Reflection Paper

I would struggle with mishearing words, forgetting tenses and verb meanings. This made Spanish stressful, and my teacher’s advice was to study more, but I felt I could not do it. I tried my best on every assignment, and hoped for the best. Luckily, I passed the class with a B, but I learned afterwards that B could have been A if I actually tried new methods or even went to see the counselor. I still look regret not pushing myself, but I remember I was not the only one.

When I first decided to expand my education, it had been so long since I had been to school, and I was very hesitant. I talked at length about my decision with my husband and with his encouragement, decided to enroll but still was not quite sure which degree program to enroll in. I knew that this was something that I had always wanted to do since I obtained my Associates Degree in Nursing, but I did not have the courage, nor did I want to give up the time with my family and children. I second guessed my abilities and my knowledge because it had been so long since I had been in college. Now that my children are about to graduate high school and

One summer afternoon before my freshman year, I heard someone knocking on my door. When I opened the door, a woman started talking to me. I had no clue what she was saying since she wasn’t speaking English. I heard her use words like “no me gusta”, and “¿por qué?” After going on an online expedition to decipher those words, I discovered they were Spanish. In order to reduce the language barrier between me and my community, I decided that I would learn Spanish.

It wasn’t all bad, from my childish perspective I thought, “Hey, they talk just like on TV, I can do this,” and with making a few friends, I came to use and practice the language as if I had been born into it. However, the one that struggled was my sister. Again, none of the schools offered any bilingual courses, and she was five grade schools ahead of me. At first she seemed to be doing okay, but at some point she would come home crying of frustration. In Mexico the grades are set from 1- 10, a 10 being the equivalent of an A, which she always used to get. However, her first year in a completely different country with a different language, she struggled, mad that the only thing impeding her from being successful was the language

Throughout the course of this semester, I have continuously grown as a writer. Prior to taking this course, I had little experience or knowledge when it came to writing. I used to struggle with forming my thoughts into writing, let alone a paper. I was never confident with what I wrote. My writing had no greater purpose other than the assignment. My writing process included: writing my paper, proofreading it, and turning it in. Once the paper left my hands, it also left my mind. Throughout this course we worked with others, visited the writing lab, wrote critiques, and we were able to revise our papers. I believe that all of this is has caused me to grow greatly as a writer.

I remember bursting out in tears running to my mom’s room and telling her how much of

I put in practice some words that I learned in school. I started having short conversations in English with different people because I had expanded my vocabulary. I would always carry a computer with me because it was helpful . The computer help translate the words I didn’t know. I also stopped being self-conscious because I had to try to speak in English if I wanted to learn more . I mispronounced some words , but I learned from that because someone else would say it correctly . I felt very proud because I was overcoming my obstacle. Additionally, I felt like I was fitting in , and my grades continued to go up. I also was eligible to play in the soccer team. As a result,I can say that the language barrier was an obstacle that made me a stronger person because I overcame the obstacle that life put in my path. Moreover , I never gave up, and I think that’s what life's about. In effect, my GPA is 3.5 now when it used to be 2.0 or lower. These 3 years of high school have been challenging , but I have been putting effort. I am getting more fluent with the language. I am prepared for the next challenge, which is

I will never gain the time that I lost as a kid back, but I can take right mistakes now. I continue to try and learn Spanish outside of school after my three years of Spanish classes. I have come to realize that being ashamed of Spanish is to be ashamed of myself and no one should ever be ashamed of themselves. I was able

I have been taking Spanish since fifth grade as a mandatory class and have come to love being able to understand and use a language in both academic settings and real-life situations. Spanish, in particular, is helpful to know in the U.S because it is the second most spoken language. I hear it all around me in public daily. A well-rounded knowledge of Spanish opens up many job opportunities because many companies are looking to make themselves more accessible to a wider range of people. Even if not for the opportunities, Spanish is a beautiful language. It’s mesmerizing to hear and I could only dream to speak it fluently. I already have a foundation from my Latin studies that would help me with Spanish as it is a Romance language. Unlike Latin,

I was in Spanish classes that I didn’t want to attendt. At first this concept of the English language was incredibly difficult for me. But then it started to flow and I was learning English at a rapid pace. I went from Spanish only classes to bilingual classes. I was in this classes for a long time. By this time, I could speak English and have full on conversations with other people but I still felt held back because I had to go to bilingual classes. At this point the goal was to get out of these classes because I felt like different from all the other kids. I remember this was one of the first goals that I had set out for myself. All I wanted to do is to get out so I dedicated myself to pass these classes. I would try to go above and beyond to show the teachers that I was ready to move on. I keep trying and trying until one day I showed up to my usual bilingual class and the teacher looked at my funny wondering why I still showed up to this class. She told me to go with the other kids and join them. This was one of my happiest moments then, because I could finally go to the normal English classes with the other kids and, I finally accomplished a goal I had set out for

Since 8th grade in Spanish class, nobody wanted to partner with me because I would mess up and on top of that I was and still am shy. When I was in 8th grade, I remember the teacher was extra hard on me because everybody else already knew Spanish, but me. At the time I thought he was just picking on me, but in reality, he was preparing me for the future. Although I cannot speak fluently in Spanish, I know the greeting terms and some common sayings. Furthermore, I am not the strongest within that area, but that didn’t stop me from trying. In 9th grade I was awarded Top Pre-AP Spanish Student. Being awarded that helped boost my self-esteem, when everyone was just making fun of me. Yes it hurt, but I used my feelings to work even harder and push everybody

Throughout my sophomore year of highschool I had a hard time in Spanish and faced many challenges all year. About two weeks into the school year, there was an issue with my teacher and she was forced into retirement. This left myself and the rest of class with no teacher for over a month. Learning a new language was not the easiest thing for me and I could feel myself moving more behind the longer I went without a teacher. I had three more Spanish teachers that year making it harder to get into a routine to succeed in that class. By the end of the school I had to make the decision of whether or not I wanted to move on to the next level of Spanish. I felt that if I continued I would be setting myself up for failure in the language because of

We are all different in unique ways that make us who we are. Life comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and orientations, and yet the only thing we, as a society, see is what makes up the best of these. So many people believe that being “different” is not acceptable in the world, and because of this, people deny themselves who they are and live in fear. I sadly found myself in the same situation, afraid and alone.

Stubborn is how my Mom would describe my personality. My Dad, on the other hand, always said I was tenacious. He believed our greatest strength can be found by understanding our weaknesses. As a child, he explained that being stubborn is a negative attribute. According to him, people do not like when they meet an inflexible brick wall. Tenacity, on the other hand, can be a powerful tool. It shows people you are determined and persistent. He wanted me to understand that a strength can sometimes be a weakness made to work in our favor. I have always remembered this advice and have used tenacity to achieve many of my life goals.

They always wanted me to say a long sentence in Spanish. When people talked to me, I looked at their mouth and paid close attention to what they were saying to me. That way I observed what they just said and use it as an example later on in the future. Through the five years I have been here in Florida, I feel that I have improved my English and lost the fear when I’m talking to teachers or my friends. I compared myself to a funnel that mechanics use to carefully guide the oil into small pipes. I have my mind full of great ideas, but when it’s time to say it, it comes so thin and does not sound that great anymore. I take a long time to put the right words together.