chapter 4

Through out chapter four I learned about reciprocal verbs such as "nos " and "se." I learned that these verbs are used when describing each other or one another. For example, nos amamos or se aman. I also learned about the different types of vocabulary for job professions, the weather, and formal and informal clothing. I also learned about ir + a + infinitive, which refers to future tense in spanish. While in class I also liked how we listened to the Camisa Negra song to help us understand the concept. For some reason I feel like I understood things more for the second test than I did for the first test but when it came to the test, I felt like I blew it. I understand that it is all about time managing but I felt a bit pressured when I realized that I only had ten minutes left. I feel like the test was just a bit too long, but then again that is my opinion. I need to learn how to manage my time and hopefully it helps improve my grade.

Chapter 4

In chapter 4 we learned about the weather. Which I thought was confusing because of all the different phrases and that you have to know when to use hace, esta, or hay. THe one thing I didn't like about this chapter, was how much vocabulary words there were! I felt overwhelmed. When we were learning about clothing we got to listen to a mariachi song and then describe the clothing that the people were wearing. I also liked how when we learned about the reciprocal verbs we listened to music as well. I also enjoyed the first semester love song video on youtube.

In chapter four we learned about stem-changing verbs. We learned that in some verbs, you change the 0 to ue and e to ie or e to i. You only change the stem for the yo, tu, usted, and ustedes forms of the verb and leave it the same for the nosotros and vosotros forms. We also learned about the go verbs: hago, oigo, pongo, salgo, traigo, and digo.

This chapter was filled with grammar. We also learned about the immediate future which is ir +a + infinitive. For exame, I am going to study is Voy a estudiar. We also learned about adverbs that end in -mente and how if it ends in o you have to change it to a before adding mente. For exame rapido changes to rapidamente.

I felt that this test was easier than the first test, but it was still difficult. Especially the last page!

In this section we got to hear music and I really liked that. My favorite was the Camisa Negra song because I have always like that song and never really got to look at what it really meant. When we were studying clothes and instruments we got to listen to a mariachi band and then decribe what they were wearing. I'm from Corpus Christi so Selena is really big down there because that is where she is from. I just remember that song "Como me duele" and I always remembered that irregular verb because of that song.

I have been really really disspointed with my grades in this section. I think I have learned a lot more than the previous section and I don't know what I am doing wrong. I feel like I have a good grasp on the verbs and the lecturas so I am really interested in what I could do to make my grade better. Also I thought I did much better on the test than what I really made. So I am little confused as to why I didn't do to hot. I think it was the last page.

Cuban/Dominican Culture

I find it interesting how both of these cultures have such strong, proud establishments in the United States. The Cubans have nearly their own city in Miami and Dominicans usually hold large parades in the cities where they are present. Include this with Puerto Ricans and you have three distinct groups that are not afraid to show a large amount of pride in their heritage that other Hispanic groups do not tend to show as flagrantly in America. It is odd though because these groups are also some of the more assimilated groups into the American mainstream.

Blog 4

Over spring break I got to go to Chile for seven days. I'm a geologist, so I went down there and spent a lot of time working in the field and taking measurements and samples to be analyzed here at UT. Naturally, this was an amazing trip. I know I'm the only geologist, but seeing the Andes was amazing, and we spent the whole time in the Atacama Desert, which is the driest place in the world. We were based out of San Pedro de Atacama, a very small town about an hour away from a town with an airport, and about three hours away from anything that could be called a city. It was completely different from anything I've ever experienced. We stayed in a "hotel," but it was more like a hostel, or a motel. My room was the only one without an attached bathroom (it was also the only one made of plywood with a screen only attached on one side and blinds you could see through) so that meant getting up at dawn every morning to go outside where the community bathrooms, showers, and sinks were. Since Chile is in the southern hemisphere, it was fall there, and pretty cold most of the time (cold for a Texan, at least). We were up at dawn every morning, spent all day in the field, and returned to the Tahka Tahka (our hotel) at sundown every day. It was exhausting, but worth it.

The people of San Pedro were really nice, especially to the girls. The men really liked us--there were catcalls every few feet, but then I was the only blond girl in the whole town. All the shop owners loved us, and usually the owner of whatever restaurant we were in ate with us for a little while. They don't speak as much english in San Pedro as in other areas of Chile, so my Spanish got a lot of exercises. I think I did really well. The verbs I knew were all really useful, and my friends who knew more spanish than I did would fill in the nouns I needed to know. Honestly, the hardest thing to understand was when people said numbers, like telling me what time it was or how much something was. I almost never understood them on the first (or second) try.

