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I have taken Spanish courses since I was a young child in elementary school. However, I truly fell in love with the language in high school, as I realized the importance of communication and language capabilities. While I received background experience in Spanish in high school, I have gained a great deal of knowledge during my college career.

 

Through getting my Spanish minor at Drake, I have learned of culture and conflict, language and skills necessary to communicate with people of different backgrounds. Below is a collection of my work completed during my Spanish journey.

My Spanish Portfolio
EntrevistaElena and Miranda
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This was a project for my first upper-level Spanish course at Drake. I took a class that focused on myths and legends in Latin America. This was my final project for the course. My partner, Miranda, and I interviewed a native Spanish speaker from Puerto Rico about a popular legend in her culture. To the right is the written version of our interview and reflection, in both Spanish and English. Under the project is a full recording of the interview as well. Reina told us a number of different legends, all that were common in Puerto Rico. Miranda and I had heard of a few of them, including the Chupacabra, but we learned a great deal from Reina.

 

The interview was the highlight of the course as we were able to better understand the readings we had completed in class. Through this project, I was able to learn about culture, but also use my Spanish speaking and listening skills to communicate with a native Spanish-speaker. 

Myths and Legends

Interpersonal Speaking I Listening I Culture

Cuba

Culture I Speaking I Reading

During a J-Term course, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Havana, Cuba with a group of my peers and two professors. We were able to visit museums, universities, and historical landmarks. However, I found the most influential component to be the cultural experiences. We stayed with families in haciendas for the entirety of our trip, not staying in any tourist-heavy areas or hotels.

 

The photo to the left is la Hacienda de Leticia, the house we stayed in for the entire duration of our trip while in Havana. Leticia lived in a neighborhood with many other Cuban families who also were entering the tourism industry. 

To the right is a page of la Granma, the daily popular newspaper in Cuba. When I first decided to visit Cuba, I was most interested in understanding the cultural and daily implications of living under a dictatorship. Once in Cuba, I found it incredibly difficult to find any newspapers or magazines regarding contemporary issues. My goal for the trip was to purchase newspapers to better understand the freedom of information.

Venezuela, Oil, and Infrastructure

Writing I Reading I Presentational Speaking

During my most recent semester of Spanish, I took a course on contemporary Latin America from a professor native to Venezuela. For our final project we were to chose a topic that covered a number of the various themes we discussed throughout the semester. I chose to write about the influence of the oil industry in creating and improving infrastructure. While I originally planned on only focusing on the influence of the industry, I discovered a topic that was of more interest to me. I found the inequality between the rural and urban, poor and rich populations to be more severe than I had previously understand and imagined. By better understanding the status of an oil-dependent economy and government, I began to better understand the situations in Venezuela that acted as an integral component of daily life. Another component of this project was to present to our class on our findings. Above is the paper and powerpoint I used during my presentation. 

Reading Development
Reading

Below are examples of articles, reports, and stories I have read through my time at Drake. While not exhaustive, this is evidence of my personal and professional growth in reading and understanding. The pieces below include various myths and legends, cultural perspectives, and news articles. When I first arrived at Drake, I had a difficult time understanding little more than short articles on individuals. Now, I can read extensive reports and books that I can understand with limited difficulty. 

Reflection

To the left is a complete reflection on my portfolio. I explain my order of artifacts, the errors and failures I recognize from past mistakes, and goals for my future fluency. Read my reflection to get a better picture of my language experience! 

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