For the past school year, every 11:11 when the bell rings, I would make a wish for something terrible to happen. That I would get sick, fall off something, or get called to the office. I would walk from my fourth-period class to my fifth, butterflies forming in my stomach. I often dread the forty-one minutes that I would have to endure every week in Spanish III. Taking my third year of Spanish was at first a challenge, but I later overcame my fears of studying the language.
Before I started high school, I always had a fascination for the Spanish language. My family encouraged me to pursue learning French, but I decided to not take that route. I have been taking Spanish since the tender age of twelve, and five years later, I am still speaking the language. As expected, the more advanced my grade level will be the more advanced the language is going to get. I have gone up from beginner Spanish to Spanish I, II, and III. I would say I am a good Spanish speaker but with all languages, you need to put the time to commit yourself to learning it. Spanish has a bunch of rules that at first confused me. I would spend late nights flipping through notes and textbooks or surf the web in search any help. I am aware that Spanish is a language which needs a lot of practice, which is something I wish I would have known sooner. But despite that, I have received a lot of help which could not make me feel any less proud.
There were times in the class where I would feel helpless. There were
At the time, I signed up for spanish because it seemed the most useful considering the hispanic population in the United States and our close proximity to Latin America, but I never truly understood how helpful knowing another language could be. Over this past summer, I hosted a student from Spain for about a month. Before this experience, the language never seemed real to me. Meeting Marina and recognizing that spanish is the language she uses in everyday life changed my perspective. Spanish is exciting for me because it is an entirely new way of life that I haven’t experienced before. I spent my whole childhood speaking english and recognizing american traditions while other children spoke spanish and had different customs. Continuing to learn spanish will allow me to communicate with more people and exchange ideas with people who did not grow up the same way I
I slowly began losing the language I used to speak so much, Spanish. As the years went by in Elementary
Spanish has been crucial to me for my whole life because it shows that I’m bilingual. Not only do I use it in school, but also at home with my family. For the most part, this language has been with me since I was a little girl. I began to speak Spanish at age two and learned how to write it at age four. My parents helped me practice Spanish by speaking it. They also told me read Spanish books out loud, so I could speak it fluently. Luckily I went to Mexico when I was seven, but I only went that one time, so I haven't been able to practice with my whole family. In addition, I’ve had Spanish classes since kindergarten and now as a junior I continue to learn new things. As a teenager, I seem to use it more in my daily life, because my parents only speak Spanish which is how I’ve gained experience. For example, when my parents took me to Mexico at age seven, I learned to speak with all my family.
At first, speaking English was a bit difficult because I did not feel confident using it with others. The most advanced students sometimes made fun of my English. The students who spoke my own language made more fun of me than the ones who were fluent in English. The teasing by the students made me feel embarrassed and shy to speak the English language, giving me a fear of being made fun of or looked at differently. Practicing the English language with my own siblings and playing with the neighborhood kids who already managed the language gave me more confidence to speak English. Taking Spanish courses in school was also an advantage, which helped me to get better at my native language and kept me from losing it.
1. One way to read Richard Rodriguez’s essay is as a discussion of two discrete educational philosophies. What are they?
I speak primarily English, and a little bit of Spanish. I grew up in an English speak household; thus, I naturally learned English. In high school, I took three years of Spanish. My third year was an honors class, and I was a part of the National Spanish Honor Society.
There are a lot of kids taking Spanish because of how big it is in Texas, and even though they knew Spanish, there were also kids that grew up with it and took Spanish for an easy A. These kids would speak Spanish to each other when they didn’t want others to know what they were saying or that’s how their parents expected them to talk to family. Now they did have their own variations of Spanish including mine. However, they were still doing the same work that I was doing, and since they knew what the teacher was talking about they would apply their knowledge easier than I
I remember bursting out in tears running to my mom’s room and telling her how much of
Learning a new language at my age was a thug, people make fun of you in school if you don’t understand or don’t know how to say something. Only a few people help you. When I lived in Mexico I was always one of the best students and most of the times I was on the honor roll. Without knowing English in this country, I couldn’t the same. I start school here in Houston the 9th grade and my grades were very low, I couldn’t believe that my grades went from 100 to less than 50. Also, I couldn’t do my work, homework and tests because I didn’t understand or I didn't know how to ask. All this situation made me feel so incapable and frustrated. I started to use that frustration and courage to lose my fear and sorrow to ask my teachers and classmates for help. I decided to talk more English than Spanish with people in the stores, malls, and school. During the weekend with my cousins I remember that I used to talk to them in Spanish and they talked to me English so I could learn more vocabulary and how to pronounce the words. Listen to music in English helped me a lot familiarizing my ear to the language too, and using my free time to translate words from Spanish to English to learn more, so I could do better in
When I was in eighth grade and my class was choosing our schedules for our first year of high school, I was told that for the diploma I wanted, I would have to take a foreign language. I chose Spanish, because I thought it would be easy. Little did I know that that decision would change my life forever.
Hello, My name is Aracely. I am a native Spanish speaker, but since I tend to use English more often, my Spanish isn’t as great as it should be. I would like to strengthen my Spanish in class I love to travel! So far I’ve been to New York, Spokane, Seattle, Puerto Vallarta, and San Francisco. My goal is to someday be able to travel to Rome and Machu Picchu. Good Luck everyone!
Children gain great academics from learning Spanish in school. Many people are to limit what young non graduated students learn and impede them from being capable of learning Spanish. Why would they stop them from learning? Parents think that America should be an English only speaking country and wouldn’t appreciate a foreign language to be involved. I believe it makes you more intelligent in various ways. I say that for the sake of children learning Spanish at such a young age gives them a huge advantage in college. “ Studies on language development, however, show that the more exposure young children have to all languages actually gives them a distinct
English is a subject I have always felt strong with as a student, this area of strength has not only benefitted me in my this course but has helped me to succeed in every class I have taken. American literature so far has gave me a new and refined understanding, from read and writing to communicating my ideas in group discussions. Never before have I been able to have such a confident understanding of was I was reading and writing. I have gained a new and refined belief of what it means to annotate a text and why it is important, though I will always have reserved feelings about them. In discussion groups by referring to my annotations I am able to express my ideas and observations about the text. I have never before been so challenged with a piece of writing, throughout my career as a student prompts had always been specific and specifications were always strict. Writing literary analysis was not only a new type of essay writing for me but it required me to refer back to my annotations and think deeper about why I was having certain thoughts and opinions on a text to develop an argument. Whether it is reading, writing, or speaking the significance of everything I have mastered, and will continue to learn in english class will allow me to have fate in they way I express myself in the future.
Spanish is one of the most common languages in the world. Many people can read and write in Spanish, but some people aren’t able to speak in Spanish such as me. Even though I struggled with Spanish, I overcame it by practicing every day and getting help to speak it correctly. Back in high school, I did well in all my classes including Spanish. I understand the meaning and grammar of some Spanish words, but I struggled to speak it. My teacher wanted us to present in Spanish. I heard that I was worried because I’m not the best at presenting and especially speaking in Spanish (of course). In a matter of seconds, I decided that I need to practice if I want to get a good grade and boost up my G.P.A.
For me, learning a language is a complicated process. It is different from learning other subjects. It involves a lot of practices and follow up. When I talk about my personal experience, I would say that I have a rich experience in learning English as a second language. English was taught to me for ten years starting from grade seven till graduation from university. After graduation, I felt that I should improve my language skills. Therefore, I did a lot of efforts personally to increase my fluency. Until now I still learn the language. Indeed, learning a language takes a lifetime.