We spent one day at a mine called El Abra. The people there loved us because we were geologist. I think several of my friends may intern there. We had a translator, and he spent a lot of time talking to me about how it was to live in Calama, which was the town with an airport, and a mining town. The mine has buses that run to and from the city every morning and night to transport their workers. The thing I thought was weird was that the workers had to be searched every day when leaving. I don't know why, it was only a copper mine. Anyway, it was really interesting listening to him, and he taught me a few phrases to say when people hit on me. It was a lot of fun. When I left, he kissed me on both cheeks, which surprised me, and made me laugh, because we both had on hard hats and it was a rather awkward affair. But then a lot of the other mine workers kissed my cheeks too, and so did several people in San Pedro. At first I didn't like it because I had been getting so many catcalls, but these were married men and completely platonic. So then I got used to it, and honestly I kind of liked it because then I could tell if they really liked me and thought I was nice or not.

So Chile was amazing. I want to go back and visit the southern portion and see the penguins. We saw lots of llamas while we were there, but not much else. It is the driest place on earth!

Blog 4

In this chapter we learned about reciprocal verbs,  clothing, weather, and professions. There was a lot of material to learn in this chapter. I have trouble memorizing the meanings of the clothing and professions in spanish so I had a little trouble on the test when it came to that. In professions, we learned about masculine and feminine, which still confuses me sometimes because I don't remember which ones can be either or, or which ones are just masculine. The reciprocal verbs are still a little confusing to me. 

This test was a little hard for me. One, the listening part is always difficult for me because they talk real fast. Second, I don't remember the meanings of all the verbs, so the fill in the blank section was a difficult for me. I feel like there was a lot of material to know for this previous test, which was apparently too much to cram in my head in a short amount of time.

Chapter 4

In chapter 4 we learned how to discuss the weather, careers, and clothes. For weather we learned that there are different ways to talk about particular kinds of weather. You can use "estar", "hacer", or "hay". For example, "it is hot" would be "hace calor". When we learned how to say different professions we learned that most of them can be both masculine and feminine (el maestro and la maestra). However some of the words are used in the same form for both masculine and feminine (el/la doctor). We also discussed clothing items. With this we got to pratice our colors also. It was interesting to me that "jeans" can be used in both english or spanish. The most confusing part of this section was the reciprocal verbs when saying that people are doing something together. Another reallys useful thing we covered was how to say "going to" by using 'ir' + a. If I wanted to say "I am going to travel" I would say "Voy a viajar". Lastly we learned how to add -mente to adverbs. For example, "frequently" would be "frequentemente". I have to say that my favorite part of this section was the song!

Chapters and Test

First off I'd just like to say my leg hurts and has been hurting ever since that test. And on to the test. The worst thing was trying to remember how to say my routine in the morning. I either had a brain fart or maybe I just skipped studying it? The verb portion of course was horrible for me because I knew about 3 of the verbs. Chapter 4 was pretty good though.. A lot on the weather, clothes, and professions which helps understand those conversations which are meaningless. But maybe it's just that I still need to go back to chapter 1 to learn when to use basic verbs. I'm horrible at spanish....

Chapter 4

In chapter 4, weather, clothes, and careers were the main topics. In dealing with weather I learned that in summer and winter in tropical countries are defined by degrees of dryness and wetness becase of the hemispheric position. This is also the same for the United States. States that are by a body of water tend to get a lot of rain while states in the middle maybe dry. Chapter 4 also discusses what and what not to wear in different occasions. For instance it is best to wear a skirt, dress, blouse, or pants to a job interview, and things like a T-shirt and shorts when you are just lounging around. The topic of greeting others was also spoken of again in this chapter. Most embrace with a hug and a kiss in the spanish speaking countries while in America it is normal to just wave or give a simple hug. It is very rare to see someone kiss when greeting each other unless they are a couple. In Argentina and Uruaguay, it is not rare for people to greet there friends with a kiss. In chapter 4 the greeting of other people are the only thing that is slighty different. Everything else such as weather and appropriate clothing are the same as the culture here in America.

