Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The Test
I believe the test was pretty fair in most regards. The most grumbling I heard was over the translation part. I was a little bit tricked myself on the wording for the last question because I though it was a question about personal choice (if you were in her place) as opposed to a become laura question. My bad. As far as chapter 2 goes, it seems that the most important part from it is the subject-verb-adjective agreement. This aspect of the language, while relatively simple with practice, is very different from anything in English and provides the base for all of Spanish.
Chapter two
In chapter two we learned many useful things. We learned how to conjugate verbs that end with -ar, -er, and -ir. The conjugation of -ir verbs is very similar to the conjugation of -er verbs. It differs in the nosotros and vosotros form. For nosotros an example would be vivimos and for vosotros an example would be vivis with an accent on the second I.We also learned of gender, subject, and noun agreement. An example is son los libros and es el libro.
Chapte two taught us that estar is used to describe emotion and location while ser is used to describe physical attributes and personality. To say she is pretty, you would say ella es bonita. To say she is sad, you would say ella esta triste. There is an accent on the a of esta.
Gustar is an irregular verb and only has two forms, gusta and gustan. The conjugation would be gusta if we were to say me gusta el libro, and gustan if we were to say me gustan los libros.
Chapte two taught us that estar is used to describe emotion and location while ser is used to describe physical attributes and personality. To say she is pretty, you would say ella es bonita. To say she is sad, you would say ella esta triste. There is an accent on the a of esta.
Gustar is an irregular verb and only has two forms, gusta and gustan. The conjugation would be gusta if we were to say me gusta el libro, and gustan if we were to say me gustan los libros.
Diversity of Spanish cultures...
I think the thing that is standing out to me the most about Spanish culture right now is the wide range of people who speak the language and the differences between the countries and smaller populations included in that larger group. As someone who has studied German and Italian in the past, this is a fairly significant change.
German language has influences a lot of places, including here in central Texas, but isn't actually spoken as a primary language in more than a couple countries outside of Germany itself. Four countries beyond the boarders of Germany have large populations that speak the language.
Italian is spoken by small groups in a few countries outside of Italy itself but isn't those countries' primary language. Within the country the dialects range greatly to the point where Sicilian Italian and Roman Italian sound very different, for example, but comparatively one would expect that range to be relatively small in comparison to Spanish.
Spanish has the same kind of influences in this part of Texas that German does (if not more so), and has subgroups in many countries that speak versions of the language (like those we studied who settled in Louisiana who mix their old culture with the current one), but also have several other nations that speak versions of Spanish as their primary language. It's a little bit daunting to think that we're learning the basics of a language that almost certainly must come in a wide variety of styles and versions.
I think that when Prof. Zambrano talked about her experience watching No Country For Old Men that it really stood out to me. English, like Spanish, is spoken in a wide variety of places and has quite a bit of differentiation between those locations. Her comment about struggling to understand what was being said and what phrases meant, even though they were speaking "United States English," emphasized that even within our country there is a wide variety of versions of the language. Thinking about how tough it can be to understand certain British or Australian English speakers emphasizes the point further.
Spanish seems like it might even be more diversified across the subgroups that speak it. It seems like, by learning basics (and by virtue of the fact that we're likely to talk pretty slow as new Spanish speakers), I would hope that people who speak the language natively would be able to understand my basic meanings if I were to attempt to speak to them. In contrast though, it seems like being able to understand people from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico would be very, very difficult, even if they were speaking slow and using "basic" words.
German language has influences a lot of places, including here in central Texas, but isn't actually spoken as a primary language in more than a couple countries outside of Germany itself. Four countries beyond the boarders of Germany have large populations that speak the language.
Italian is spoken by small groups in a few countries outside of Italy itself but isn't those countries' primary language. Within the country the dialects range greatly to the point where Sicilian Italian and Roman Italian sound very different, for example, but comparatively one would expect that range to be relatively small in comparison to Spanish.
Spanish has the same kind of influences in this part of Texas that German does (if not more so), and has subgroups in many countries that speak versions of the language (like those we studied who settled in Louisiana who mix their old culture with the current one), but also have several other nations that speak versions of Spanish as their primary language. It's a little bit daunting to think that we're learning the basics of a language that almost certainly must come in a wide variety of styles and versions.
