Book Description: La Llorona de Mazatlán is an intermediate spanish novel based on a girl named Laney who lives in Norman, Oklahoma. Laney has this dream to become a professional soccer player for a big university. In Oklahoma, she works at an ice cream shop that she doesn’t like so much, but she works there to earn money for the things she wants. One day, Laney got the opportunity to audition for a soccer camp in Mexico. When she got that opportunity she took that chance immediately and auditioned. What happens next…..well she got accepted! When getting the news she asked her father if she could go and he said no for many reasons, but over time her father changed his mind and decided she could go. When arriving at the Camp she made lots of friends and gained new experiences, while having lots of challenges along the way.
Project Reflection: This year Spanish 4 has gone fairly well for me considering it was all online. I would have to say that having Spanish online this semester was successful and challenging at times. There were times throughout the year where I struggled to grasp the content and understanding of specific topics. Whenever that happened I reverted back to the internet or a family member. Learning a language is already hard, so when you have to add online on top of that it isn’t easy. That’s why I struggled a lot with my learning, but with the help from my teacher, classmates, and family I was able to persevere and work through it. There were also some successes when it came to Spanish this semester. One thing that was successful was my ability to get all my work done and turned in on time. With that I was able to have time to just relax and not have to worry about turning in an assignment for Spanish. Another success was I got the chance to learn and grow my knowledge on Spanish by myself. I was in charge of how much I wanted to learn by going in depth on my assignments and/or doing extra work outside of class. I did happen to choose to do that extra work to gain more knowledge, and I am glad I chose to do that. At times, I feel that I haven’t learned a lot this year in Spanish, but when I really think about it I actually learned far more than I expected.
Spanish has taught me many lessons this year. One thing I learned is that no one can make you learn or want to do good. You have to want to do that yourself. Sure, someone can help guide you and give you advice, but they can’t push you to do anything. Another thing I learned is that it’s okay to not know. Just try your best and it will be fine. I had a rough time with this because I always wanted to be corrected and I assumed that everyone thought I was going to be correct, so I was always scared to be wrong. Whenever I got called on and didn’t know something I would always worry about what others would think and I would feel bad about myself. That being said, another thing I learned this year is that my teacher and classmates don’t have these high expectations and standards that I am supposed to exceed at. I am the one who happens to be hard on myself and think I am supposed to be reaching all these standards, when really I shouldn’t know everything. That is because I am still learning. No one learned Spanish or a language overnight. It takes time and practice, so I need to stop being so hard on myself about that. There are many other lessons that I have taken from Spanish this year, but these are a few of the main ones.
I plan to apply what I have learned and am still learning about Spanish in my future. I would like to do that by practicing with family/friends and people in the community. I want to continue my language learning by practicing, because I don’t want to lose what I have learned. I am hoping that in the future I can travel abroad and go to foreign places where I can apply and grow my Spanish speaking skills. My hope for the future is that I get a chance to use what I have learned to communicate with new people and make these new connections with people from around the world.