Blog 4 (capitulo 3&4)

Within chapter 3 and 4 there were many useful topics to remember and apply. In chapter 3, learning about reflexive verbs and the present progressive tense were the most confusing concepts to understand. In chapter 4 learning about the immediate future tense and adverbs ending in -mente were the easier concepts, but the stem-changing verbs were probably the most complicated because the memorization of all the different verbs.

By now I find that the best way to remember the many topics and vocabulary I learn are to try to re-explain the concept and then try using the vocabulary in conversations. Now I notice that when I listen to a bachata or reggaeton song a few times that I can understand some of the lyrics of the song.

In chapter 4 we covered many vocab terms dealing with professions, weather, and clothing. To be honest this was probably one of the more difficult chapters to keep up with due to the fast pace we were going at. I think the easiest vocab terms to remember were the clothes just because in the spanish labs we did an exercise that dealt with what you and your partner would wear on a date or to a job interview. The weather sometimes got tricky because either hace or esta would be used in front of a weather description. The grammer section of chapter 4 explained the usage of reciprocal verbs and stem-changing verbs. the reciprocal verbs are used when you are using a sentence while talking about doing something to or with each other. you would add nos baliamos if you wanted to say we dance with each other. stem changing verbs were difficult because you had to remember which verbs needed stem changing in order for the sentence to come out correctly. Also in this chapter we learned that english words that ended in ly, in spanish had to end with -mente or -amente on the end of adverbs. The word rapidly in English would be changed to "rapidamente" in Spanish.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 was a useful chapter involving professions, clothes, and weather. Under professions, there was a lot of material regarding the employment/interviewing process. For the most part, the chapter did a great job covering most of the common professions (lawyers, doctors, etc). The clothes and weather were useful too.

Grammatically, we were introduced to reciprocal verbs, in which the action is shared between two or more people. Up to this point, we have discussed verbs describing things we do to ourselves, but not things done with others. The new concept caused some confusion when it was mixed with reflexive verbs and gustar. Specifically, whether indirect object pronouns were used or not.

In my opinion, the test was difficult because of the vocabulary. I could distinguish what a certain verb was in context, like poner being to put, but once it was put next to other verbs (poder, hacer), I started getting confused.

I look forward to Chapter 5.

Chapter 4

In Chapter 4 we learned about weather, clothing, professions, and reciprocal verbs. For weather, we learned that there are many ways to talk about it using hacer, estar, and hay. At first this seemed confusing to me, but the more and more we've talked about weather, the more it all makes sense. We also learned about clothing and professions, for the most part at the same time by explaining what one wears at a particular job. I always love when there is the least bit of familiarity to what we are learning in class to the little I learned in high school. We didn't go over much, but in high school we at least learned clothing and different professions. In class we've learned that although most professions can be used in the masculine and feminine form, there are a few such as el/la chofer, el/la dentista, etc., that are only used in one form. At the end of the chapter we learned about reciprocal verbs and when they are appropriate to be used. Reciprocal verbs are only used to talk about people doing something towards each other, or you and someone doing something towards each other. Although it is something I forgot to include in my own quiz, when using reciprocal verbs it is necessary to put "nos" or "se" in front of the verb. Examples include "nos amamos" and "se aman", when talking about two people loving each other. Lastly, we learned to put -mente or -amente on the end of adverbs just as in English we put -ly at the end. Therefore the word "rapidly" in English translates to "rapidamente" in Spanish. For words that end in an -o, it is necessary to drop the -o and add -amente. For all other adverds, adding -mente is all that is needed. I feel like this chapter covered so much, but most of it wasn't confusing. I'm so glad that when I read a sentence in spanish now I don't have to skip from word to word that seems familiar, but these actual grammatical lessons are teaching us the context of each sentence. We realize now if it's reciprocal, or possessive, or meaning in the future, etc..