I think that when Prof. Zambrano talked about her experience watching No Country For Old Men that it really stood out to me. English, like Spanish, is spoken in a wide variety of places and has quite a bit of differentiation between those locations. Her comment about struggling to understand what was being said and what phrases meant, even though they were speaking "United States English," emphasized that even within our country there is a wide variety of versions of the language. Thinking about how tough it can be to understand certain British or Australian English speakers emphasizes the point further.
Spanish seems like it might even be more diversified across the subgroups that speak it. It seems like, by learning basics (and by virtue of the fact that we're likely to talk pretty slow as new Spanish speakers), I would hope that people who speak the language natively would be able to understand my basic meanings if I were to attempt to speak to them. In contrast though, it seems like being able to understand people from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico would be very, very difficult, even if they were speaking slow and using "basic" words.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Blog 2
Chapter 2 has been a very interesting experience for me. I completely understand all of the grammar rules and the vocabulary is very familiar. But what frustrates me the most is listening to native speakers speak. Not just because it's fast, but I can't understand where one word ends and another begins. Especially because I'm not most familiar with all the words that are being used. I can't help but wonder if that is what English sounds like to people who's primary language is something else. To me, it feels like in English, there are clear divisions between words. I feel like spanish is very fluid and it makes it much more difficult for me to understand.
Blog 2
I think chapter 2 was a little more interesting than the first. We learned about the colors, big numbers, ser, estar, gustar, adjectives and interrogative words. For some reason memorizing adjectives isn't too difficult of a task however, interrogative words and numbers...that's another story. It took me a while to drill in how to say the big numbers in my head. It's a little confusing because 1.000 is 'mil' and it throws me off because I think of 'mil' as million. And with the interrogative words...I still don't fully have those drilled in my head. It gets a little confusing sometimes. Another difficulty I had in this chapter is when we had to read and listen to things and try to translate the story or what was going on. I don't know enough spanish words to be able to translate well enough so this was a bit of a struggle for me.
Chapter 2 Post...
in this chapter we learned many different spanish aspects to furthering our knowledge of the language. we practiced vocabulary over human body parts in espanol, more numbers, grammatical gender and the definite article. plurals and adjectives in this chapter i think was fairly easy. where i ended up having problems was how and when to use the estar verb as well as gustar. when listening to the cd's and online audio lessons, i feel like their speaking a little to fast and im finding myself playing back the recordings way to many times. It starts to become very frusturating! well one of the fun parts in lesson two was learning the human body. i think i have them all pretty well rememberized as well as the colors. Its to bad we didnt have any of these on the test as im sure many of us thought there would be. moving on to grammatical gender and the definite article, in spanish masculine and feminine are either accompanied by the article la or by el. the masculine nouns will most of the time end in o and feminine will end in la.
Blog 2/Chapter 2
Chapter 2 was exponentially harder than Chapter 1. Hopefully, the trend doesn't continue. Chapter 2 introduced new concepts/ideas including interrogative words, estar, ser, gustar, and more hispanic culture. Out of all the topics, I had the most trouble with interrogatives. Throughout the semester, Ale has been stressing the importance of noun/verb/adjective agreement in terms of gender/number. When working with interrogatives, not only does gender/number matter, but even order is skewed compared to normal sentence structure. This is aggrivating because many interrogatives follow the form: Interrogative word, verb, object. However, depending on the interrogative word, the entire structure can be different. Putting that aside, we learned many differences between using Cual vs Que and Ser vs Estar. When comparing Ser vs Estar, interrogatives like Como and Que can have different meanings.
Basically, interrogatives and the listening activities are my problem areas. I had no problem with colors, numbers, adjectives, and the verb gustar. As new students, I know we aren't great at listening to Spanish dialogues. The test bothered me some because my slight deficiency in listening comprehension was taking away from my general knowledge of the subject material because references made from the video were constantly being referred to in questions.
Overall, I feel more confident when speaking though. A lot of the in-class activities are very helpful!
Basically, interrogatives and the listening activities are my problem areas. I had no problem with colors, numbers, adjectives, and the verb gustar. As new students, I know we aren't great at listening to Spanish dialogues. The test bothered me some because my slight deficiency in listening comprehension was taking away from my general knowledge of the subject material because references made from the video were constantly being referred to in questions.
Overall, I feel more confident when speaking though. A lot of the in-class activities are very helpful!
