Anyone taking AP Spanish?

<p>I'm self studying it, so I would really appreciate some constructive criticism on the two letters I just wrote under timed conditions. I would also be willing to help you out in return either with this or with APUSH, Gov, Bio or Euro. You don't have to read them both.</p>

<p>Letter 1: (Prompt was about writing to a teacher after your graduation)</p>

<p>Estimado, Sra.Martinez,
Estoy escribiendo hoy a graciarle por todos ha hecho para mi duante mi tiempo como tu' estudiante. He tenido muchas recuerdas graciosas y he aprendido tanto sobre el mundo latino. Siempre yo recordare su chistes o como tu peleaba con Chris en broma. Ha me influido profundamente, ya yo me quiero ir al colegio para paramedicos. A colegio, espero que yo pueda graduar y entonces sea bendito con un trabajo seguro. Gracias por todos, yo regresare y visitare pronto.
Sinceramente, name</p>

<p>Letter 2: (prompt was about discussing summer plans with a friend)</p>

<p>Querida Maria,
Estoy muy emocionado sobre el verano entrante! Mis padres estan orgullosos porque yo recibi notas buenas y les me compraran billetes a visitar Peru! Siempre he deseado visitar Peru, es un pais increible. Hoy tanto hacer, tanto a ver. La comida de Peru es asombroas,tambien. Yo se que has deseado visitar un pais sudaamericano. Debes venir este verano! Lo sera divertido. Verdaderamente, yo espero que tu puedas visitar Peru conmigo.
Besos, name</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>I’m not in AP Spanish, but i’m in Spanish 4 Honors, do AP work during that class, and have an A in that class, and I plan to go onto AP Spanish next year.</p>

<p>PROMPT 1 (going in order of the letter):
-*duante = durante.
-Shouldn’t it be “como era su estudiante”? Because when you’re talking to a teacher, it’s FORMAL, and you shouldn’t use the “tu” form, but rather the “Ud.” form (which conjugates the same as the el/ella forms). This just goes for your entire thing, lol.
-“Siempre yo recuerdo sus chistes y sus peleas bromas con Chris”. </p>

<p>Sorry, I don’t think I have the time (nor skill) to read the second one, haha ):</p>

<p>^ it’s definitely not “era” or “fue” because those are forms of “ser” and you use “estar” do describe being a student since your’e not always a student. But I have no idea what the preterite yo-form of estar is.</p>

<p>^ That would be “estuve.”</p>

<p>I’m pretty sure that it IS in the imperfect though (so it WOULD be “era”) because one thing that the imperfect is used for is descriptions in the past. And according to all the Spanish teachers I’ve ever had, “student” IS a description. So yes, it is imperfect.</p>

<p>For writing under time constraints, your letters are pretty good! There were a few mistakes, which I fixed below (this is a corrected version). I explained them too. I may have missed some, because I’m not a native speaker. (I’m in Spanish 5 right now.) Good luck :)</p>

<p>Estimada Sra. Martinez,</p>

<p>Escribo hoy para graciarle por todo que usted hacia para mi cuando era su estudiante. Tengo muchas recuerdas graciosas y he aprendido tanto sobre el mundo latinoamericano. Siempre recordare sus chistes y sus peleas en broma con Chris. Usted me ha influido profundamente; ya quiero estudiar para ser paramedico. A la universidad, espero que pueda graduar y entonces sea bendito con un trabajo seguro. Gracias por todo, yo regresare y le visitare pronto. </p>

