I know it's a bit late, but for my first commonplace post, I want to include something cool that happened in my Spanish 231 class yesterday. Our professor had us brainstorm in Spanish "cosas que representan la cultura americana" or, what we thought best represented American culture from the outside looking in (what spanish speaking nations think of us).
Unfortunately, the language barrier kept our class from coming up with anything close to the points we came up with in AmCon. The most popular answers for American culture were McDonalds, Justin Bieber, Betty White (?) and Barack Obama. Since I had time to reflect on this, it disappointed me to think that trivial things like fast food and celebrities were what the U.S. was most memorable for. We spent the rest of the class trying to think deeper about American culture (and of course how to take our Spanish speaking abilities to the next level. Scary!).
I thought it was really cool how another class related to American Conversations so quickly. I look forward to more of these fun connections, and I'll be sure to share them as they come up.
I think we have the same Spanish teacher, because we did this in my class as well. Some interesting things that came up were Wal Mart, Britney Spears, and fast food. I agree that it's disappointing and quite sad that this is what we think of our country. I am just wondering what the kids that don't live here think....
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