Ricardo's English Blog

      One thing that has been going great for me in my language class is keeping track of my assignments and making time for my work. One thing that has been challenging is talking in front of the class. The reason I say this is because there's times when I get nervous and lose track of what I'm going to say. One thing I need to improve from now on is my communication skills. The way that I am going to accomplish this is why trying to open up more to new people.      Today in class we worked on our mask assignment that shows part of our culture.      One thing I learned today is that people may have something in there culture that isn't obvious just by looking at them. One way that I may use this is by not assuming something from a person.

      One part of my culture that travels with me everywhere I go is my cultural music. Hispanic music has always been with me, I go to the store and listen to it on my headphones, I go to my soccer games and listen to it in the car. I have always listened to this music ever since I was a kid and now I just feel like it also defines who I am. I don't always have to be listening to the music at that moment but I still sing it in my head or just to myself if I'm doing something like work. This is why music has been a part of my culture that I feel travels with me everywhere I go.       Today in class the teacher was absent, we still had an assignment on Commonlit which I finished and started doing my blog post right after.       Something that I learned was that what people read can be how they expect everything else to be. One way that I may use this in the future is to not let books or articles to shape the person I am.

    The learning method that I enjoy the most is class discussions. One reason of why I say this is because I enjoy to hear the perspectives of other people when talking about a certain topic. Another reason why I said this is because someone might say something that may open up my mind and make me switch opinions. The last reason why I enjoy class discussions is because they make the work much easier, I am able to hear the opinions of others and then focus on what the question is asking. This is why class discussions are the learning method that I enjoy the most.     Today in class we did independent work, we read a passage and wrote down stereotypes we saw in the passage.      One thing I learned was that stereotypes and myths are completely different. One way that I may use what I learned today in the future is by not using stereotypes to assume something about someone. 

      A time when someone assumed something about me because of a stereotype was in middle school when a student thought I was smoking in the bathroom and told the teacher. The way that this situation happened was that I went to the bathroom near the gym in the middle of class, during this time I was sick so I would begin to cough at times. I had finished using the bathroom but a couple seconds later a kid walked in but at that moment I started coughing, he asked if I was smoking and with the most confused face I said no, he then walked out and told a teacher that was passing by. The teacher was a male and walked into the bathroom asking if it was true that I was smoking, I explained to him that I was just using the bathroom and that I do not smoke. At the end the teacher walked away, the kid apologized to me and explained how he assumed I was smoking since most Hispanic kids do that.     Today in class we watched a video about a girl and the stereotypes she fac...

    One gender expectation in my culture that has been challenging to navigate with is that a man does not show his emotions. An example of this would be that as a kid I would always get yelled at by soccer or boxing coaches and sometimes I would feel like just crying but people in my culture would always say "A man does not cry". This has been a challenge for me because I have always been a sensitive person. Another example of this would be that sometimes as a kid I would also feel nervous or scared about things like going to dark places alone, having to fight in rings, and playing against older kids. This was also a challenge because I would show that I was scared and in my culture is seemed like it made me less of a man.      Today in class we read a story called "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, after we read the story we answered 7 questions assigned to us.     One thing I learned today was that gender expectations are different for each gender. One way ...

      The inspiration or reason why I decided to talk about being active is because throughout my life I have always worked hard to achieve things, to show that I care, and to be helpful to others, but there has also been people like friends or family members who never see that and just see me as someone who rather be at home sleeping instead of going out or and do activities.       Today in class we read a passage called "I want a wife" by Judy Brady and answered some questions as a class, to finish the period we did 15 examples of what we want in a husband.      I have always been an active person but to many people I'm just lazy. Reading my poem to the whole class made me feel like if I was finally able to express how I truly felt when people called me lazy.

     A time when I did something out of the norm was when I jumped out of a boat during a family trip. There were many reactions that happened at the moment when I did that. My mother was scared, she thought I fell on accident and that I was drowning, after I got back on the boat she yelled at me and said that I was crazy. My Father was just calm about it he started to just stand up from his seat to make sure I was okay, on the boat he just asked why I did that and to be careful next time. My sister started celebrating as if she just won a competition, from the water I could see how she was just laughing. My uncle was really worried and jumped into the water 5 seconds after I jumped to make sure I was okay. The only reason I had jumped in was because I was bored of just sitting down and looking at dolphins.       Today in class we finished the group assignment that we had started on Monday.       One thing I learned today was that o...