In chapter 2 we learned about definite articles (el, la, los, las). With these we learned about gender agreement with nouns. Masculine nouns usually end in -o and feminine nouns usually end in -a. Masculine nouns are paired with 'el' or 'los' (when plural), while feminine nouns go with 'la' or 'las' (when plural). However there are some exceptions that I have trouble with. Words that end with -dad or -ion can be feminine. Also words like idioma or atleta, that would appear to be feminine are actually masculine. Along with gender agreement, there is number agreement. When describing more than one person the noun must be plural. This is hard to remember becuase this is not used in English.
Chapter 2 also covers 'gustar' and its uses. 'Gustar' only has two conjugations. When what is being liked is singular or a verb you use 'gusta'. When what is being liked is plural, 'gustan' is used. 'Gustar' is used with 'me', 'te', 'le' and 'les' rather than usual articles. I think using 'gustar' is a lot easier than using some of the other verbs that have more conjugations. You only have to remember two and it is pretty easy to figure out which one to use at what time.
We also learned the use of 'estar'. It was confusing at first because 'ser' and 'estar' have the same meaning. However, 'estar' is used to describe temporary states of an individual. 'Ser', on the other hand, is used when describing physical and personality traits. At first I had trouble remembering which one was which but it is a lot easier now.
Finally, as the chapters are progressing, we are learning more about the culture. I think that is the most interesting part of everything.
Chapter 2 also covers 'gustar' and its uses. 'Gustar' only has two conjugations. When what is being liked is singular or a verb you use 'gusta'. When what is being liked is plural, 'gustan' is used. 'Gustar' is used with 'me', 'te', 'le' and 'les' rather than usual articles. I think using 'gustar' is a lot easier than using some of the other verbs that have more conjugations. You only have to remember two and it is pretty easy to figure out which one to use at what time.
We also learned the use of 'estar'. It was confusing at first because 'ser' and 'estar' have the same meaning. However, 'estar' is used to describe temporary states of an individual. 'Ser', on the other hand, is used when describing physical and personality traits. At first I had trouble remembering which one was which but it is a lot easier now.
Finally, as the chapters are progressing, we are learning more about the culture. I think that is the most interesting part of everything.
Blog 2
In chapter 2 the explanation of Hispanic culture was a little more in dept. It was interesting to know that in Florida, the city of San Agustin is the oldest european colonization in the United States dating all the way back to the year 1565. This is a fact that I would have never known if it wasnt presented to me in the textbook. It was also interesting to learn about the different famous Hispanic such as Dr. Severo Ochoa who recieved the Nobel Prize for medicine and Dr. Luis Alvarez who also recieved the Nobel Prize for Physics. Another importnat aspect of culture that was presented in chapter 2 was the different dialects. It is called spanglish or espanglish. This is simply a combination of spanish and english words that come together to make a new slang type words and is used by many bilingual speakers in the United States. Last but not least, I lso learned that there are five major Hispanic groups that is in the United States. They are Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans and Salvadorians. All of these facts are important to know when learning the spanish language because it helps you appreciate the language and countries more.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2 was over grammatical gender and articles, plurals, noun and adjective agreement, the verb estar, present tense, and the word gustar. Grammatical gender and articles involved masculine and feminine nouns. I learned that masculine nouns usually end in -o and feminine nouns usually end in -a. Secondly, I learned that you add -s to nouns that end in a vowel, and -es to nouns that end in a consonant. Thirdly I learned the difference between estar and ser, even though they have the same meaning, which is "to be." However, the verb estar is used to mark a location and the current state of health or emotions. The verb ser is used when describing the physical traits or personality of someone. However, I seem to still have trouble understanding when I should change the indefinite endings -ar, -er, and -ir verbs. And not knowing when to do this frustrates me because I am unsure how to write a sentence. This chapter has been a challenge to me because there is some vocabulary that I don't understand, and some of the recordings seem to be fast for me. The things that do help is the cognate words. Even though spanish is difficult, I hope to learn more of it to communicate with others of my race.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2 has been a struggle for me, some things I still dont understand, like when to change verbs to there infinitive endings, and writing sentences are hard for me. It really frustrates me that im not catching on to things like this, when it seems like a breeze to others. Being hispanic makes it that more fustrating because people expect you to already know spanish, and i don't. I want to learn how to speak spanish so that i can communicate more effectively with my extended family, and I think that its an important language to learn.
