Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication
Exploring Culture
In my time throughout this course, there were quite a bit of things that helped me gain a bit of understanding into Spanish cultural perspectives. As an example, one of our discussion board posts was about how people in Spain and other Latin American countries greet each other with a kiss on the cheek or a hug. Obviously, in American countries that would be quite different from how people are greeted today, but this is something that Hispanic people are comfortable with. This also showed me what kind of values and attitudes that Hispanic people hold dear to them. As a comparison, American greetings are more formal and distanced, while greetings in Latin American countries would be considered more informal and personal from an American standpoint. However, this is not true, since this is just how most Latin American countries treat each other. Nevertheless, these greetings shows that Latin American people value trust, friendliness, and respect in their culture.
Interpersonal Communication
Within this class, there were quite a few interpersonal oral activities that we had to complete. These were both the oral exams and the conversation assignments. In the oral exams we had to answer a series of questions to make sure we understood the materials. As for the conversation assignments, we would generally have to have a conversation with our partner(s) on a specific topic in order to complete them.
Both of these types of assignments have helped me grow when it came to learning the Spanish language. It is generally easier to read and write a language than it is the speak it. However, by doing the conversation assignments, I have since gotten through my fear of speaking the language out loud. It has also helped me remember some things that I normally would not have. It is hard to remember words in a different language if it has no meaning to you. By constantly repeating words and phrases out loud, the words start becoming more meaningful to the one saying them. For the next foreign language class that I take, I will definitely keep that information in mind, as it greatly helps with the learning process.
Video of interpersonal communication here.
Presentational Speaking
In this presentational speaking activity, we were to have a conversation about people that we liked and disliked. After doing so, we were supposed to answer whether or not they had similarities and how.
This conversation was quite difficult, as we had to come up with four persons that both either liked or disliked in our personal and work life and compare them on the spot. However, after everything we have learned throughout the course, we were able to accomplish this quite easily.
Video of the presentational speaking here.
Presentational Writing
In one of our projects, we were told to write an email to an organization to nominate a person that we look up to. This was quite difficult for me, because it is hard to talk about other people, as well as use the right conjugations and infinitives, when talking about an unknown person through email. However, with enough time and practice I was able to overcome this issue with ease. After completing this assignment, it gave me something to look back on and view my accomplishments. It also gave me something to look back to in case my confidence in learning a new language wavers.
Interpretive Listening
One of our discussion boards in the class was about the different types of festivities that they celebrate every month in Spanish speaking cultures. We had to watch a video, however, the video was completely in Spanish. This made the video very difficult to understand, as we were still very early in our Spanish learning. However, given enough time and interpretation based on what was happening in the video, I was able to overcome this difficulty and interpret the meaning of both the Spanish words and the things going on in the video. This taught me a lot about learning a foreign language, because even though you won’t always understand what is being said, looking at the movements and actions of the ones speaking assist you in interpreting what they are saying.