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Spanish Cultural Essay Final Draft

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17 views2 pages

Spanish Cultural Essay Final Draft

Uploaded by

Piggy Wiggy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Spanish Cultural Essay

Throughout this semester, I have learned a wide variety of information about different things

related to learning a language, as well as about other cultures. Some of the most important things that

I’ve learned this semester are that there are a variety of differences when it comes to different cultures,

that culture and language are extremely closely tied into one another, and finally how learning a

language is so important in enriching your life.

To begin, one of the biggest things that I’ve learned throughout this semester is that there are a

variety of differences when it comes to different cultures. While it may seem very obvious that

different cultures have differences, there are many things that are were very surprising for me to learn.

Many of these things were found by reading the textbook and doing the cultural reflection assignments.

The biggest things that have stuck with me are the ones with Cuba. When it comes to extreme cultural

differences, Cuba is probably the greatest example just because of how many things are different when

it comes to how we would think of our normal day to day lives. The biggest thing that stood out to me

is that they aren’t allowed to have internet in their homes because the government doesn’t give them

permission to. Because of this, the only times that people in Cuba are able to access the government is

in public parks that have access to extremely slow, expensive internet. Another big thing that really

stood out to me is the economic divide between Cuba and the United States. In America, the average

monthly income is roughly $7,900. In Cuba, the average monthly income is about $25. This divide is

just completely unimaginable to me. It just seems completely insane that people could even possibly

live off of this. I understand that the economy is different and pricing would be very different too, but

just trying to comprehend how bad the economy of Cuba is shocks me. Overall, there are a number of

different things that need to be considered when learning about different cultures.
Second off, culture and language are very closely tied together. This is another one of the most

important things that I learned this semester. While anyone can learn a language with a decent amount

of time and effort, it is far more difficult to also learn about the culture and exactly how everything

carefully clicks together. Certain things just don’t really work in other cultures. One big example that I

can think of is how you can say that you like something. When talking in English, if you told someone

that you loved someone on the street that you loved their hair, you’d probably get a flattered response

of “thank you” or something along those lines; however, if you said “yo amo tu pello” you would likely

receive a pretty disgusted look. This is because of the difference of meanings between the word love in

English and Spanish. This difference makes it very clear that if you want to actually speak the language

and use it in your day to day life with native speakers, you need to learn about the cultural differences

and ensure that you’re properly using certain phrases to appropriately get your message across.

Finally, learning a language is one of the most valuable and enriching things that I can imagine

doing when it comes to education. Learning a language is so important because it allows you to

actually effectively communicate with people from other cultures and other parts of the world. There

are a great variety of things that differ between different countries and different cultures, and being able

to learn about these things allows us to actually effectively broaden our mental horizons and overall

just learn more about the rest of the world. The biggest part of this is that it just allows us to get a

change of perspective as to how different cultures interact with each other. Another great thing that

learning more about a new language helps with is food and music. Being able to experience the food

and music of a variety of different cultures is a great thing because it allows us to enjoy some of the

more enjoyable and personal parts of a culture.

To conclude, some of the most important things that I’ve learned this semester are that there are

a variety of differences when it comes to different cultures, that culture and language are extremely

closely tied into one another, and finally how learning a language is so important in enriching your life.

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