Quien soy yo (Sarina)

hey! i'm sarina amantea and my story with languages is kind of cool. growing up, i never thought that languages were necessary to learn. I thought that because i spoke english, the universal language that i wouldn't need to learn another lang in my life. i was totally wrong.

when i was in school, i was forced to take a foreign language. i could either take french, latin, or spanish. i chose to take spanish. the class was so hard and i made bad grades. however, unlike many others in america (where the teaching of foreign languages is poor), i had an amazing teacher. if i had focused to overcome my problems in the class i could have learned a lot. i, however had the mindset that i didn't need to learn another language and that learning another was stupid, pointless even.

disappointed by my grades in the class, i decided to study spanish over the summer. i knew i would have to take another year of spanish so i decided to study the language in depth. during my one summer before the next school year, i learned a lot about the cultures, traditions, and customs of the many spanish speaking countries. i especially fell in love with the country of venezuela, but thats a whole other story haha. during the summer, learning didn't feel like a chore. it felt relaxing. i fell in love with spanish, its people, and its countries. i never really had conversations with people but practiced my spanish in my room by myself. i watched many youtubers and listened to a lot of reggaeton music. i used the same method that i teach to y'all.

when i returned to school, my spanish had improved so much. i was able to speak and express myself so well that i shocked all my classmates. they could not believe how much my spanish skills had grown. i was too :)

i guess thats where my language journey begins! i went from knowing barely anything to being able to speak freely. now, in the beginning when i spoke with other native speakers, i would be very nervous and spoke slowly, but after a few conversations, my nerves eased.

spanish had changed me. it allowed me to connect with others and learn more about the lives of others. spanish allowed me to take in new perspectives and live life through a different lens. spanish had become more than just a language but rather a new part of me.

soon after learning spanish, i was inducted into my school's spanish national honor society. i became the junior representative of the club and later its president. in addition, i received my global seal of bi-literacy for achieving fluency in spanish and english.

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after receiving my global seal of bi-literacy, i decided to learn my next language, português. i have never had the opportunity to speak to a native speaker face to face but have had many phone calls (using hellotalk) to practice my portuguese. my goal in life is to be a polyglot and learn about as many cultures as i can.

thanks for reading,

sarina amantea

#todoesposible