El blog de la Srta. DeSousa

T hanksgiving or "el día de acción de gracias" is only celebrated in the United States, Canada and a few other areas of the world.  This holiday is not celebrated in any of the Spanish speaking countries but many people from these countries live in the United States making everyone's Thanksgiving dinner culturally unique!  Do you include any unique cultural dishes at your own Thanksgiving dinner?  Personally, I am very thankful that we have Thanksgiving in the United States and that this day often causes us to pause and to recognize why we are thankful and to celebrate our own heritage. Take a moment to describe what you are thankful for in English with at least the beginning of the sentence IN SPANISH.  For Thanksgiving, you can describe where you might go, some of the food you might eat, some things you might do over the weekend with at least some of the words in Spanish.  Estoy agradecida por  el día de acción de gracias, mi familia, mis amig...

First of all - Halloween is NOT the Day of the Dead! What do you already know about el Dia de los Muertos? What do you want to know? Can you relate this to any of your own holidays or traditions? When and where is it celebrated? What do they do?  ​​Check out these videos to learn even more about Day of the Dead. What can you recognize in this traditional ofrenda? We will be watching the movie Coco which focuses on this holiday and this   video   in class. Now that you know a little bit more about el Día de los Muertos, what do you notice about the videos? How do they exemplify what happens on this day? Try these   games   to review some of the important terms.       So, what do you think about the holiday and culture? Answer some of the questions I posed earlier in the post. Write your thoughts below!

¿Qué quiere decir el verbo llorar?  ¿Qué quiere decir la palabra llorona? La llorona es una mujer que llora porque sus hijos están muertos. A couple of years ago, the story of la llorona was featured on the NBC series Grimm. The series Grimm is a drama with characters based on Grimms' fairy tales like Snow White and Hansel and Gretel.  This week the show focused on the legend of la llorona, a woman who is forced to roam the Earth looking for her children. This year there is even a new movie coming out about the legend! Here is the trailer. There are several versions of the story which originates in Mexico but generally the story of la llorona is a tragic tale of a woman who drowned her children either to be with the man that she loved, or to punish him, or out of complete desperation. When she reached the gate to the afterlife, she was questioned about where her children were and sent away to find them.  Here is a  video  that explains this and other ve...

What do you think of when you hear the name Christopher Columbus?  So did Columbus really discover America???  Check out this short  video  about the history of Columbus and this  video  explaining the origins of the holiday to learn more.  Christopher Columbus or Cristóbal Cólon as he is known in Spanish is a complicated figure in history and social media is helping to finally explain this history to the United States.  There are currently fifteen cities who no longer celebrate Columbus Day as noted in this  article  and I expect that there will be more cities and states following this trend in the coming years. Here is some more information as well. After watching the videos and talking about the information we read in the online  blog  that we viewed in class, what do you think about Christopher Columbus?  Was he an inspiring founder of the new world or an evil villain who violently conquered the new world?  W...

Soooo.. where are YOU from??! Are you a "regular American?"  What is your heritage?  If they were immigrants, how were your ancestors treated when they arrived to the United States?  How are they treated now?  What about immigrants who are entering the United States today? Del 15 de septiembre al 15 de octubre celebramos en los Estados Unidos el Mes de la Herencia Hispana (Hispanic Heritage Month).  Did you know that the United States recognizes Hispanic Heritage Month? Why does it begin in the middle of September?  Have you seen the National Football League, the Today Show, Major League Baseball or another group honoring this celebration? Check out this  video  from the NFL and this  clip  of the Today Show that aired while they were celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month (and partnering with Telemundo) for Viva Today.   Major League Baseball  has also embraced Hispanic Heritage Month as demonstrated with th...

"English is so much easier!" This is a quote that most people who are native English speakers have shouted in frustration while trying to learn another language.  However, people who are learning English as a second language understand just how ridiculously difficult English really is. Consider the following sentences: - The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. - The bandage was wound around the wound. - A seamstress and a sewer fell down the sewer. - There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger and neither apple nor pine in pineapple. - You park in the driveway and drive on the parkway. - When the stars are out, they are visible but when the lights are out, they are invisible. The exceptions are in the thousands with plurals like tooth and teeth and cactus and cacti, and past tenses like eat becoming ate and lose becoming lost! Spelling in English feels nearly impossible for so many people because of those mysterious silent letters ...