Chapter4

After learning professions in this chapter, I learned that while some professions might change masculine and feminine form, there are those that are only one way such as dentista or modelo. I definitely had some problems remembering which professions did this but after reviewing the vocab several times and seeing them again in my SAM work it became easier to identify them. During chapter 4 we also learned how to add mente to the ends of words such as rapidamente. The rule I learned was that in order to add mente to the end of a word if the word ends in an "O" then it needs to be changed to an "A" followed by mente, or if the word doesn't end in O then mente is simply just added on for example general changes to generalmente and lento would change to lentamente. When it came to reciprocal verbs I had to keep in mind that these verbs are used when they or we are doing to one another. It was important for me to remember that reciprocal verbs only are used for they(Se)and we(Nos) such as Nos amamos or Se besan.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 focused on professions, weather, and clothing. The professions were a little tricky because some of the professions would end in "a" and still be in that form for the masculine version. The weather was also a bit tricky because some of the forms would be "hace" while others were "esta". I guess it is just one of those things you have to memorize. As far as grammar went, we had to know that in order to say "each other" you would have to use les or nos. Also, there are verbs that have irregular yo forms such as "caigo". Some verbs are also irregular and change in all the forms except in nosotros. For instance 0 changes to ue, e changes to i, and e changes to ie. Also, if you want to add mente to adjectives, you can make them into adverbs. Add mente to adjectives ending in a constanant or ending in a. If the adjective end in o you would change it to an o and then add mente. Overall this chapter was better than chapter 3, but Spanish is starting to become a challenge for me.

chapter four

I think that this was by far the most difficult chapter. Not because the material was hard, but because there was so much vocabulary! This chapter taught us about job positions and the weather. We finally know how to say I am going to do something which I think is pretty cool because that is something we use in our everyday language.
The culture section for this chapter is about the similarities and differences between Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Cuba is a communist country while the Dominican Republic is democratic. Both are part of the Caribbean and have many tourist come to their beaches. In the Dominican Republic, Juan Pablo is their hero. In Cuba, their hero is Jose Marti.
I hope everyone did wonderful on the test today! I do not know if anyone else wants to go, but I still want to go to the museum Prof. Zambrano was talking about in the beginning of the semester... I think it would be kind of neat.
---Brooke

In Spanish we are now starting to learn differences in the school systems here and in Spanish speaking countries. It is interesting to me how students in Spanish speaking countries go straight into their professions right out of high school unlike here. They are not required to take prerequisites in college. We are also starting how to learn the language in many ways. We learned how to say "i need to" using tener que. We also learned how to say "i feel like" using tener ganas de. We are also learning how to use reflexive verbs, which is kind of tricky for me to learn. Especially when you have to combine it with a gerund or something else. When forming a gerund you use estar + the verb and add either ando or iendo depending on whether it's an ar verb or ir/er verb. I like learning all these new things because we are able to write so much more now.

Blog 3/Chapte 3

Like many of you stated, we're getting to the point where we can say things we want to. If we're not sure how to say it, we can at least guess and get pretty close. The writing assignment today was particularly helpful because it made realize how awkward my spanish writing is. I read through some of my paragraphs and realized they were grammatically correct, but seemed fragmented when read together. Of course, in the writing, Rebeca was the main character. Instead of saying "Ella es" every time, a balance of "ella es, Rebeca es, and Es" should all be used to help improve the fluidity of the writing.

Blog 3

At the beginning of learning anything new it can be intimidating, but once you continually do it you become more comfortable, learning Spanish is happening in a similar way. Today I realized that my writing skills have improve from the first day of class, and I do not feel as though I have no guide. It is a slow process to master all the tenses ad there uses, but I now see how continually using the knowledge helps to keep the information in your brain. For example, the more writings and Spanish speaking I do, the more I feel comfortable with the language. Within chapter 3 I learned how the educational systems in the US and other Spanish speaking countries compare. One of the concepts that I remember the best from the chapter was (tener+que+ infinitive or tener ganas de + infinitive) which tells that a person has to do or would like to do something. I am looking forward to learning new concepts that I can use in my everyday conversations.

The good and bad of this part of language-learning...

This part of learning a language is a lot of fun and a lot of trouble. On one hand, you're finally getting to a point where you can actually say things that you might actually want to say! On the other hand you're at the point where you have to try to keep it all together a little. You can't let the first stuff you learned slip out while you're putting the new stuff in... and it feels like the vocabulary necessary to fuel the language you're trying to use is exponentially larger and larger.

It also is the point where you start seeing more and more of the "flaws" that the people who started the language didn't plan that well, at least as far as what effect it will have on people trying to learn it. I'm, of course, referring to things like irregular verbs and "boot" verbs. (By the way, I believe we were supposed to be given a list of those to memorize at some point, right? Just remembered that...)

