[MUSIC] [FOREIGN] Welcome to the final course of our beginning Spanish specialization. [FOREIGN] Congratulations on making it this far. Your hard work and dedication to all the lessons and activities in this specialization is to be commended. As you've seen throughout the specialization, Spanish isn't always easy to learn as some people think it is. There are many new structures to control, and of course there are many indiosychratic uses that you also need to remember. It's finally time to put everything you've learned so far to the test, as you complete this final project of our specialization. The specialization project is a combination of a written report with several sections and a final oral presentation. In the first three milestones you will complete the written report. And in the fourth and final milestone, you will produce an audio or video recording of yourself summarizing the key points and findings. For this course, we're going to imagine that you're applying for an all expenses paid educational trip to a Spanish speaking country of your choice. This will be an extended trip for four to six weeks, so you get to spend a lot of time in the country of your choosing, finding out about their culture. In order for this to be a cost-effective trip for the government grant you’ll be applying for, you would be staying with a host family in the country for most of the trip. Naturally the host family speaks little, if any, of your mother tongue. So your task is to show the award committee that you can communicate well enough to make this a worthwhile experience and a success for everybody concerned. Sounds like fun, right? Okay, in order to prove that you're ready for this imaginary cultural exchange, your task. In other words our specialization Capstone project, is to draft a brief report and record an oral presentation entirely in Spanish. I know it sounds like a lot, and really it is. But we're going to do this in a logical progression of steps over the course of four milestones, spread out over seven to eight weeks. Trust me if you've made it this far in the specialization you can do this. As you begin each milestone you'll receive in depth instructions about your tasks and how to complete them. So let's briefly go over what's coming up. The first step, before you start on the milestones themselves, is selecting a Spanish speaking country for your focus. Where you're going to travel. Here's a list of your options, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, La Republica Dominicana, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, El Peru, Puerto Rico, Espana, Venezuela. In milestone one, your primary task will be introducing yourself to your host family. You want to tell them about yourself, as well as, to be ready to ask them questions. If it helps you can write this in a form of letter if you wish. In milestone two, you're going to research things about your chosen country, to find out about it's culture, history, politics, music, arts and famous people. You'll also be asked to compare your findings with your own country's origin. And reflect on the differences and similarities between your country and the country that you're travelling to. In milestone three, you'll be asked to outline your actual plans for the trip, what you'd like to experience, and to see, and to do, while in that country. As well as how you plan to do it, how you're going to get there, and with whom you're going to stay? And finally in milestone four, you're going to summarize the key points and findings from each of these three milestones in a brief oral report, by recording an audio file or a video file and sharing it via Coursera. The overall goal here is to demonstrate just how much you've learn in this specialization, as well as to learn more about one particular area of the Spanish speaking world. This is meant to be a fun safe space to practice all you've learned through out the specialization, and to get some real constructive feedback from your fellow learners on your progress. Enjoy yourself during the course of this exercise, and really try to stretch yourself as you complete each milestone. Who knows, perhaps after you finish this course, you'll be inspired to actually take a trip, just as you've planned. All right, there's a lot to get done now, so [FOREIGN]
