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May 9, 2008 Mu Block
Spanish Reflection
When I think of Spanish, I think of my Spanish class, and when I think of my
Spanish class, I remember “Levantese. Sientese. Levantese. Sientese…” These words
became redundant after the first few minutes of my first Spanish class. “Why is she
making us stand and sit so much? Is it some sort of warmup or exercise?” I thought to
myself as I played along with the whole class and followed the hand gestures of the
teacher whenever she spoke. The words had no meaning at the time and only gave me a
sense of what Spanish is like. Honestly, I didn’t like Spanish at all, and never thought I
would. My goal as a child was to learn to speak Japanese and Korean fluently, hoping that
the opportunity to take a language class in high school would help me accomplish that
goal. This might be the reason why other languages were blocked out of my mind, and
anything other than the languages I wanted to learn became something I disliked. Taking
Spanish in high school was probably the last thing I hoped to do. Ironically, I seem to
have done pretty well in Spanish the past three years despite my first impressions of the
language.
I didn’t really know anyone as friends from my first block in sophomore year, but I
did come close to being friends with someone who ended up giving me a lot of
inspiration. Her name was Debbie, and she didn’t like Spanish either, so I guess that was
one thing we shared. It might have been the urge to do better than Debbie, or it might
Spanish III Sheryl Soo
May 9, 2008 Mu Block
have been the teamwork we had that made me succeed in Spanish class more than I’d
expected. Whenever we were given an assignment, like a práctica to complete, we would
race each other to see who finished faster. If not, we’d work together and see who got the
most right. It was a fun year of learning Spanish with competition and challenges.
I must say that my learning was also the result of having Ms. Raeff as my teacher.
I’ve never had a teacher as bright or as motivating as Ms. Raeff, and she really pushed me
to do more than the bare minimum. Sometimes things seemed impossible, like
memorizing and reciting a poem in Spanish, or memorizing dates and events from history
in Spanish. No matter what it was, she never gave up giving her students a hard time, but
this was what encouraged me every year. I didn’t like having pelotas thrown at me, or
having to memorize history so I could pass the tests, but I knew that those things only
happen in my Spanish class. Unlike traditional foreign language classes, I get to be more
engaged, more informed about history and religion. It’s really a huge benefit.
Since I’ve already exposed myself to three different languages (Chinese, English
and Japanese) learning a fourth language wasn’t a big deal, but for most of my other
classmates it was either their second or third. Spanish wasn’t hard to learn especially
since I know English already, and most of the Spanish words resemble an English word. I
also have no problems pronouncing the alphabet the way it’s supposed to be pronounced,
like when “e” is supposed to sound like “eh” and “i” is supposed to sound like “ee”. The
pronunciations of the vowels strongly resemble the way vowels are pronounced in
Spanish III Sheryl Soo
May 9, 2008 Mu Block
Japanese. I guess you could say my learning progressed faster than my classmates
because I had previous knowledge I could relate to.
Spanish was one of the few “B”s I would see on my progress reports, but I always
knew why I received it. Although I knew, it was still hard for me to get out of my shell
and actually speak up more in a different language. My selfconsciousness would
sometimes get to me and so I would speak softer and not speak at all in Spanish class. It
was already hard for me to speak up in a normal class environment during the first few
years of high school, but to speak in a completely foreign language as an amateur was
even more discouraging for me.
Like all language learning experiences, after you’ve attained a decent amount of
vocabulary you’ll become conscious of the familiar words you hear or see wherever you
go. On the muni, there would always be signs in English and then on the side in Spanish.
Just to test myself, I would attempt to read the Spanish and see how many words I didn’t
learn yet. It’s a rewarding experience to be able to see your own growth in a subject after
a period of time, and I think language classes is one of the easiest classes to gain this
experience. It’s something where you either know it or don’t know it, and it’s easy for me
to see whether my Spanish improved or stayed the same.
Despite all the negative views I had about Spanish, whether it was I didn’t like
speaking it, or I didn’t have any interest in it, I was able to pull through and still enjoy my
Spanish class experiences at CAT. My views about Spanish really changed. It wasn’t bad
Spanish III Sheryl Soo
May 9, 2008 Mu Block
at all, the experience was fun and also challenging. Having a motivating teacher, an
inspiring friend, and a fun learning environment, I was able to make Spanish my third
best language after English and Chinese. Sometimes I even wonder if my Chinese is
better than my Spanish because I don’t take Chinese classes anymore and I forget many of
the words I learned before. Learning a language isn’t just a onetime thing and it will be
over. It’s a long and continuous process that begins with learning to pronounce simple
words like learning your first language when you were an infant. I’ve realized that no
matter how long you’ve taken a language course, you won’t remember any of it unless you
constantly use what you’ve learned and practice it. It’s not as easy as learning how to ride
a bike, or swim. Those are things you learn and won’t forget. Language is more complex
and memorization won’t last you very long.
I feel that even if I won’t be able to have Spanish class with Ms. Raeff as my
teacher anymore after this year, I’ll have to find another source of motivation. Even so, I’d
like to continue to keep my knowledge of Spanish and live on with it. Being able to speak
different languages is not a given, and I am not about to waste my three years of Spanish
after going on to college. Especially because of all the struggles I had to go through in
that competitive and engaging environment, I want to keep what I’ve learned and use it
for the rest of my life.