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Partners Name: Theadora Farah

City y Country: Philadelphia, USA

I was having a hard time the last two weeks keeping the conversation going so that is my big goal for this week. I think I did that well.

Who you spoke with and why you chose that partner

I spoke with Thea a senior at SLA. She is one of my friends who is fluent in Spanish and I felt comfortable talking to.

What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?

She is reading a new comic series, I learned that talking to someone you know vs someone on livemocha is easier to keep a conversation because you know the basics about them.

How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goals?

I realized that my personal goals would be hard to gain through speaking with other people so I created a new goal of just gaining confidence and learning to keep a conversation flowing, which I was able to do.

What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations? What specifically to you need to improve on?

I did well though I was trying to do the “Do not use word reference challenge” and failed after only a little bit. 

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?
  I spoke with a girl named Laurasp from Spain because she's a girl and she's arund my age range. She was really nice and she helped me a lot.  

• What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?

  I learned that she lives in Spain and likes a lot of different types of music. 

• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?

  This interaction helped me because I learned a lot more about Spanish culture. I also wanted to know about the daily life of a person who lives in another country. 

• What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?

  I improved on my vocabulary and grammar she helped me speak more fluently. 

• What specifically do you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again)

  I struggle with a lot of things that have to do with the tenses. Like i get the past and future tenses mixed up. 

• Who did I speak with and why did I choose that person?

  
  I spoke with Géssyca in this conversation. I don't remember why I choose her, or she choose me.
  
  

• What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?

  
  I learned where she lived and what she lived to do.

• How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goal?

  
  It worked out good, my goal was to talk about music and it went well
  
  

• What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations?

  
  Talking about music and past experiences
  
  

• What specifically do you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again)rc

  
  I didn't understand her at first but I quickly got over that.

Pre-Conversation

Since I'm doing a chat instead of video, I think that the people answer quickly and politely.

I'm looking forward to meeting my goal for this chat: chatting without a dictionary.

I'm not really nervous about much, but the on thing is when I come into a stump. I want to be able to call upon all of my knowledge to prevent that.

Post-Conversation

Name: Emilio Gago

Country: Spain

Emilio is a great guy! We talked for a long time about things that we liked, and he really likes comics, and learning english. I learned that he is from Spain, and is also a student. I've learned a lot from him actually. He really helped with grammar errors, and even just better phrasing. I've learned some cool phrases too, one being:

"Eres el amo"- you are boss and another less school-appropriate :O.

I was really proud of my ability to recall all of what I know, and I was even complimented on my spanish abilities! Though, I must admit, it was much easier to think on my feet while I was just TYPING. But I still give myself credit because it was IM.  I'm very aware that I can conjugate pretty quickly when I'm typing/writing, but talking takes a few seconds more. For my next post, I want to have more questions ahead of time (just in case) and I also want to have a way to measure what I learn. Perhaps, I might just count the number of strategies I come up with. Or I may even make that my next blog post question- ask what are good strategies for conversations in Spanish.

More Slang (from Peru I believe)

Slang: Mamada.- significa Mentira

Choreado: Robado

Jodido:: Destrozado, arruinado, tambien significa " Super"

•  What will be your topic of conversation be? 

I wanted to try to have a natural conversation and get to know my conversation partner. 

•  What are 5 questions related to your conversation goal that you can think of ahead of time to ask your partner?

- What do you like to do?

- What do you like to learn about?

- Where are you from?

- What do you want to do when you're older?

- What brought you to sharedtalk?

•  What are you looking forward to about this conversation? 

I think it will be great to get to know someone in a completely different place than me. I want to know exactly how different or similar we are. 

•  What are you nervous about? 

I hope I can keep the conversation moving without using a translator. 

I learned a lot about my partner in this conversation. We had a very good conversation that progressed as one would between two native speakers of any language. I discovered that my partner Rafael(19, Brazil), very much enjoys learning other languages and has a great love for China. He's also part polish and likes learning about astrology. 

What did you learn from them?

Honestly, I didn't gain much from this conversation except morale. Before this I'd had many dud conversations but this was uplifting. I didn't learn much because he chose to write in english, while I wrote in spanish. In the end, it worked out because I could tell if he understood what I was writing by his responses and it was much easier to do in english. 

What did you learn about yourself?

I learned that in trying to be quick and consistent in my responses, I let some spelling and grammar mistakes get through. I was worried about responding quickly, because with other people when I'd take too long trying to make sure everything was correct, they would disconnect. 

What were you surprised about?

I was surprised he knew so many languages. Rafael knew english, spanish, portuguese, and chinese. 

What are you proud of?

I was proud that he seemed to have no trouble understanding what I was writing. He never mentioned any mistakes which made me happy. 

What follow-up questions do you have?

I just would have liked to know specifically where my spelling, grammar, or usage could have improved in our conversation. 

What will you improve on for next time?  How?

I will think about the context of things before I write them so I use the correct tense of words and such. I'll carefully read and take a moment to fully comprehend what I'm reading so I can answer accurately. 

Dalena Bui Photography

For this quarter I decided to choose to do my own project involving photography. Last quarter is when I choose to do photography. I was a bit rusty at first now I am more comfortable finding or taking pictures and editing them with photoshop. This whole process made me way more comfortable with photoshop and being able to edit pictures like the way I want and everybody else to see it. i am able to photoshop in a snap and not think twice about it and I really enjoy that feeling. My pictures have become sharper and cleaner and more precise.

Process...

For this quarter I decided to put down my camera for two reasons. One because I was to busy to go out and take pictures and second I have been on Tumblr a lot and I saw a lot of pictures I could edit. I am a Tumblr user and I loved the different pictures I seen on there and how people could capture such a beautiful moment. But I always saw something was missing in the picture and it could be better. Then I thought if I could take those pictures and make them… prettier? Then I decided that would be my project this quarter of taking art and making it better and most importantly my own. I really liked what I did because I am so much more comfortable with photoshop and making the pictures the way I want it to look.

Closing Out The Quarter...

- ¿Cuales son algunos de las formas para empezar un conversación? (What are some ways of beginning a conversation?)

- ¿Usted tiene una forma favorita? (Do you have a favorite way?)

- ¿Hay mas formas a empezar una conversación con alguien cortésmente o mas formas que no son cortésmente? (Are there more ways of starting a conversation politely or impolitely?)

¿Qué déportes important en Brazil? 

¿Qué deportes en muy grande en Brazil? 

¿Haces ves fútbol? 

¿Deportes es mucho importante en Brazil o arte es muy importante? 

¿Deportes en las escuela?