These two weeks kickstarted the overall unprecedented transition to online learning due to the COVID-19 outbreak. My evolution class was supposed to travel to the Galapagos Islands in order to study conservation efforts such as the ecotourism, as well as the Galapagos' biodiversity. Ultimately, the trip was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Initially when the trip was still a go, I planned to record certain characteristics, animals, and observations of the islands and research the translations in Portuguese. When we returned from the trip, I would meet with Dixon, and we would talk about the experience. Since the trip was so different, our conversation would have been more challenging, due to the different vocabulary acquired and tenses needed in order to describe past events. In addition to jotting down notes, Dixon gave me a National Geographic magazine in Portuguese for me to read on the plane and during downtime on the trip.
Once spring break was cancelled, I remained on campus for a few days with friends before going home. I was able to finish some work I had over spring break, and after, I read the National Geographic magazine. One story of large interest was the story about cloning and genetic engineering. In China, researchers were able to create Dolly the Sheep, the cloned sheep. This article talked about researchers creating the first primate clones of macaques monkeys. By reading this article, and the others in the National Geographic magazine, I was able to acquire a variety of vocabulary within many subjects of science. When reading the magazine, I realized just how much more I needed to learn before I could become somewhat competent in the Portuguese language. It seemed as though every other word I read I had to google in order to know what the sentence was talking about. Comparing reading this article to speaking, I felt as though listening was almost easier to decipher than reading. I remember back when we first took the quiz to understand what our learning strengths were and mine were a mix of all three, so I found it interesting that I was struggling so much more with reading. Maybe this struggle was due to the unfamiliar topics discussed? Typically Gabi, Dixon, and I would talk about more common, every-day things and topics. Since these topics were more advanced, that could be the reason I was struggling so much more.
While I knew I had a lot to learn with the vocabulary, I recognized that I was able to notice some of the different tenses. In Spanish, this comes very easily, however, with Portuguese, this is not the case. I was excited that I was able to realize the past tense from the present tense. Sometimes, I feel as though I need to stop and remind myself that this course is self-directed, meaning I have to pave my way with the help of others. Before this class, I was used to having teachers and professors create timelines and activities to learn Spanish. Now, I am doing that for myself, so I need to remember that while I may not be seeing as much progress as I would had this been a normal course, I should be very proud at what I have accomplished.
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