Entry One Self Introduction
Taylor Simpson's Blog
About me: Hello my name is Taylor Simpson and I am a senior at University of Houston. Check out my all about me video to get to know a little more about me!
I first started off by greeting them every morning with Buenos días which meant good morning and they would smile at me and say it right back. When I would see them playing by themselves I would go over and ask "Estas Bien?" which means You ok? I felt like they knew I was not fluent so they just said yes to keep me from bothering them. Ortega mentions that majority of the world grows up in a household where one hears multiple languages, and for these boys I feel like it was Spanish at home and English at summer camp.
Entry One: Self Introduction
CLICK HERE to watch the video :)
As you can see English is my first language and I am not fluent in any other language, even though I try to speak Spanish I still need some practice. If I would have never worked at the summer camp and experienced it myself, I would have never realized that a lot of kids do not know English if that was not their first language. According to Ortega "In some parts of the world most children grow up speaking one language only" (Ortega, 2013). I quickly learned that when I was trying to talk to Sebastian and all he did was stare at me with a puzzled look on his face.
While working in the summer camp I never got frustrated at the boys from Venezuela that they could not understand me, I just could not image how they felt when everyone was getting ready for lunch and they didn't understand what we where saying. At first all I could do was pull out my lunch and show them that it was time to eat so they would go get their lunch and eat with me. I guess you could say I was an Naturalistic learner. According to Ortega "Naturalistic Learners learn the L2
through informal opportunities in multicultural neighborhoods, schools and
workplaces, without ever receiving any organized instruction on the workings of
the language they are learning" (Ortega, 2013). I just picked up Spanish around my environment and when I over heard a conversation I could actually understand what was being said.
I first started off by greeting them every morning with Buenos días which meant good morning and they would smile at me and say it right back. When I would see them playing by themselves I would go over and ask "Estas Bien?" which means You ok? I felt like they knew I was not fluent so they just said yes to keep me from bothering them. Ortega mentions that majority of the world grows up in a household where one hears multiple languages, and for these boys I feel like it was Spanish at home and English at summer camp.
References:
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding second language acquisition. Routledge.
Hola Taylor, from reading your blog and seeing your video I was able to realize that you've managed to adapt to your surroundings. As a future educator, it seems that you have taken it upon yourself to try and learn a second language which should allow you to communicate with this individuals in your own work environment. According to Ortega, "Many people will learn at least
ReplyDeletea few words and phrases in a foreign language. Many others will be forced by life
circumstances to learn enough of the additional language to fend for themselves in
selected matters of daily survival, compulsory education or job-related
communication" (Ortega, 1). The book does have the word choice of "forced" but it seems that you took it upon yourself to try and gain some knowledge in a second language to be able to communicate with Sebastian.
Hola Bianca! Thanks for your comment and yes I feel the same way even though I did not know the language I did not give up trying to be able to communicate with Sebastian. Since my work environment was focused on a lot of Spanish speakers I got to catch on a lot of the words that I could use to communicate. According to Ortega, people are bound to learn a bit of another language to get through situations such as work and school (Ortega, 2013) and that is exactly what I did in order to be able to communicate with parents.
DeleteI love the quote from the textbook that you both referred to that you learn select words from a language when you are in the environment and “forced” to do so (Ortega, 2013, p.1). I also love that you learned some Spanish to communicate with your students. That’s such an important way to be able to connect with them, and they are able to see that you are trying to understand them and that you care.
DeleteHello Taylor! You're story is so beautiful! From wanting to be in criminal justice to inspiring Sebastian. One thing I know is that children who come from another country are very scared and you created a warm welcoming to Sebastian. I am glad that you are in the education field because you will motivate others and you will be the teacher that students will remember. "Languages are almost always learned with and for others, and these others generate linguistic evidence, rich or poor, abundant or scarce, that surrounds learners"(Ortega, 2013 p.55.) You and Sebastian have learned from one another and it has become beneficial to both of y'all.
ReplyDeleteHello Damaris! You are completely right when you said that Sebastian and I have learned a lot from one another. Ortega states that, “Naturalistic learners learn the L2 through informal opportunities in multicultural neighborhoods, schools and workplaces, without ever receiving any organized instruction on the workings of the language they are learning” (2013, p. 6). Even though I was not fluent in Spanish I was able to communicate with him in an organized way because we had a set time for everything throughout the day and he caught on quickly.
DeleteHi Taylor! I truly enjoyed hearing your story and learning more about your background. I too started off with another major in mind, but after realizing I loved working with children, I decided to switch as well. It was especially heart warming to see that you bonded with Sebastian at camp despite the language barrier. According to our text, people are bound to learn a bit of another language to get through situations such as work and school (Ortega, 2013). Your experiences at camp have already proved that this statement is true. As educators, it is rewarding to see a child's progress in anything academic related, and for you to see Sebastian's progress in learning a second language I'm sure is an amazing feeling.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alya! I thought it was really nice how you bonded with Sebastian despite speaking different languages. I also like the quote that she used because it is very true. When you are around people who speak other languages frequently, you learn a lot. By being around him and him being around you, you guys were able to learn a lot and pick up a lot from each other which I think is really cool.
DeleteYes Asia Oretga mentioned that, "people are bound to learn a bit of another language to get through situations such as work and school" (Ortega, 2013) since I was at work and he was at summer camp we had a routine and we got to know the ends and outs of the day and became very comfortable with our environment. I feel like once we became comfortable with each other it was an easier journey.
DeleteHello Alya. I love the text that you used "people are bound to learn a bit of another language to get through situations such as school and work" (Ortega, 2013). I was very willing to learn and wish that I had time to learn more and becoming a future educator I think that it will only help me in the future to learn more about the language.
DeleteHi Taylor, I think it is great that you get work with students at your summer camp who are English speaking, bilingual, and non-English speaking all together. You did not let a language barrier stop you from building a relationship with your students and helping them grow their confidence even if they were not able to speak English. Gass and Selinker (1994) explained that identifying second language acquisition helps break the barriers between native and nonnative speakers of the language (p. 5). You were able to connect to your students through music and lots of other activities that allowed them to express who they were and what their culture represents. I know this knowledge will be very beneficial to you in your future classroom because you know how to create an inclusive environment.
ReplyDeleteHello Devon! Yes we did not let the language barrier stop us from getting so close. As Ortega talked about on page 6 that sometimes the learning is done from an informal learning and that is what Sebastian and I did.
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