Exploring Culture
The Lingo Learning Hub through our Constraseña gave us multiple exercises in cultural exploration. These exercises opened up my eyes to how the world outside of the United States sees some things differently. It is so easy to forgot what goes on in the rest of the world and how much others struggle, and also how much others can care for one another. For example, I learned there are a lot of Spanish speaking countries where LGBTQ+ rights are still being fought for in ways that the U.S. has achieved. I also learned that other countries tend to value their family dynamics in a much more hierarchical yet nurturing way. I also learned how rare it is on some Spanish speaking countries to have female sports teams playing on a national level. I had no idea it could be so normal for homecooked meals and fresh fruits to be a regular part of a whole nation’s diet, when I am so used to the restaurant and fast food industries taking lead in the U. S.
Engaging in Communities
Our community not only needs us, but we need our community. Sometimes we need more than just ourselves to make it through a tough situation in life, and our community is the best source of getting help when we need it. For those of us able to help someone else, our community is the best place to find an activity to participate in.
I have been involved with my community through school mandated activities related to my honor society in high school, but I did not really absorb the magnitude of the effects our communities have on us at the time. I did however, recently participate in a playset build with the Roc Solid Foundation. We were building a playset for a child with a neuroblastoma and his sister. The parents came out and talked to us after the build was complete; and hearing them describe how much this meant to them and their family really drove home for me, how much one small contribution made by a few individuals could benefit another family. I hear all the time, people saying it takes a village to raise a child”, and this is a time I felt like part of the village and it was a very rewarding experience.
Interpersonal Communication
TalkAbroad is a platform that allows two strangers from different parts of the world to interact in a conversation together via a video call. They provide a topic for your conversation to revolve around, but otherwise your conversation consists of whatever comes naturally in that moment, resulting in a unique experience every time. Our class discussion boards are an electronic platform that provides a topic or multimedia presentation for us to research and reflect on, and then share our thoughts with the rest of the class. We then get to interact with our classmates, developing ideas together, and getting to see other’s point of view on that matter.
For my TalkAbroad experiences, I got to converse with two completely different individuals that provided two very unique exchanges. These were definitely a challenge for me, being the only conversations I have had in Spanish with anyone other than my professor. The hardest part for me in these conversations was getting over my nervousness enough to remember my words and really focus on the other person and how we reacted to each other. Even though there was still an obvious language barrier, we were able to get an understanding for one another, and the conversation started to flow into something real and enjoyable. If I had prepared more ahead of time some of these difficulties could have been mitigated, but I am still thankful for the learning experience.
Alexandra Bollinger – La familia.mp3: SPAN 102For our discussion board assignments, we were presented with a completely different subject each time, that really required me to pay attention and learn something new about a different culture. I did end up enjoying these assignments because I loved being able to share the information I absorbed, and was rewarded by the positive feedback of my peers. The hardest part for me ended up being when I then had to respond to my classmate’s posts. It required me to actively think about the things they said and why certain aspects of the assignment stuck out more to them than others. These assignments have reminded me that there are so many different ways to see one thing.
Presentational Speaking
I did not perform any presentational speaking activities.
Presentational Writing
I did not complete any presentational writing activities.
Interpretive Listening
For one of our discussion board assignments, we watched a video of native Spanish speakers describing their favorite sports. We were tasked with understanding what sports were listed, and determining which sport was the most commonly listed in the video.
We had a few different exercises similar to the one mentioned above to complete. The hardest part for me when listening, is being able to recognize the separation of words in the syllables. When I could not recognize where that separation was it would make it impossible for me to actually understand the words being said. However, if I wrote own what I heard, I could then look at the words, and pull out the familiar syllables and structures to better understand the sentence.
Interpretive Reading
We had many activities through the Lingro Learning Hub to read a paragraph of information, and then have to 1). recognize certain kinds of works, and 2) have a general understanding of what is being said.
These activities challenged my ability to use the words I do know, and fill in inferential knowledge about what the words I did not recognize would mean. They also gave me the opportunity to show that I could recognize the difference between different tenses and functions of words and ho they can change the meaning of a sentence.