<p>Sinceramente, name</p>

<ol>
<li><p>You should always refer to a teacher (former or current) in “usted” instead of “tu”. On the AP exam, it may cost you points if you don’t. When talking to someone in usted, the possessive used is “su”. Also, Sra. Martinez is a woman. Your adjectives should agree - make sure to open with EstimadA. </p></li>
<li><p>Instead of “Estoy escribiendo” I would use “Escribo” - yes, I know that the former literally means “I am writing”, but it implies that you are CURRENTLY writing (which you aren’t when she receives the letter, if that makes sense.) Escribo, in proper context, means the same thing without that implication. It also sounds better. </p></li>
<li><p>When using the present perfect, you can NEVER separate the conjugation of haber and the participle. My teacher says to think of them as “married”. You wrote: “ha me influido”. The correct way to say it is “me ha influido”. Also, I would not use “ha influido” without a pronoun (I do not know if it’s gramatically correct, but to be safe, I wouldn’t use it - this goes for the "ha hecho at the beginning as well)). That’s why I changed it to “usted me ha influido”. </p></li>
<li><p>The first sentence was a little wordy (the part where you say “during the time I was your student” is what I’m talking about). I changed that to “when I was your student.” It’s simpler and sounds better. You use the verb “ser” instead of “estar” here because “ser” is used with professions and being a student was your profession. </p></li>
<li><p>In the beginning, you write “[usted] ha hecho para mi…” First of all, it sounds much better when the “usted” is included (I don’t know if this is required for grammatical correctness, but do it anyway). The way you write it, translated into English, it reads: “…for everything you have done for me when I was your student”. This looks a little off. I would use “hacia” (imperfect) so it would read “…for everything you did for me when I was your student”. This may be a personal thing, but it looks better to me that way. </p></li>
<li><p>Same with your next sentences. “He tenido muchas recuerdas graciosas…” - this, in English, is “I have had many funny memories”. Ostensibly, you still have the memories, so it is present (tengo) and not present perfect that you should use here. I would also replace “he aprendido” with “aprendia” because the class is over and you learned (past tense). Compare “I have learned a lot about the Latin world [last year in your class]” with “I learned a lot about the Latin world [last year in your class]” - the latter sounds better. Speaking of the Latin world, I changed it to latinoamericano because there isn’t really a Latin culture - the more correct term would be Latin American. That is really a matter of preference, I suppose. </p></li>
<li><p>You wrote: “Siempre recordare su chistes o como tu peleaba con Chris en broma”. There are a few problems in the sentence. First of all, you refer to the teacher in “usted” and “tu” in one sentence (through possessives). Keep it uniform (and in usted). Also, make sure your possessives agree. You wrote “su chistes” - you should use “suS chistes” because “chistes” is plural. The sentence reads “I will always remember your jokes or how you jokingly/playfully fought with Chris.” This is not correct grammar. You should use “y” instead of “o” (o means <em>or</em> and obviously you remember both). Also, we have a problem with parallel structure. Ideally, the sentence should be “I will always remember your jokes and your playful fights with Chris.” In Spanish, that would be what I have changed it to above. </p></li>
<li><p>Colegio is not the equivalent of the English word college. That would be [la] universidad. Colegio refers to a school (as in a public middle or secondary school). I changed that in your letter. </p></li>
<li><p>Where you talk about being a paramedic, I changed the wording a little. “Colegio para paramedicos” sounded a little funny, so I just changed it to “estudiar para ser paramedico”. It sounds a better to my ear. Also, why did you make the verb querer reflexive? I don’t see a reason why it should be in this context. The yo (before quiero) seemed a bit superfluous, so I omitted it. Same with the yo before pueda.</p></li>
<li><p>I added a “le” before “visitare” because you are planning to visit HER specifically (I hope I interpreted this correctly). Otherwise, the sentence only says that you are coming back to visit (in a general sense.)</p></li>
<li><p>You probably remembered and just couldn’t type the accents - but I’ll remind you anyway. Future conjugations always have an accent over the ending! </p></li>
</ol>

<p>All in all, good writing. I’ll do the other one a little later and in a separate post- this one is long enough!</p>

<p>I really, really appreciate the input.</p>

<p>Thanks alot cryingcloud, i actually took some notes on your advice and its definitely good that you pointed these things out.</p>

<p>Here is a quick re-write incorporating some of your advice, although some of it doesn’t apply to this letter:</p>

<p>Querida Maria,
Estoy muy emocionado por razon de el verano entrante! Mis padres estan orgullosos que yo recibi notas buenas y les me compraran billetes de avion a visitar Peru! Siempre he deseado (correct tense?) visitar Peru, es un pais increible. Hoy tanto hacer, tanto a ver. La comida de Peru es asombroa,tambien. Se que deseas visitar un pais sudaamericano; debes ir este verano! Lo sera divertido. Verdaderamente, espero que tu (te?) puedas visitar Peru conmigo.
Besos, name</p>

<p>gonna bump this once</p>

<p>Querida Maria,</p>

<p>Estoy muy emocionado por razon de el verano entrante! Mis padres estan orgullosos que recibi buenas notas y ellos me compraron billetes de avion a visitar Peru! Siempre he deseado visitar Peru; es un pais increible. Hoy tanto hacer, tanto a ver. La comida de Peru es rica tambien. Yo se que deseas visitar un pais sudamericano; debes ir este verano! Lo sera divertido. Verdaderamente, espero que puedas visitar Peru conmigo.</p>

<p>Besos, name</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Buenas should come before notas. I know the adjective usually comes after the noun, but this is an exception.</p></li>
<li><p>When discussing the airplane tickets, remember that they were bought for YOU. The indirect object pronoun is therefore you, or from a first person POV, “me” in Spanish. Since the tickets were’nt bought for your parents, “les” is the wrong IOP to use here. They bought YOU the tickets, so you just say “ellos me compraron”. </p></li>
<li><p>In that sentence, why did you use the imperfect subjunctive? They did buy you the tickets (a defined action in the past that you know is true), so you use the preterite. That’s compraron. </p></li>
<li><p>He deseado in this context is fine. You are saying “I have always wanted to visit Peru”, which makes perfect sense. </p></li>
<li><p>I know what asombroa means, but I’m not sure if it can be used in this context. I know rica can be, so to be safe, I changed it. If you are familiar with the usage of asmobroa and know it can be used here, it’s fine. </p></li>
<li><p>I added a Yo in front of “se que…” because the word “Se” can be confused with the other se (reflexive) if you forget to put an accent. Just to play on the safe side, add a yo.</p></li>
<li><p>Before the last puedas, the correct pronoun to use is “tu”. You don’t have to include one there; as a matter of fact I prefer not to.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Great job!</p>

<p>thanks again cryingcloud</p>