#thirdtermtermites

[annette-c-blog1]

Day 20 – Spanish for Beginners

Quote: Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning. Robert Kiyosaki - American Businessman/Author

Veintiocho de junio dos mil diecinueve

!Hoy es la última clase de española  😥

Overview

We have unfortunately come to the close of four remarkable weeks of learning Spanish. I truly did not expect that the journey would have been so wonderful and fulfilling. I will miss the interactive sessions and the many smiles and laughter that came with each lesson.

To close our session, we continued with our learning outcomes for Unit 8 (House/room) as follows: -

(a)  We identified, recalled and named rooms in the house and electrical appliances (b)  Described the rooms of a house

Identified, recalled and named rooms in the house and electrical appliances

We did our usual recap by trying to identify and name the different items in different rooms in the house. This was done as an interactive exercise in which we asked each other to name an item in a room.  

Some listening exercises were also done in which we listened to an audio song and tried to list the different rooms, furniture and electrical appliances that were mentioned. The song was quite catchy, in fact, Alice kept repeating it so much that I believe it has been permanently cemented in my brain.

Described the rooms of a house

We continued our descriptions of learning to describe the rooms in a house through some peer to peer exercises. These exercises were instrumental in helping us to recall various descriptive words to use in the Language Portfolio Task 8.

Progress to-date

I received my certificate today, which is evidenced by my hard work and completion of the four weeks’ programme. On a personal and academic level, it is quite an achievement; however, it is sad that time has literally flown by this fast.

As a token of our appreciation to Cristina for her dedication and unwavering support, we got her gift to remind her that she will always be in our hearts and prayer.

As part of the closing of the session, we completed our final Language Portfolio Task 8 on Unit 8. We had to ask each other to name four items in the room that they were in and to also describe where in the room these items were located via a recording. The final element required us to use the descriptions provided to draw a layout plan of the room and the items.

It has also just dawned on me that my daily reflections may be less comprehensive now that classes have concluded. I wonder what new things I will find to post about my Spanish experiences.  🤔

[annette-c-blog1]

Day 18 – Spanish for Beginners

veintiseis de junio dos mil diecinueve

Quote: If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows a shadow that never departs. The Buddha

Overview

For our session today, we began Unit 8 on the House/Room. It was a very good session overall because learning how to describe items in the house and the different rooms. As a useful teaching aid, Cristina used the House of Peppa the pig to teach us how to pronounce the rooms. Even a children’s cartoon can teach us a thing or two about learning.

Our outcomes today were concentrated on the following, given that this is our last unit for the term: -

(a)  We identified, recalled and named rooms in the house, and

(b)  Described the rooms of a house

Identified, recalled and named rooms in the house

For this outcome and in addition to the teaching aid used (Peppa the Pig), we listened to a conversation in which the speaker described their apartment and its rooms. Since we were familiar with some of the words already it was easy to identify some of the words and follow the conversation. Another exercise was one in which we had to fill-in the blanks of the missing letters to correctly spell out the rooms.

Some pictorials in our textbook were also used to identify and name the different rooms in a house. Some of these rooms were; salόn (living room), dormitorio (bedroom), cocina (kitchen), cuarto de baño (bathroom), comedor (dining room), studio (study), and planta (main floor).

Described the rooms of a house

We all had to describe something about the rooms in our houses.  For my house, I said, Mi casa es muy grande. My house is very big.

Vocabulary Bank

I have added some new words and phrases to my vocabulary bank. These are as follows: -

1.    Vendo                        -        I sell flat

2.    Piso                           -        Flat/Apartment

3.    Plaza                         -        Square

4.    Garaje                       -        Garage

5.    Suelos de madera     -        Wooden floors

6.    Mucha luz                  -        Lots of lights

7.    Jardín                        -        Garden

8.    Ascensor                   -        Lift

9.    Calefacciόn               -        Heating

10.  Aire acondicionado   -        Air conditioning

11.  Da a una calle            -       Narrow street  

12.  Techos altos              -        Tall ceilings

13.  Muralla                      -         Wall

14.  Suarve                      -         Soft

 Progress to-date

I thoroughly enjoyed our session today. It ended with us playing a game in which each person named an item in the classroom and the other person had to continue by trying to remember what was said by each person prior. These exercises warm my heart, to be honest, the level of communication and dynamic in the classroom is always genuine. It’s truly wonderful being around persons who bring out the best in each other.

The support received from Cristina has been a driving force in us embracing Spanish and taking our learning outcomes seriously. Despite, the weather outside, you can always count on us showing up and putting in 100%.

I received my feedback on my Language Portfolio Task 7 and I am pleased with the feedback. For this exercise, we had to circle the correct use of the verbs “ser” or “estar” and describe things about the city/town that we are from.