Every language course is required to have culture/tradition/history built into the curriculum. Chase has never had cultural instruction in her Spanish courses. She has had only language. So todays lesson was a culture project. Chase was to choose a minimum of 10 Spanish speaking countries - then research, explore and investigate what makes that country of interest to visitors. This session was guided by me. I taught her the 20 Spanish speaking countries, then let her choose 10. In giving her the names of the 20 countries, I mentioned at least one historical, or cultural fact. I also showed her a map and we reviewed the geography of the countries - especially the proximity of the Spanish speaking Central and South American countries. We discussed the influence the Spanish conquistadors had on those countries, causing the language and culture to overlap.

Chase chose Spain, and due to it’s influence on Central and South America, I had her choose 2 major cities (out of a list of 8, which I supplied) to research. It is important to note that the layout and organization of her actual report is her’s alone. My guidance came in the form of recommending historical, cultural and geographic facts that she might wish to explore in each of her 10 chosen countries.
Chase was very thorough in her research and asked important questions. I told her to relay only the most pertinent information - of interest to young people - preferably college students.
Our time ran over the assigned 3 hours. In order to complete the information on the last country, Chase worked an extra 30 minutes.