Jordan Lawson, Wofford College Part 1

The class that I had to use TalkAbroad with was Spanish 303 and the assignment was to learn about the different groups of people who live in the country and region that my partner lived in.

Before doing the assignment, I was nervous about speaking for 30 minutes in Spanish because the longest that I had ever had a conversation only in Spanish was 10 minutes. As the conversation started, it was much easier to speak for the 30 minutes than I expected. I was surprised how easy answering some of the questions was because I didn’t realize how much Spanish I have learned through previous Spanish classes. The person who I had a conversation with did a great job helping to explain things to me if I did not fully understand. He used Spanish words that I did know. I really enjoyed the conversation and I believe that it helped me learn.

My partner Pablo was from Ecuador and the place that he lived in Ecuador was Otavalo, which is where a group of indigenous people are thriving while following the same traditions that they have for years. He said that they still dress in the traditional clothes. Also, he discussed that there were many different groups of people in Ecuador, such as Otavalenos. He said that he has not seen or heard of any discrimination between the indigenous people and the other groups.

I believe that I did well in answering and asking some of the questions, such as using the tenses and other grammar points that we have reviewed this semester. Also, I did a good job at understanding some of the vocabulary that my partner used. There were some that I didn’t know and he used other words to describe what he was saying. At first, it was a little hard picking up the questions because of the accent. But by the end of the conversation, I could fully understand what he was saying or asking.

I thought the conversation was helpful for me and I enjoyed being able to talk about other topics, like where he lived, after we finished the questions at the beginning. I am glad that I got this experience because I was very surprised at how well it went considering I was nervous about talking for 30 minutes.