There are, of course, other things that are popping up that help make learning the language trickier than it would be otherwise. Prepositions, for example, are always a concern to me at this point. I think I'm just going to use "en" from now on unless we've been told specifically otherwise. In fact, I may have done that on today's in-class writing.

Reflexive verbs are a little tricky but I don't think they're really bothering me too much so far. I usually understand the thought behind why you'd be using those verbs in particular reflexively. Once again, there are plenty of situations where you "just have to learn" that that's what is used, but in this case they seem to make a little sense at least.

Oh well, I guess that's all for now. I have a friend who just came back from living in Argentina for a little bit and traveling through other parts of South America so maybe I'll talk to him and have some more "cultural" things to put in here next time.

Blog 3

After this chapter, I feel a lot more comfortable about being able to form sentences and speak. We learned a lot of useful concepts this chapter including time, the present progressive form, and learning school vocabulary. After knowing these concepts I feel a way more knowlegable because these are the things we say everyday. I had a really awesome accomplishment because I left and entire voicemail in spanish and I was very proud. Also what I learned was how effective just speaking and writing stories and describing things helped with learning vocabulary. I remember in my spanish classes in the past, we would get quizzes and tests with matching the words with the english translation. But I've found that our daily exercises of describing pictures and videos, I seem to be remembering vocabulary much better. I always thought that the other way was the only appropriate way to learn but I see that our way is much more affective.

Jordyn Brown

In chapter three we learned some pretty useful things. I liked the "tener que + infinitive" and "tener ganas de + infinitive" because those are a part of every day conversation. These phrases mean "I have to (blank)" and "I feel like (blank)". These are some of the most useful phrases that we've learned that can actually be used in casual conversation. We also learned reflexive verbs. These were the hardest for me to understand. I have a hard time remembering which are reflexive and which are not considered reflexive. With reflexive verbs you use the reflexive articles (me, te, se, nos) along with verb. Another tricky part was the fact that several of these verbs are stem changing. It's hard because there is no set rule, you just have to memorize them. Chapter three also taught us about the present progressive tense. This was also useful because we can use this form to say what we are doing at that moment. I like this because it sounds more natural, like the way I would normally talk. The present progressive is basically adding an -ing to the end of the verbs. For example: "Estoy estudiando" means "I'm studying." Finally, we learned about telling time and describing our schedules.
On the cultural side of the chapter, we learned about the differences between the school systems. We also learned that there are several false cognates when it comes to the vocabulary for school related items. For example, "colegio" doesnt mean "college" and "facultad" doesnt mean "falculty".
I also loved the videos! They were so great!

Chapter 3 Post...

In this chapter we learned the concepts of reflexive verbs. We also learned how to conjugate regular verbs which for me wasnt an easy task. I learned that when conjugating relflexive verbs, pronouns are used before the verb and the ending se would be taken off the verb. Its very tricky when to do this and when not to, but the key is to make sure the subject and the object is the same and youll remember that its reflexive and the infinitive will end in se. another thing we focused on in this chapter was cognates and those are words that in spanish we think their the same in english but the are really not. Its always better to look up a certain word if you dont know the meaning rather then to guess its the same word in english. At first when watching the you tube videos and having to describe what the people were doing was tough but now after practicing them several times with partners and self practice its become easier to do.

Blog 3

I feel like in chapter 3 we've started to learn things that we would actually use when speaking spanish. Of course I know it's best to be able to say "The hour is..," "I walk.." etc.. learning how to say reflexive verbs and present progressives is something that we will use more. With that said, I am getting more confused. I know that once I get it down and we more on to more advanced Spanish I'm going to think that learning my -ings was so simple. But for now, it's still confusing. I understand the way in which the verbs change when present progressive: -ar=-ando, -er=iendo, -ir=iendo, but when to use them and they are only reflexive is still confusing me. When I think about it it makes perfect sense, which is nice, but I still haven't grasp the ability to freely say sentences without pausing and thinking about how I am trying to say it in English and then comparing it to how it is said in Spanish. Sentence order too is still something I'm trying to learn. I am so set in the way things are said in English, and in Spanish, like in all other languages, things are said slightly different. Fortunately, I am starting to recognize words easier (of course it's still easier to see on paper than the way the words are pronounced verbally), but put things in sentence form myself, outloud, is something I still freeze up when doing.
For the cultural part of this blog I really don't know what all to say. We haven't focused too much on cultures for chapter 3 except for a few activities about spanish schools and music. Mariachi bands are something I find neat in the spanish culture. Although you can easily find a Mariachi band playing at a Mexican restaurant or hired for weddings, you don't ever see American bands walking up to tables while people eat. Obviously we too have bands, but the way in which the Mariachi band entertains is unique.

