Today in class our professor announced that to make us talk more (or more specifically, myself not included, the half of the class that doesn´t talk at all), we all have to give 20 minute presentations next week on any topic we desire. Thus, I need an idea on what to talk about. I don´t want to do anything specififcally on America, becaue I´m in Spain. I would love to do something on the politics of Spain, but everyone in my class already has had/will have lectures on politics in their history of Spain classes, and probably don´t want to hear more -- unless I can think of some singular, incredibly interesting, event.
So I could do something about religions in Spain, but...everyone´s Catholic. And...I don´t know, there isn´t that much to talk about, unless I talked about Islam, but half of everyone took the Islam class with me.
I actually had this crazy idea to give a first discussion in Spanish, because so many kids have been shocked that there´s a Mormon church here, and I have awesome Mormon friends. So I could say "My church is international..." and show a temple map, and then explain how awesome it was to have friends here, and then give a 10-15 minute first discussion (Apostasy/Joseph Smith/Prophets).
But that might be a little too overly religious, even though I´d present it academically.
Anyone have any ideas?
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5 comments:
Protestantism in Latin America?
I like something that has a narrative. So a history lesson with interesting characters would have an automatic structure (so you wouldn't have to keep looking at notes) and appeal.
I recently gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting about opposition and righteous dominion. (They aren't unrelated; if a leader wants to do something, and is opposed by the body politic, that is opposition, and needs to be resolved, using righteous principles of government.)
Anyway, I did a bit of research into conversion by the sword. (A real example of unrighteous dominion! What spiritual benefit is there in getting dunked at swordpoint? And yet it worked in that the people at least outwardly conformed to the practices, and their children or grandchildren grew up believing in it.)
So, you could talk about the history of Spain's conversion to Christianity!
Or the Spanish Inquisition! (No one ever expects the Spanish Inquisition!)
Or talk about stuffed animals. I love stuffed animals! Bear saved me on Sunday. I was an emergency substitute chorister in primary and he was wonderful! Tell the biography of Tony the Gitmo Tiger.
I think the Mormonism thing would also be fine. Cheryl and I both gave presentations about our religion in school. If you've never done it before, it would be a good experience for you. Especially in Spanish.
Carolyn,
You could talk about how Spanish is now the second language of the LDS church, and how we were established in Latin America long before we had legal recognition in Spain. You could show pictures of all the temples in Latin America.
You could describe the MTC and illustrate our commitment to language instruction in dozens of languages. You could find out if there is an MTC in Madrid near the temple. I'm guessing there is.
Mom
Yeah, I was going to suggest history of the Church in Spain or some such.
Or food. I like presentations on cultural stuff.
Or bullfights! Or all the stupid people running with bulls in Pamploma right now.
Oooo! If I don´t do church I could do Carmen...
Well, except for the fact that "Carmen" doesn't really have anything to do with Spain, other than its setting.
Although, you could talk about music and exoticism. 19th century composers thought Spain was THE place to draw from if they wanted their music to be all cool and with it. I don't know if you have the vocab for that, though.
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