Chapter 2 Post
This chapter focused on body parts, the verb gustar, the verb estar, numbers, professions, interogative words, colors, and descriptions. We learned that the verb estar is used while describing location and the state a person is in. We also learned descriptors for personality and physical attributes. When using these you use the verb ser. The verb gustar is different from other verbs in the sense that it describes what is being liked instead of who is doing the liking. Therefore, if what is being liked is plural, then you would use gustan. If what is being liked is singular or a verb, you use gusta. This is the rule regardless of how many people are doing the liking.
Even though I have taken Spanish before, it is becoming harder. It's hard to understand reading passages because there are often words we do not know the meanings of. The same goes for listening passges. I often can't understand what they are saying because of their accents and speed. It's really frustrating for me, so I can only imagine how frustrating it is for the people who have never taken Spanish before. Hopefully we'll start learning more vocab and stuff so we can understand better.
Even though I have taken Spanish before, it is becoming harder. It's hard to understand reading passages because there are often words we do not know the meanings of. The same goes for listening passges. I often can't understand what they are saying because of their accents and speed. It's really frustrating for me, so I can only imagine how frustrating it is for the people who have never taken Spanish before. Hopefully we'll start learning more vocab and stuff so we can understand better.
Chapter 2/3
As the class is progressing, I have been finding it really hard to understand the fast speaking Spanish. In the first videos and examples all the speakers spoke slow and steady. That way, it was easy to tell what they were saying.
Now we get to hear all sorts of speakers from all sorts of Spanish speaking countries. Today in lab we were listening to this pair of people talk about how one of them wants to take a Spanish course. I thought they were from Spain because they had lisps. I could not understand a word of what they were saying!! It took thirty minutes for me to decipher a few phrases.
In class Alejandra told me they were from Chile. That confuses/frustrates me! Why are there so many different accents? I know there are a lot of different accents for English. This makes learning a language so hard. It makes traveling and applying languages very hard as well. I just hope that once I get vocabulary down I will be able to understand a speaker who has a different sounding accent.
Now we get to hear all sorts of speakers from all sorts of Spanish speaking countries. Today in lab we were listening to this pair of people talk about how one of them wants to take a Spanish course. I thought they were from Spain because they had lisps. I could not understand a word of what they were saying!! It took thirty minutes for me to decipher a few phrases.
In class Alejandra told me they were from Chile. That confuses/frustrates me! Why are there so many different accents? I know there are a lot of different accents for English. This makes learning a language so hard. It makes traveling and applying languages very hard as well. I just hope that once I get vocabulary down I will be able to understand a speaker who has a different sounding accent.
Blog 2
I found it interesting that there are so many state and city names in the United States that are based on Spanish words or phrases. I knew of a couple such as Amarillo and El Paso, but I did not realize just how many city names are based on Spanish words or phrases. I found it interesting that in San Agustin, Flordia you can still see the Spanish influence in the architecture, street names, food, and art. I also found it interesting that the state name Flordia is based on a Spanish phrase, Pascua Flordia.
When learning spanish, it is important to realize that nouns are assigined a grammatical gender: either masculine (the article el) or feminine (article la). This is different from English where there is no femine or masculine words. It is also important to remember that gender agreement is very important in Spanish.
Another difference between English and Spanish is that in Spanish the adjective goes after the noun instead of before like in English. For example in English we would say brown hair but in Spanish you have to say pelo cafe because the adjective has to come after the noun.
When learning spanish, it is important to realize that nouns are assigined a grammatical gender: either masculine (the article el) or feminine (article la). This is different from English where there is no femine or masculine words. It is also important to remember that gender agreement is very important in Spanish.
Another difference between English and Spanish is that in Spanish the adjective goes after the noun instead of before like in English. For example in English we would say brown hair but in Spanish you have to say pelo cafe because the adjective has to come after the noun.
Capitulo 2
A few of the things that we learned with chapter 2 are the plural form of words and adjectives to describe nouns and personalities. I mostly took realized that although estar and ser have the same meaning , they are also two separate concepts, and I have learned how and when to use the correct word.
I have seen that as you hear a language more often the more comfortable you become speaking and hearing that language, so I try to listen and speak Spanish when possible. Being raised in a largely Hispanic populated community, I have seen how the Spanish is not only a language, but it is a part of their culture and their history. Now a reason I want to learn Spanish is to preserve part of the culture.