Blog 3

I think this chapter was very helpful because it taught us how to say what we are doing in spanish, and the proper usage of it. Reflexive verbs, for instance, are useful when describing our daily routines. I still haven't fully grasped a good understanding of how to use it but I am still learning.  

chapter 3

I thought this chapter was very confusing. The ing or iendo is a very confusing topic for me. I still don't think I am understanding how to do it correctly because today in the written assignment I think i conjugated the words incorrectly.
I thought it was really interesting though, I was listening to my mom on the phone talking in Spanish, and she used tener que. I like that phrase. It is really useful because you are always telling people I have to do this today. She also was explaining her daily routine and I was really shocked that I understood. She said she had to wake up early and get dressed and go to work. And that later she needed to go to the bank, but she wanted (tener ganas de) take a nap. That's really my main objective: to understand the language. Well I need to learn to speak it too and I suppose that is the hard part.

The other day we listened to a song in class and I really liked it. At the wedding receptions of my friends and family memebers they always have mariachi bands. It was really familiar music to me. I liked the lyrics to the song to about the guy waiting for the girl outside the window. It was a little creepy at times but there are American songs like that. Even though they are in different languages it shows that people still write about the same things.

Blog 3

One thing we learned in Chhapter 3 was "tener que + infinitivo" and "tener ganas de + infinitivo". Tener que + infinitivo means "I have to do ____" and Tener ganas de + infinitivo means "I feel like doing ____". An example of the first is "Tengo que estudiar" which means I have to study. An example of the second is "Tengo ganas de comiendo" which means I feel like eating.

In chapter 3 we also learned how to tell time and how to tell our schedules in spanish. For telling time we learned that when you want to say that it is 1:15 you have to use "es la una y quince" but when you want to say 2:15 you say "son las dos y quince". When you say 1:00 you have to use the 3rd person singular form of the verb ser but when you want to say any other time you use the 3rd person plural form of the verb ser. In order to tell our schedules in Spanish, we learned about reflexive verbs which are when you are doing something to yourself. An example of a reflexive verb is levantarse which means to get up. To say "I get up" you conjugate the verb leventar into the yo form and add the reflexive particle me (Me levanto). The relfexive particles are: me, te, se, nos, os, and se. To recognize a reflexive verb it will always have a relflexive particle attached to the infinitive (ex. levantarse). When you conjugate the verb you move the reflexive particle to be before the verb (ex. me levanto).

Another thing we learned in this chapter is the present progressive which is used to refer to activities that you are doing at a specific time. When you use the present progressive you use the verb estar + the present particple. An example is "Estoy hablando" which means "I am talking". The endings you use in this tense are: ando, iendo, and iendo.

In this chapter, one thing in culture that we learned is the differences between the American and Latin American Universities. We also learned about more false cognates that are involved when talking about edudcation. For example: bien educado which we would think means well educated but in reality it means well-mannered or polite. There were other false cognates such as colegio and falcutad.

Capitulo 3

In this chapter we learned how to say we are doing something which I think is really useful. To just add either ando (-ar) or iendo (-ir and -er) is extremely simple and easy to remember. We also learned more verbs and how to say what our class schedule is. The reflexive verbs we learned are about your daily routine and what you do. An example of using a reflexive verb is "Esta maquillandose."
An obvious difference is that in english we use many of the same words to describe things we do while in spanish they have specific words for each thing they do. We would say I put on clothes and I put on make-up and in spanish you would say Me visto and Me maquillo.
The only culture thing I can think about is what I read in the book. It says that in tropical countries that weather is determined not by how hot and cold it is, but by how dry and wet it is. This is how it is done in San Juan and Havana. I too loved the videos we saw!! They were extremely funny!!!

