Blog 1

One thing that I found interesting while learning about Spanish culture is how it is considered rude to pass someone you know on the street without saying hello and engaging in conversation. In America we are often to busy to acknowledge someone we know while passing them on the street.

The cognate words are very useful while trying to understand something you are reading in Spanish. Finding words that you know allow you to use context clues in order to figure out the meaning. Having words that are either similar or the same in both english and spanish languages shows how intertwined the two cultures are. And it also shows the origins of both languages.

In class, I found it interesting that in American schools we are taught that there are seven continents where in Spanish speaking cultures they learn that there are only five continents. It is interesting to see that they consider both South and North America to be on the same continent. Therefore, when traveling to a Spanish speaking country we need to make the distinction between north and south america by saying we are from the United States and not from America.