Spanish 1
La poesia de la comida
Click here to read my Poem and recipe
For this project we chose a traditional food from a spanish speaking country and wrote an ode to it in spanish. Before writing the poems, we studied the work of Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet famous for his odes. For this project's exhibition, we actually made our foods and brought them to the all school exhibition for people to try. In addition to the food tasting, we also read our poems in spanish to the exhibition-goers. For my food, I chose the Argentine asado, which is a traditional beef roast.
I learned a lot about spanish to english translation in this project. The most difficult part of this project was trying to grasp all the new words I had to learn in spanish in order for my poem to actually make sense to a native spanish speaker, and not just sound like a first grader put it together. To overcome my lack of spanish knowledge, I frequently used the website wordreference.com, which translates english into spanish in vice versa. I used this site not only for english to spanish translations, but also spanish to english, checking words that I thought I knew the meaning of but wasn't sure. I liked this project because of the nature of the exhibition. Everybody likes eating, so a lot of people were drawn to our exhibiting area, which means that we were always talking to someone. This is a nice change from some other exhibitions, where maybe only one or two people will talk to you the entire night. If I had to redo this project, I would bring a sharper knife to the exhibition, as I made a fool of myself trying to cut the steak with a flimsy plastic fork. I am most proud of the poem I wrote because or all the hard work I put into it.
I learned a lot about spanish to english translation in this project. The most difficult part of this project was trying to grasp all the new words I had to learn in spanish in order for my poem to actually make sense to a native spanish speaker, and not just sound like a first grader put it together. To overcome my lack of spanish knowledge, I frequently used the website wordreference.com, which translates english into spanish in vice versa. I used this site not only for english to spanish translations, but also spanish to english, checking words that I thought I knew the meaning of but wasn't sure. I liked this project because of the nature of the exhibition. Everybody likes eating, so a lot of people were drawn to our exhibiting area, which means that we were always talking to someone. This is a nice change from some other exhibitions, where maybe only one or two people will talk to you the entire night. If I had to redo this project, I would bring a sharper knife to the exhibition, as I made a fool of myself trying to cut the steak with a flimsy plastic fork. I am most proud of the poem I wrote because or all the hard work I put into it.
Los Cuentos infantiles
Click Here to read my short story
For this project, we wrote a short children's story about a spanish-speaking country of our choice. First, we researched our countries and found out things like common foods, national pastimes, and geography. Then, we wrote the book including the culturally or geographically relevant things we found in our research. When we were finished with our books, we then read them to kids in elementary school to help them learn about foreign countries.
I wrote my story about Chile, because I knew that the whole country was basically a mountain range. Potatoes are a very common food in Chile, so I decided to have my main characters be potatoes. In addition to potatoes, other culturally relevant things I included in my story include soccer, miners, and a traditional peanut soup called sopa de mani. Watch the video below to find out about the rest of my story.
My favorite part of this project was learning about Chile, as they do many of the same things we do, but in slightly changed ways. My least favorite part of this project was illustrating the book, as my art skills are sub-par to say the least.
I wrote my story about Chile, because I knew that the whole country was basically a mountain range. Potatoes are a very common food in Chile, so I decided to have my main characters be potatoes. In addition to potatoes, other culturally relevant things I included in my story include soccer, miners, and a traditional peanut soup called sopa de mani. Watch the video below to find out about the rest of my story.
My favorite part of this project was learning about Chile, as they do many of the same things we do, but in slightly changed ways. My least favorite part of this project was illustrating the book, as my art skills are sub-par to say the least.
DIA de los muertos Project
Click here to read my poem
During this project, we learned about the traditions of Latinos regarding death. The celebration, called Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. The celebration originated in the Aztec civilization, but was altered by the Christian explorers colonizing the area in an attempt to become friendlier with the so called 'savages'. After learning about this celebration, we then wrote a poem in spanish about a someone we knew who is dead and created a sculpture of them in traditional Dia de los Muertos style.
My favorite part of this project was learning about the different ways different culture regard death. In latin america, it is not feared, but respected as a part of life. This view is almost polar opposite than the common view in north america, which greatly surprised me. I enjoyed making the figure of my deceased dog, Quinn, because I had never sculpted using a wire base before so It was interesting to see that whole process. I chose my dead dog because I thought it would be cool to have a different sculpture than the majority of people who were doing human relatives. If I had to change this project, I would give an option to choose any spanish holiday, because it would be cool to get a more well-rounded view of their culture, as opposed to just one holiday.
My favorite part of this project was learning about the different ways different culture regard death. In latin america, it is not feared, but respected as a part of life. This view is almost polar opposite than the common view in north america, which greatly surprised me. I enjoyed making the figure of my deceased dog, Quinn, because I had never sculpted using a wire base before so It was interesting to see that whole process. I chose my dead dog because I thought it would be cool to have a different sculpture than the majority of people who were doing human relatives. If I had to change this project, I would give an option to choose any spanish holiday, because it would be cool to get a more well-rounded view of their culture, as opposed to just one holiday.