Didn't forget my blog

1st off. I just want to say that the spanish youtube videos we watched in class were amazing. Chapter three was straight and to the point but I still haven't quite grasped everything. It's bad enough to remember which reflexive verbs have the letter change in them. I'm not looking forward to the writing tomorrow in class.......Most likely I'll just forget every verb we've ever learned and just start putting o's on the end of english verbs.........We have to watch this video I found on you tube...It's called "Night Rider in Spanish" it'll make you lol........we should watch in class maybe?

chapter tres

Chapter three reminded me of christmas. Short and sweet. We learned the useful phrases of tener ganas de which means "to feel like (ing)" and tener que which means "to have to (ing)." The big means of conjugation in the chapter dealt with reflexive verbs and the present progressive tense. With reflexive verbs you simple place the proper reflexive particle (me, te, se, nos, se) in front of the present-conjugated verb. Example- me lavo. For the present progressive you simple add "ando" or "endo" or in some cases "iend" after replacing the initive part of the verb. Example- lavando. You can also use a reflexive particle with a present progressive tense. Example- me levando.

0n the cultural end I don't particularly remember anything. I would like to say that the videos we watch in class are absolutely hilarious. "Que hora es" was fantastic and the one we watched the other day was hilarious. And the funiest part of all is that I understand those videos way more than I understand some of the conversations we listen to in class. Maybe its due to them not using complete sentences but I can understand everything they say. So crystal clear. Its like watching hdtv.

Blog 3

Chapter 3 I thought was kind of boring and not very useful in some senses. We didn't get a whole lot of new vocab, which was disappointing to me because we may not be very good at constructing good sentences yet, but at the very least if we knew some more vocab we could point and name things, or describe better what we want. I'm going to Chile soon, so I guess that's what brought it into focus. I can tell people what I do in the morning (seriously, who cares?) but I can't ask for directions, ask how much something costs, ask where I am, where the volcanoes are, or really anything that would actually be useful on my trip. I had really been hoping to have enough useful spanish by the time I was leaving, so it was kind of a let down. But the grammar was useful, I thought, especially the indirect pronouns and present progressive. The reflexive verbs were good too, but since they don't really have an equivalent in english I can't gauge how useful and how common they actually are. I think learning to say things with -ing endings will be really good, since that's more natural and closer to how people talk, at least in english.

I thought it was weird that they focused so much on education in latin countries. I mean, it's great to know and all, but what use is it, honestly? I'm not being mean, if I was Mexican or Brazilian I would not care at all about schools in America, unless I was thinking about a study abroad, in which case I would go find out on my own. Maybe they're trying to get us to think of the similarities in our cultures, but I'd rather learn about the differences, and the interesting things like music and dance and things that I might actually care to remember in a few years. It's not like I'm going to go to Chile and say "oh look, the colegio. but don't be fooled, that's a false cognate. ha ha ha!" It'd be way cooler if I could talk about their trade, their traditions, their holidays. This books just seems dumb. Or maybe it's just me. I took the class expecting to learn useful, applicable spanish by the end of my first year. I really am glad that Professor Zambrano will tell us what things are called whenever we ask, and I've learned way more useful words from her than I have from the book, and she tells us things that will sound natural when we say them to someone on the street. The book seems like it's teaching us the stiffest and most impractical way of speaking. I mean...naming things in a classroom? How about naming things that I'm going to have to find in a convenience store when my bag mysteriously disappears on an international flight?

Blog 2
When we started talking in class about colors, and we talked about how in spanish there really aren't that many words for colors (like, we have colors like periwinkle, indigo, burnt orange, etc.). My brother is getting married soon and I'm supposed to be a bridesmaid, so it made me wonder how wedding planning in latin countries is, because I can assure you my dress is not "brown," it's "mochachino." I just thought it'd be interesting to see if brides and bridesmaids are as obbsessive over colors and coming up with random names for something that honestly looks the same as everything else (lilac, tiffany blue, autumn rose, chocolate mousse). Actually, I was just really wondering in general about latin weddings, whether they're the same as in America. There are lots of little traditions in American weddings, or more accurately wedding receptions I guess. The father-daughter dance, bride and groom taking their first bites of cake, the bride throwing her bouquet, etc. They are things we all take for granted that we're going to see at an American wedding, but qhat about in Chile, or Ecuador, or even Mexico? I just think it would be cool to see how weddings go in other cultures, whether they're formal or informal, how the bride and groom interact during the ceremony, etc.