Throughout the semester I did many different activities for these assignments that I tried to revolve around my original goals for the semester. Originally, my goals were very diverse and focused on rewatching television shows in Spanish, writing my progress regarding cultural knowledge, recording my conversations, and writing down new vocabulary words to study weekly. Although a wide variety of goals, I believe I ended up improving in the areas these goals focused on even if I didn’t do the exact activity I had written down. Although these initial goals were a good starting point, some of them were just unrealistic with the technology I had present and the desire I had to actually complete them. For example, I thought I would initially want to write journals and vocab words to aid in my skills, but later figured out I would much rather watch movies, television shows, and listen to Spanish music instead. If I am to do this again in the future, I would recommend that I look at my goals realistically and see if I will have the desire to complete them towards the end of the semester.

As stated above, watching both television shows and movies and listening to Spanish music expanded my Spanish speaking skills and my understanding of the culture greatly. I actually looked forward to completing these activities and I was able to listen to music while I was doing other things as well. Although they were different activities than those I wrote down originally, I believe they still aided in reaching my initial goals, and actually surpassed them regarding cultural understanding and also learning new phrases in Spanish.  If I were to go back, I would have focused on these activities and thought about how I could expand them more than I did this semester. Along with this, I would have liked to find a site that worked with my computer to chat people in Spain to discuss various topics and their way of life. Although I changed course due to my differing desires on what activities I actually wanted to complete, I feel those that I completed focused on the areas I am most interested in (culture and recognition) and allowed me to expand my skills greatly.

Looking back at the semester and these activities, I have decided that I will continue these activities in the future following this class as well. At some point in the future, as I have stated, I would like to move to Spain and be able to be a fluent and proficient Spanish speaker. Although this goal might be far, I believe these activities and interactions with Spanish speakers will aid. Overall, this class and these activities allowed me to get closer to my final goal and I look forward to expanding this skill in the near future.