I have seen that as you hear a language more often the more comfortable you become speaking and hearing that language, so I try to listen and speak Spanish when possible. Being raised in a largely Hispanic populated community, I have seen how the Spanish is not only a language, but it is a part of their culture and their history. Now a reason I want to learn Spanish is to preserve part of the culture.
Blog 2; Overview of Chapter 2
In Chapter 2 we've began to cover indefinite and definite articles (un, una, unos, unas) (el, la, los, las) which have taught us that once again gender plays an important role in Spanish. An -o is used for masculine articles and an -a is used to reflect feminine articles. The end of many nouns and adjectives also follow this "o"/"a" rule. However, there are the few that are tricky such as la cantidad, la television, el arte, and el idioma. Learning the tricky endings -ion, -ad, -ma, -ista, and -e can help one to know which article corresponds with the noun.
Last week we began to learn adjectives and the rule that unlike in English, adjectives in Spanish have to agree in number and gender with the modified nouns. I think this makes perfect sense, but I still get confused when trying to translate back to English. In order to check myself I always try to read the sentences back to myself in English (translate), but because the arrangement of our sentences is different in English, I'm sure to a spanish speaker my sentences are completely jumbled up.
Although I don't feel like we thoroughly covered conjugations, the chapter introduces present tense verbs -ar, -er, and -ir. These are easy to remember, but I know the "exceptions" to the -o, -as, -a, -amos, -an...etc, will come soon. Sometimes I feel like we've jumped ahead, (Tener changes to Tengo) weeks in advance of us actually learning the conjugations, but luckily I feel like most of us remember these exceptions. I consider myself to be having trouble with all of this and I had spanish a few years ago, so I really do sympathize for those who have never had any previous classes in it at all.
Gustar, ser, and estar are all covered in this chapter teaching us all that gustar has only two forms (gusta, gustan) and there is a real difference between ser and estar. Ser marks a personality or physical trait, while estar marks location and someone's current state. I'm beginning to finally retain the difference in ser and estar, although sometimes I'm not sure how you can tell. Someone could use -ser to saying someone is happy (meaning all the time), or estar to mean they are happy at that moment. How do you decipher if they are using it improperly?
I've never learned any of language so I wonder if our sentence structure in English is similar to that of other languages, or if other languages have sentence structures more like spanish. Of course because it's been all that I've known I feel like our sentence structure in english makes more sense, I wonder if other languages view it the same way.
Last week we began to learn adjectives and the rule that unlike in English, adjectives in Spanish have to agree in number and gender with the modified nouns. I think this makes perfect sense, but I still get confused when trying to translate back to English. In order to check myself I always try to read the sentences back to myself in English (translate), but because the arrangement of our sentences is different in English, I'm sure to a spanish speaker my sentences are completely jumbled up.
Although I don't feel like we thoroughly covered conjugations, the chapter introduces present tense verbs -ar, -er, and -ir. These are easy to remember, but I know the "exceptions" to the -o, -as, -a, -amos, -an...etc, will come soon. Sometimes I feel like we've jumped ahead, (Tener changes to Tengo) weeks in advance of us actually learning the conjugations, but luckily I feel like most of us remember these exceptions. I consider myself to be having trouble with all of this and I had spanish a few years ago, so I really do sympathize for those who have never had any previous classes in it at all.
Gustar, ser, and estar are all covered in this chapter teaching us all that gustar has only two forms (gusta, gustan) and there is a real difference between ser and estar. Ser marks a personality or physical trait, while estar marks location and someone's current state. I'm beginning to finally retain the difference in ser and estar, although sometimes I'm not sure how you can tell. Someone could use -ser to saying someone is happy (meaning all the time), or estar to mean they are happy at that moment. How do you decipher if they are using it improperly?
I've never learned any of language so I wonder if our sentence structure in English is similar to that of other languages, or if other languages have sentence structures more like spanish. Of course because it's been all that I've known I feel like our sentence structure in english makes more sense, I wonder if other languages view it the same way.
Blog 2- February 18, 2008
The second chapter covered topics such as articles, using gustar, noun adjective agreement, the use of estar, present tense, and plurals.
Articles are pretty easy. If the noun is feminine you use la or una. If the noun is masculine you use el or un. You also have to use the plural forms of these articles if the noun is plural: unos, unas, las, los. Also the verb gustar is unusual. To conjugate gustar you either use gusta with singlular nouns or infinitives or gustan if the following noun is plural. Next you simply add the indefinite article of me, te, le, nos, or les depending on who likes what.
