiction story about a transformative experience.
Out of all of the stories that I read in my short stories class I would say that the story that we covered called Little Monsters probably had the most impact and connected the most in terms of the material that I learned about this semester. Trigger warning this story does contain abuse. However, I think it is a really good example of a transformative experience.
Overall, I wouldn't say that reading these stories helped me understand my major better. However, by having some of the material in my other classes connect to what I was learning in Spanish 202 I was able to see how much more I could do in the communications field.
Transfer:
I think once I graduate I will be able to use what I have learned in this class more in my future work field. For example, if I were to become employed at say a tech company and they needed someone to go and help set up the communications department in a Spanish-speaking country. Another example would be if I was working in customer service and a coworker needed help speaking with a client who only spoke Spanish. Also if I were to go anywhere with my family I would be able to help them get around do to the skills that I have gained in both this class and past Spanish courses.
Intergrated Communications:
Throughout this semester we have covered a variety of topics such as stereotypes, personal experiences, and food insecurity in a multitude of different media formats. These topics could be useful in the future in the sense that I would be able to communicate these topics better if they were to ever come up at say a networking event or even in everyday conversation. One of the major ways we did this was with our talk abroad assignments. Talk abroad is when we have a conversation about one or more topics that we have covered throughout the semester with someone who is from a Spanish-speaking country. For the first talk abroad we covered personal experiences and stereotypes. For our second talk abroad we covered topics such as influencers, customs, traditions, and food insecurity.
First talk abroad:
Second talk abroad:
Another assignment that was crucial in my understanding of the various topics that we covered was the group flip grids that we were assigned. Our flip grids served as a kind of class discussion board alongside other projects and discussions. For our flip grid assignments, we had to discuss one of the previously mentioned topics with each other. We did this by answering questions that were provided by our professor. Also at the end of our video uploads for the flip grid, we had to ask our fellow classmates one to two questions in Spanish. This allowed me to not only practice my speaking but also my ability to form full sentences in Spanish with skills that I learned both this semester and from previous Spanish courses.
Proyecto 20:
For this project we had to talk about one of our favorite influencers. I chose to talk about Kennie J.D. a content creator who creates content primarily about movie reviews. Also on her channel, you will find past videos about her travels to South Korea.
Proyecto 24:
This is the final project of the Span202 semester. For this project I give my thoughts on food insecurity in the united states .
Self-assessment & Reflection
Overall, I think that learning Spanish or any language really is a very useful skill. I think language learning is hard and takes a lot of practice and while I am nowhere near the level of fluency like that of a native speaker. I think that I know enough to do a great job in the field of communications. Also, I think with enough practice and time I can improve in the areas that I am not as strong in. As far as how I could use it in the future I would say the main way in which my knowledge of Spanish would be useful would be in the workforce. For example, If I and someone else were to apply for the same position. I would be more likely to be offered the said position because I know two languages that's if the other person had no other qualifications that made their resume stand out more. Another way that my knowledge or skill set in Spanish could be useful is if I happen to end up in a situation where someone around me only speaks Spanish and they need someone to act as a translator of sorts. A good example, of this would be if I were at a music event or a restaurant and someone had a hard time understanding what the staff was asking them.