Dear Reader,
Today is my final day and per it being my final day, I still find myself being quite confused. For instance, I have no idea whether I have to write a reflection here and then do my final reflection or just solely do my final reflection. I'm doing this late (like 2am late) as always so there really is no one to ask for a reference considering I won't get an answer until much later and I won't have friends anymore if I wake any of them up at 2am to ask them a question as dumb as this. Essentially I'm just gonna write two: a small reflection here and then a really big one to finish it out.
As I wrote yesterday, I've finally gotten into a routine: Spanish for four hours and then some other project related activity for an additional four hours or so. Today I settled for Spanish, movie editing and finally...blog editing! Yeah I know that sounds boring, but my blogs actually needed a lot of work from the grammatical stand point and I'm sure I didn't catch all of it. It's really hard to see the problems in your own writing (one would say it's your kryptonite...was that funny? no? okay), but that's what I tried to do today among other things.
I'm happy to note that the condition of my daily Spanish classes has not changed! Spanish has neither gotten harder nor easier. It's just well Spanish. I'm happy to note that I'm still studying the preterite, but I've also upgraded myself to learning some new vocabulary. I was only going to get by for so long on just knowing clothing, fruit and parts of the house a long with other random vocab that Jaime has taught me. I've decided it might be important to learn parts of the house in more detail (all I I learned with Jaime was basics like bedroom, bathroom, Kitchen etc.) and jobs. Basically I used my handy dandy Spanish website, took all the vocabulary and put it into a quizlet. I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but after four hours I feel pretty confident. The true test is if I can still remember any of it tomorrow.
I also did some video editing today. It looks a little more successful than before, but part of me is starting to feel that Kit and I can have the exact same level of presentation (maybe even better) without the video. I'm really hoping that the video doesn't ruin the integrity of our work. Basically my point is that while I'm practically (and that's a pretty faulty practically) done with the video, I'm not sure if it will actually be put to good use. It likely won't be, which is sad, because it means I've wasted two days of work, but at least this experience has helped me to see more so how I want my presentation to be structured and what I plan on saying both to the Board in my defense and to the audience during the assembly.
Lastly I did blog editing, which was also my last ditch effort to kill hours for the project. Kit told me earlier this week that I had to get 42 hours in total for my last week. I've been doing pretty much 8 hours a day, but that only adds up to 40 hours at the end of the week so my last 3 and a half hours (I wrote a lot of long, detailed, blogs, ya know) was dedicated to blog editing. My success rate on this was probably 75%. I have no doubt that anyone could go through my blogs right now and still point out errors, but I tried. I think I fixed the most egregious ones like replacing where with wear and other small errors, but I'm not perfect. Hopefully, you, as the reader, know this and don't judge me too harshly. I swear I know the English language frontwards and backwards (I mean it is my native tongue and all), but I'm definitely prone to some errors.
For my last day I think I had a lot of success. I did more Spanish, worked on an ill-fated video and made my blogs look even just a little more intelligent then they did before (careless errors can really discredit you, ya know). I'm very happy with the work that I've done on my project and I can't wait to show it to everyone in the upcoming week. Thanks to everyone who supported me through this and made all of this possible! It really means the world to me! And now I'm signing off for the last time (not really I still have to do my final reflection, but whatever)!
Sincerely,
Journey
Monday, May 2, 2016
Day 20: The final days are among us
Dear Reader,
It's really getting down to the wire and I've started to build up somewhat of a daily routine. I do four hours of Spanish practice and then another four hours of additional research or project preparation of some sort. Today I followed that exact same pattern. I did some more Spanish studying with the preterite and I did some more project preparation, specifically I started putting together that video that I talked about earlier.
Spanish was relatively easy today. I think I've started getting into a rhythm where I feel like I've not only successful memorized and learned most (if not all) the verbs and vocabulary that Jaime taught me, but it's just really starting to click. I feel like at some point in any language there's a moment when everything just makes sense, that's what happening for me with Spanish right now and it's really exciting! I'm not saying I've become fluent (obviously), but the pieces have really come together nicely. I still face the problem of not knowing exactly how to test myself because ultimately I could be learning this stuff wrong, but I think if I stick to duolingo and the other spanish website that I've been using I can truly be successful. Maybe if I'm lucky instead of just doing introductory spanish in college next year I'll be able to move up a level due to all my hard work. I've also been considering options for Spanish immersion classes and other ways that I can continue to learn and use Spanish in a controlled setting. Learning on my own is great and all, but I still feel like I need a teacher that's not the internet.
I never realized with doing this project how one small part would effect me so much. I've always loved learning new languages (French has been my favorite class for the last 3 years): the frustrations, the excitement, the exploration. All of it! Language is such an important part to a culture. Through it's development, a language can reflect what a culture values most and holds dear. For instance, the way the spanish language (especially slang) has developed in Latin America differs greatly from how it has developed in Spain. It's been amazing to be a part of that experience, to learn something that is such an intricate part of a culture. It's something that I'll gratefully take with me for the rest of my life.