The verb estar was also discussed in this chapter. It deals with direction or the current personality or emotion of a person. It is conjugated estoy, estas, esta, estamos and estan.
The present tense is also quite simple. For -ar ending infinitive verbs you simply drop the -ar ending and add o, as, a, amos, or an. For -er ending iinfinitive verbs you drop the -er and add o, es, e, emos, or en. For -ir ending infinitives you drop the -ir and add o, es, e, imos, or en,
On the cultural side of the spanish language I have learned in chapter two the various areas of the United States where a large population of spanish-speaking people reside. I was not aware that the state of Illinois was home to a large population of spanish-speaking people. I also learned that Spanglish is the combination of the English and Spanish language and has its own phrases that are unique to both languages.
Articles are pretty easy. If the noun is feminine you use la or una. If the noun is masculine you use el or un. You also have to use the plural forms of these articles if the noun is plural: unos, unas, las, los. Also the verb gustar is unusual. To conjugate gustar you either use gusta with singlular nouns or infinitives or gustan if the following noun is plural. Next you simply add the indefinite article of me, te, le, nos, or les depending on who likes what.
The verb estar was also discussed in this chapter. It deals with direction or the current personality or emotion of a person. It is conjugated estoy, estas, esta, estamos and estan.
The present tense is also quite simple. For -ar ending infinitive verbs you simply drop the -ar ending and add o, as, a, amos, or an. For -er ending iinfinitive verbs you drop the -er and add o, es, e, emos, or en. For -ir ending infinitives you drop the -ir and add o, es, e, imos, or en,
On the cultural side of the spanish language I have learned in chapter two the various areas of the United States where a large population of spanish-speaking people reside. I was not aware that the state of Illinois was home to a large population of spanish-speaking people. I also learned that Spanglish is the combination of the English and Spanish language and has its own phrases that are unique to both languages.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Learning Spanish so far hasn't been very fun. I really don't know any Spanish to start with, so things like making sentences and such are nearly impossible for me. We haven't spent much time on conjugating verbs, and it seems there are things we are automatically supposed to know that I don't, so I've been a little frustrated so far. I guess because I've already learned one foreign language and we did it in a much more structured and step by step manner, this has been very difficult and confusing.
Spanish culture I find interesting though. I am going to Chile for spring break, so I'm thrilled that I'll get a chance to experience some of it first hand, espcially because I'll be in a metropolitan area (Santiago) for a little while, but then go out to the absolute boondocks in a town called Chiu Chiu, which is near the tri border of Chile, Bolivia, and Agentina. Most of the time, we won't even be in a city, we'll be in a geyser field doing research, so I'm betting the people we meet won't have had much experience with Americans. That's the other thing that confuses me. I don't really understand why Latin countries would get mad that we refer to ourselves as Americans. Yes, they are all from a continent with the word America in it, but our country is literally named America, and we are referred to as thus throughout most of the world. I don't call myself a United Statian, I call myself an American. That's one of those cultural boundaries I just don't get. For the most part, I love hispanic culture. I used to live very near Juarez, so I visited Mexico a lot, and I have many hispanic friends. They're all so exciting and energetic, I love it. And they're very affectionate, which I like, because I think Americans can be rather cold sometimes.
Spanish culture I find interesting though. I am going to Chile for spring break, so I'm thrilled that I'll get a chance to experience some of it first hand, espcially because I'll be in a metropolitan area (Santiago) for a little while, but then go out to the absolute boondocks in a town called Chiu Chiu, which is near the tri border of Chile, Bolivia, and Agentina. Most of the time, we won't even be in a city, we'll be in a geyser field doing research, so I'm betting the people we meet won't have had much experience with Americans. That's the other thing that confuses me. I don't really understand why Latin countries would get mad that we refer to ourselves as Americans. Yes, they are all from a continent with the word America in it, but our country is literally named America, and we are referred to as thus throughout most of the world. I don't call myself a United Statian, I call myself an American. That's one of those cultural boundaries I just don't get. For the most part, I love hispanic culture. I used to live very near Juarez, so I visited Mexico a lot, and I have many hispanic friends. They're all so exciting and energetic, I love it. And they're very affectionate, which I like, because I think Americans can be rather cold sometimes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)