Undergraduate / "Spanish was my motivation to begin my scholastic career", Statement of Purpose UT [4]

Hello!

I am looking for some feedback on my transfer admissions statement of purpose to the University of Texas. This is my first draft. Please help! Is it too long?

As a child, one is told not to talk to strangers. As an adult, I have found that there is much to be learned from a stranger. I discovered my passion for language during a series of conversations with one stranger in particular; a veterinary student from Nicaragua named Lester, who spoke no English.

I had learned the basics of Spanish, or so I thought, during my freshman year of high school, and I owned a Spanish/English dictionary with a section dedicated to commonly used phrases. So I was pretty confident about my ability to communicate when I boarded a plane to Honduras five years ago. Overly confident. The moment I was spoken to, in Spanish, I opened my mouth to speak and no real words came out. Mostly, "Err... Uh. I, uh... Estoy... oh. Lo siento..." I tried fumbling with my phrase book, but I was too nervous to actually find something useful. So I quickly resigned to only speaking with fellow tourists, so I wouldn't have to admit to my incompetence. After about two weeks, I was tired of hearing the same tourist stories and I had been practicing my basic Spanish in my head, so I was ready to try again. Lester looked nice; he was wearing a cowboy hat, which I used as my gateway to potential conversation. "Te gustan los sombreros? Soy de Texas y tenemos estos sombreros alli." That was the easy part. It felt awesome that he understood me and he spoke back! Since Lester didn't speak English and I didn't speak Spanish, we realized we could learn something from each other, and therefore we met every morning for the following week to have coffee and a short lesson. His spring break ended and he went back to Nicaragua, and I decided I would go back to school when I returned to the United States, to take a Spanish class.

The semester following my return, I became a dedicated Spanish student and took other basic classes as well, not quite sure what I was working toward. Upon completion of Spanish IV, I had the opportunity to go abroad again. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to apply what I had learned in the classroom to real-life scenarios. The class offered was Cultural Anthropology, a five-week class in Peru. Our ACC class was combined with students from the University in Lima, so there was ample opportunity to practice conversation. Also, each Peruvian student spoke English fairly well, which was of great help to me in preparing for the month following the class. Each student could pick their own date to return to the States and I chose to return a month after the class was scheduled to end. This was my month of "independent study." I visited each large city in Peru, ventured into Bolivia, and traveled up towards Ecuador, mostly traveling by myself, determined to learn as much as I could about the language and culture from the friendly strangers I surrounded myself with. I was very comfortable hopping from city to city with my knowledge of the language, but I knew that when I returned home again that I had much more to learn.

Spanish was my motivation to begin my scholastic career and it is my motivation to continue it. It has been two years since my venture to Peru and I have since taken full advantage of the resources available at Austin Community College. I feel that my Associates Degree with a concentration in Spanish is merely a prerequisite to the classes I intend to take at the University of Texas. The classes offered encompass all aspects of the various Spanish-speaking cultures that intrigue me: their histories, their economies, their artists, writers, and musicians, just to name a few. I am mostly interested in the concentration of Hispanic Linguistics, and I may be interested in the Language Teaching program as well. I have considered the Peace Core and teaching English abroad in Spanish speaking countries. With a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas, the options are endless.

Undergraduate / "Promoting bilingualism" UT Issue for Admission [3]

Hello!

This is my second admissions essay for UT.
Prompt:
Choose a personal, school related, local, political, or international issue - and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself, your family, your community, or your generation.

Is this organized enough? Any feedback is helpful! Thank you!

Living in Texas, I have ample opportunities to practice speaking Spanish in my daily life: Ordering breakfast from a taco cart, shopping at my neighborhood meat market, or helping someone navigate the bus route. I am able to take advantage of these opportunities only because I have spent the majority of my college education studying the Spanish language. Students across the globe are required to proficiently learn a second, or even third, language beginning at a young age. In Texas, foreign language is a required subject in high school and college, but simply taking these few required classes do not make a student bilingual. In order to promote bilingualism, our school system should follow in the footsteps of other countries by encouraging bilingual and foreign language education during elementary education.

Second language learning is a compulsory part of early education in Europe and then continued throughout education, with various classes being taught solely in the second language. As a result, roughly half of all Europeans are bilingual. In French Canada, French/English immersion programs abound. In Vancouver, where there is a large Chinese community, English/Mandarin Chinese immersion programs are offered at some schools. In Texas, over one third of our population is of Hispanic or Latino origin. Many children are raised speaking Spanish in their homes and there are numerous students seeking an education that do not speak English. The current system that emphasizes teaching in English only deprives the students from learning their native language well, which can in turn obstruct their understanding of the English language. A system of dual language bilingual education that begins teaching in both English and Spanish at a young age and then continued throughout education would promote bilingualism and multiculturalism in Texas communities.

I was in the first Spanish class ever offered at my small private school when I was in the seventh grade. The majority of my classmates were Hispanic and many spoke Spanish in their homes. I had to study quite a bit at first to learn the grammatical basics, but soon I was hooked. I started to write notes back and forth to my friends in Spanish and they would help me decipher them if I was not able to figure it out on my own. By being able to interact with native speakers, my vocabulary and understanding of everyday conversation improved constantly. This type of community learning is what I believe our multicultural society is in need of.

I spent three years taking Spanish classes in community college, I have traveled abroad to practice what I learned, and I still struggle at times to keep my conversational skills up to par. I have many more years of studying the Spanish language and it's intricacies before I can call myself truly bilingual. Knowing a second language is an invaluable skill. Not only does it strengthen a professional resume and broaden opportunities for employment, but it also increases awareness and understanding of other cultures by bringing people together who may not have otherwise been able to communicate.