Lastly I did do some video editing today. Kit and I both did A Broader View exit videos where we talked about our experience, what we learned etc. I've been hoping that I could edit and weave our videos together to use for either or both our defense or the assembly. So far, it's not working out as I would like. I'm both technologically challenged and Imovie also just doesn't like me, but I'm trying to find a way to make it work. I really hate wasting time, but this movie may not end up in our presentation if I can't get it to cooperate. It's not even the fault of the program (Imovie), it's just that I'm a perfectionist and anything that should take a normal person just an hour or two takes me double or sometimes triple, because, well as the name suggests I want it to be perfect (or just pretty close to it). Today I worked four hours on the video with some of that time just being me trying to figure out how Imovie works again. Believe it or not, I haven't used Imovie in about a year. I didn't really have anany projects my senior year and none of the ones I did have required me to use Imovie so basically I'm back to a beginners level making stupid mistakes and even accidentally (I really can't believe I did this) erasing my own work (Imagine how frustrated I got here). So while I hate to think I wasted my own time, this movie may or may not make a presence in our presentation and at the very least it will be very basic (sorry to all the advanced Imovie users out there, unfortunately I am not you).
I think today was a pretty successful day albeit being a frustrating one. Working on the movie gave me a lot of time to reflect on my time in Guatemala and how it's affected me. I also made greater strides with spanish. I feel like things are really falling into place for me at the end of this project and I'm excited to see what my final day has in store! I can't believe it's almost over, but I want to finish how I started: with a bang!
Sincerely,
Journey
It's really getting down to the wire and I've started to build up somewhat of a daily routine. I do four hours of Spanish practice and then another four hours of additional research or project preparation of some sort. Today I followed that exact same pattern. I did some more Spanish studying with the preterite and I did some more project preparation, specifically I started putting together that video that I talked about earlier.
Spanish was relatively easy today. I think I've started getting into a rhythm where I feel like I've not only successful memorized and learned most (if not all) the verbs and vocabulary that Jaime taught me, but it's just really starting to click. I feel like at some point in any language there's a moment when everything just makes sense, that's what happening for me with Spanish right now and it's really exciting! I'm not saying I've become fluent (obviously), but the pieces have really come together nicely. I still face the problem of not knowing exactly how to test myself because ultimately I could be learning this stuff wrong, but I think if I stick to duolingo and the other spanish website that I've been using I can truly be successful. Maybe if I'm lucky instead of just doing introductory spanish in college next year I'll be able to move up a level due to all my hard work. I've also been considering options for Spanish immersion classes and other ways that I can continue to learn and use Spanish in a controlled setting. Learning on my own is great and all, but I still feel like I need a teacher that's not the internet.
I never realized with doing this project how one small part would effect me so much. I've always loved learning new languages (French has been my favorite class for the last 3 years): the frustrations, the excitement, the exploration. All of it! Language is such an important part to a culture. Through it's development, a language can reflect what a culture values most and holds dear. For instance, the way the spanish language (especially slang) has developed in Latin America differs greatly from how it has developed in Spain. It's been amazing to be a part of that experience, to learn something that is such an intricate part of a culture. It's something that I'll gratefully take with me for the rest of my life.
Lastly I did do some video editing today. Kit and I both did A Broader View exit videos where we talked about our experience, what we learned etc. I've been hoping that I could edit and weave our videos together to use for either or both our defense or the assembly. So far, it's not working out as I would like. I'm both technologically challenged and Imovie also just doesn't like me, but I'm trying to find a way to make it work. I really hate wasting time, but this movie may not end up in our presentation if I can't get it to cooperate. It's not even the fault of the program (Imovie), it's just that I'm a perfectionist and anything that should take a normal person just an hour or two takes me double or sometimes triple, because, well as the name suggests I want it to be perfect (or just pretty close to it). Today I worked four hours on the video with some of that time just being me trying to figure out how Imovie works again. Believe it or not, I haven't used Imovie in about a year. I didn't really have anany projects my senior year and none of the ones I did have required me to use Imovie so basically I'm back to a beginners level making stupid mistakes and even accidentally (I really can't believe I did this) erasing my own work (Imagine how frustrated I got here). So while I hate to think I wasted my own time, this movie may or may not make a presence in our presentation and at the very least it will be very basic (sorry to all the advanced Imovie users out there, unfortunately I am not you).
I think today was a pretty successful day albeit being a frustrating one. Working on the movie gave me a lot of time to reflect on my time in Guatemala and how it's affected me. I also made greater strides with spanish. I feel like things are really falling into place for me at the end of this project and I'm excited to see what my final day has in store! I can't believe it's almost over, but I want to finish how I started: with a bang!
Sincerely,
Journey
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)