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Last week was about understanding dating in Spanish speaking countries and now it is all about marriage. This week I talked to a 35 year old teacher from Colombia who was very willing to talk to me about marriage. To help understand my conversation, there are a list of vocabulary below. 

Vocabulary

Casamiento/Matrimonio - marriage 

Pareja- partner/ pair 

Vigencia- validity 

Cédula-  identity card 

Juzgado- court 

Reclamar- to claim

llenar- to fill out 

Coincidir- to coincide 

Catolicos- Catholic 

Pedir- to ask 

Vendidas- sold 

Tribu- tribe

Entregado- Selfless 

Marido- husband 

Summary 

• Marriage in Columbia is just like marriage in the United States  
•  Some people never get married, but do live together or civil unions
• They have reception type dinners where the whole family come together  
• They have to get everything approved by the courts 
•  In some indigenous tribes they have a form of arranged marriage; they sell the women. 

- ¿Cuales son algunos formas de escuchar cortésmente?

- ¿Hay algunos cosas que no son cortés cuando alguien le esta hablando?

- ¿Es difícil a escuchar cortésmente o es facil escuchar cortesmente?

• Is your research question clear from the beginning?
  Not really, we kind of have to flow through some casualties first then ask the question. 
• Did you post the questions you came up with before having the conversation?  Did you predict how your partner would answer those questions?
  Well, we were talking about what we're doing and we both said that we just ate dinner. Then the question just came up and then it went on and on. 
• Did you research your topic before you had the conversation?
  Not really, because I think it's better to ask the people themselves than research it myself. 
• Did you post the transcript/video/audio of your conversation?
  Yes, I do. 
  
• Did you post a paragraph that answers the reflection questions I ask of you in the project description?
  Yes, I did. 
• Did you make it look pretty?  Are there hyperlinks to interesting sources you found while researching your topic?  Do you include images and/or video of your topic?
  It's not like eye catching pretty but well organized and whatnot. 
• Did you format your blog professionally? 
  I guess I did. 

IM and text talk has become increasingly more popular in this generation. For the most part, people are very lazy, and decide not to type out full words or sentences. Personally, I type out full words and sentences when I talk to people online, but abbreviate everything when I text people. My research questions were, "Is there a difference between IM talk and text talk? What are the popular abbreviations?" I talked to a 20 girl, Fatima, from Spain to get her outlook. 

Isabella T: Is there a difference between instant messaging and text messaging?

Fatima L: not really. it is all kind of the same.

Isabella T: What are the most popular abbreviations?

Fatima L: a10 and a2 are usually used to say "adios" and aki is used to say "aquí"

Fatima L: numbers are usually used in abbreviations. it is also popular to say b7s which is "kisses". which is said instead of adiós/goodbye.

Isabella T: Haha, that's interesting. In english, people usually shorten words, but it seems like in spanish words are abbreviated by the way the words actually sound. Such as "aki" or "bn"

Fatima L: yeah, that is true. other ones are like "exo" (hecho) or "fsta" (fiesta).

Isabella T: Are there any weird abbreviations?

Fatima L: yeah i guess so. por favor is usually "xfa" and hasta luego is "hl".

Most people don't know that texting and instant messaging started or became popular in Europe before anywhere else. I did find it interesting that they use numbers as apposed to just using letters. 

There are many ways to break up with people. There are also many reasons why. Through my research I found out a couple of ways to say it if you want to learn there down below…

Corté con mi novia/novio.

Rompí con mi novia/novio.

Lo dejé con mi novia/novio.

Mi novia/novio y yo lo dejamos.

To Break Up-Separarse

To Break Up-Terminar

To Break Up-Hacerse Pedazos

As you can see there are many ways to let someone down easy. :)

o   Who you spoke with and why you chose that partner

The girl’s name was Astrid, and I talked to her because she actually responded!

o   What did you learn about them? What did you learn from them?

We didn’t get a chance to finish our conversation, but I know that she is about my age, a bit older, and she is learning English on her own, which is really hard!

o   How did this interaction help you move towards achieving your personal goals?

My new goal is to find out about people’s abilities to speak languages that are not their own (having me as the test subject as well) I am pretty happy with this discussion.

o   What specifically did you do well according to your goals/expectations? What specifically to you need to improve on? (Quote specific things you said or did and what you would have done or said if you could do it again)

o   I am pretty sure that if I could do this again, I would do it the same way.