Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

I think the practices that helped me to explore and gain understanding of other cultural perspectives was being able to keep an open mind towards new ideas. I was always able to keep myself open towards ideas or practices that weren’t similar to mine. Even if something seemed different or new to me, I wasn’t going to judge it based on my previous knowledge or experience. This is something I was able to put into practice when I watched the Flash Cultura video. The videos showed me new things and I kept an open mind to how the new things were interesting and cool. I allowed myself to compare and contrast what I saw to what I have experienced. It allowed me to become comfortable with new practices that I may not have known about before, and it was really interesting to see how similar my life had been. There was one video, where we learned about the traditional and modern family styles. Although I never experienced living in a big style family, I could relate to it because I do have a big family. I was able to relate to the modern family which showed me how there is more than one type of family, which is something that I don’t think I realized. And it opened me to a new perspective which was very exciting.

Engaging in Communities

Personally, I believe that engaging in communities both global and local is one of the most important things we can do. Building positive communities is not only great for the communities we build, but for ourselves as well. By engaging in the community we are building something that can benefit all people. To create a great future we begin at home, in our community. We work with the people around us, and we learn about them and it helps us all grow into better people. I think engaging with others helps create a cultivation of understanding among any and all communities. I haven’t been able to engage too much with my community, due to covid. But I usually love meeting new people and working with them in clubs or community service activities.

Interpersonal Communication

This is a screenshot of a student to student interview done over zoom. I am not showing the other student out of respect for their privacy. But you can see we had a few minute conversation in spanish. 

Comparing this to the breakout rooms from the beginning of the semester to that mid semester interview I felt so much more confident in what I was saying. I wasn’t in any way perfect, I didn’t always have the words I wanted but I felt comfortable and as though I was improving. I think one of the biggest difficulties I face is feeling confident. I think with confidence people will be more receptive to what i’m saying. No ones going to expect me to be perfect at a new language but when I speak with confidence they will at least be more open to respecting me and what I am saying. If I speak without confidence it’s harder for me to even believe myself and what I’m saying. I feel that the assignment was a lot easier for me when I got past my doubts in confidence. I think the next thing I need to work on is finding better ways to explain myself when I get stumped. In my interview with my professor, I came to a lost for words and I let myself get stuck for longer than I should’ve. Next time I want to work on moving on or finding a new way of expressing myself.

Presentational Speaking

I think the best example for presentational speaking would be when I would tell stories in the breakout groups. Sometimes we would have small separate groups where we would be talking with each other, and I think when I told a story it was the easiest form of presentational speaking. My biggest challenge would have to be make sure that what i’m saying is actually making sense. Sometimes I would talk and the person listening looked confused, so I would try to explain one story or idea in a new way. I think this helped me grow by giving me more opportunities to learn and to help others. It forced me to think a little outside the box and to expand my understanding of spanish. I want to work on making sure I am clear and understandable the next time I am working on presentational speaking.

Presentational Writing

I am showing the “Final Composition” that I did as an assignment. It was me pretending to write an email to a friend. 

This assignment was the second composition assignment we did this semester. I found my biggest difficulty was writing what I wanted to say with the words I learned. I found that I could also use new words to express myself, but it was still difficult figuring out how to write what I wanted to say. It became easier when I tried to think about what I knew. I had to switch how I was thinking. I was used to writing complex sentences in english, but what worked best was realizing there is a different writing structure of writing in english and spanish. And realizing that I didn’t have to write long complex sentences; It made way more sense to write smaller easier to understand sentences with the vocabulary I had. I think by working on thinking differently when I write in english in spanish will help me next time.

Interpretive Listening

This is a screenshot of our homework assignment where we listen to a fully spanish audio and then interpret the information we heard by answering some questions.

I am unable to share the audio because it was a part of our textbook homework, but I include a screenshot of the homework assignment. This is one of the first audio assignments we had, it was incredibly new to be hearing someone speak spanish at the time. I think from then to now I recognize and understand what I am listening to way more. In this assignment we heard sentences and then we decided if they were logical or not and it required me to re-listen many many times. But now in the semester I find myself understanding a lot more the first time I hear it. I still replay the audios, but my initial comprehension has improved over the course of class. I find that I may need to have people repeat things but I am working on making sure I get all the information the first time.

Interpretive Reading

An example of the textbook homework assignment, where we would read the assigned pages and then answer questions related to what we were seeing.

On our online homework assignments we were expected to read sentences in spanish. And a lot of the time I had to go back and reread our assignments. For example in the textbook there were pages and we would read them and answer questions about the things we had read. My greatest challenge was constantly forgetting that although I may be a fast reader in english, I am not in spanish. A lot of the time my eyes would quickly go over all the words but I was processing what I was reading. So I would need to go back and reread and most importantly take the time to understand what is being said. I thought it was really interesting how quickly I went from not understanding anything in the beginning of the semester to being able to read articles. It is something that I still find exciting. I think I still need to practice reading in order to be able to become even more fluent and have faster comprehension but I am really happy with the growth I’ve had so far.