Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

I always make sure that when I am exploring new cultures I keep an open mind. I try to never judge anything to quickly especially if I don’t have an experience with whatever part of the culture I am learning about. When I was learning about tapas in the Flash Cultura I first thought of how different it is to the habits I grew up with. I tried to imagine what tapas culture is like in the places that have it, things like having more social gatherings for tapas with friends. By thinking this through I was able to understand the value of first relaxation in other hispanic cultures and for social events being apart of their everyday life. It caused me to think about the lack of these social like gathering opportunities in my life. By having after work tapas it was said that they were able to meet with friends or coworkers. I think I miss out on that experience but I would love to incorporate it to my lifestyle!

Engaging in Communities

I believe it is very important to engage on smaller scales in order to effect larger global communities. I think participation in communities can range from a lot of different things, such as planning events, teaching others about certain topics, and supporting those who plan events. During this course I have only been able to engage in my community by supporting other! During Hispanic Heritage month I was able to share these events with my residents as a Resident Assistant. I also went to a few events with friend, which helped us both engage in the communities and support hispanic cultures.

Interpersonal Communication

TalkAbroad was a program online where I was able to talk to a native spanish speaker. I was able to talk to my partner Allan for 15 minutes. Although I knew I was going to be having this conversation I was aware what we would talk about. I was very worried that I wouldn’t be able to express myself correctly. Although It could take me a second to think of what to say I really enjoyed getting real life practice. My partner Allan was very kind and patient and made the conversation feel both extremely enriching and make time pass by so quickly. Next time I will try to be less nervous because I think it made me freeze up and say a lot of filler noises like “uhm”.

We also completed Discussion Boards, again I would over think my work. I would be worried I wasn’t being clear. I tried my best to translate and explain in the Discussion board I shared below. I think I over worried because the people who communicated with me seemed to understand my translation fine. What I am learning slowly when communicating with others is confidence. Even if i mess up other can always ask me for clarification!

Presentational Speaking

During the semester I was able to practice presentational speaking with my partner Alec White. We would go through scenarios as partner in spanish. What me and Alec did was prepare with each other before each interview. We both did really well and figuring out what we wanted to do and say. Over time we were able to figure out how we spoke with one another. I think we both excelled at being adaptable. We would practice an interview together over a week but then at the real interview since we were doing them without reading or faking we would change some of the things we said. I don’t think there is anything I would change about our interviews, I think we both did very well!

Presentational Writing

This semester the best example of presentational writing is the compositions we completed. We would be assigned a topic or instructions of what to write about and then we created our compositions. Our first one was writing sentences based on a list of verbs we were given. I used a couple wrong tenses in mine. As we kept practicing through the semester I found it so much easier to write more and more. At first I struggled to even write one sentences based on a verb. But in the last composition we completed I found it so easy to write an entire paragraph on the topic of activities I like to do. I believe the reason it became easier was because I was able to practice so many times through the semester. I only need to make sure I am using correct tenses when I write.

Interpretive Listening

Some of the interpretive listening activities we completed this semester were listening to an audio and then answering questions or recording our answers to questions we heard. In my artifact I have a photo of the Voice Threads we did. In these we would listen to different questions in and then record our responses in spanish. When possible I found myself replaying the audios at first. But I tried to slowly stop doing that, because in real life you can’t ask a person to repeat every single thing they said. It was challenging to try and understand everything I heard by only listening once. But by practicing and not allowing myself to constantly replay audios I was able to improve my ear to hear and understand rapidly. I loved the Voice Threads because they felt like they gave me a chance to practice authentically. It was like having a conversation without the stress of the other person staring at me. And each time I listened and answered a question I feel as though I was improving.

Interpretive Reading

In class we were assigned to read short articles usually about cultural things such as open markets in certain countries and certain foods there is. In the article I shared we were reading about the exotic fruits in Latin America. We would read these articles and then answer questions about the text. I remember for the open market article we had earlier in the semester I needed to reread the article a few times. Partially because I didn’t fully remember what but also because I wasn’t fully confident I was remembering what I read correctly. So I would compare my answers with the reading multiple times to be sure I was right. But with this article about fruit I was able to remember most of this information with needing to go back. I remembered what I wrote so well that I was in the store labeling the fruit with the names I had read. It was very exciting to apply what I was learning in regular environments outside of school.