Service Learning Reflection

To state, the learning service hours for Spanish was nonetheless an enriching experience for me. Though I did have some advantage when coming into the class being a Hispanic myself, I must say when it came to speaking the language I would grow very timid because in all honesty I may be aware of what people say in Spanish, but actually bringing myself to speak is a whole other story. Yet, through the service learning component I was able to learn to speak confidently because even though I could be wrong, I am aware everyone is also learning and making the same mistakes as me. I believe this service learning component aided me very much in the process of learning Spanish by helping me apply what I learned in the classroom into my encuentros and …show more content…
I recall in one of the encounters we had these question about who ran the household in the homes of our partners and how big their families are. My partner Angelica had explained to me in a Mexican household usually the man makes all the decisions, but since it was new times things have changed from being a male dominated home to a mutual shared power between husband and wife. She also had informed me that traditionally Mexican households have big families and they are never apart from each other but in her case it was very different. She explained that she had left Mexico to come to America for a better life so she barely visited her family and she was so focused on having a better life that she forgot about having children. So culturally she did not follow the usual Mexican traditions but she was absolutely fine with that, but she did have value for them and understood why they were important. From my outside hours I was not really informed about Hispanic culture but discovered many of the Hispanic foods that were donated to the food bank. I would find day of the dead candy to orange rice that came in a bag, I also found a jar of mole sauce which is a traditional sauce that may be cooked with chicken. The sauce is composed of bitter chocolate, hot peppers, and many seasoning. Though the jarred one may not be as good …show more content…
Through my experience it gave me an excellent insight on how conversations in the Spanish language would normally go and it never really came off as a mandatory class assignment. Those encounters the class went to, gave me valuable lessons on Spanish and it did not feel boring but almost made me excited to learn the language. Many times learning a language is nothing but work to the individual learning it but this class made it more than just work, it created this atmosphere of enthusiasm and made it more of a life lesson than a class one. Thus, I believe whole heartedly that making this learning environment more than just a class lesson will make any student who takes part in this course feel like this service learning component is worth

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