Exploring Culture

“Mis actividades deportivas” (discussion board #7) helped me gain understanding of cultural perspectives by watching a video in Spanish and writing about the most popular sports in that country. This activity taught me that one of the most popular sports is fútbol. This challenged my worldview because in the United States we call it soccer and I also wouldn’t say it is the most popular sport for us. While reading the responses from my classmates everyone likes a variety of sports from tennis, kickboxing, dance, softball, and track. This activity taught me that although we are from different countries, speak different languages, and even like different sports, we can still all come together to discuss what we like because of our love for physical activity, competition, and watching a game.

Engaging in Communities

TalkAbroad allowed me the pleasure of speaking to a nice woman from Mexico named Claudia. I did not know how to really prepare for the conversation other than writing out a list of questions I wanted to ask. However, I did not know what she would ask me or what direction the conversation would go. It was really nice being able to speak to a native speaker because I was able to hear her say things. Overall I think this assignment was a great experience and despite the challenges it was nice to speak to a native speaker. I truly feel like we connected and I was able to learn more about her and her life in Mexico. We shared similarities like our love for dogs and the food we enjoy.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1atb6ShKAN486ruKm1jmgQhTpXn3huQk4/view?usp=sharing

Interpersonal Communication

TalkAbroad is an online platform that allows someone learning a language to have real conversations with a native speaker. Conversations like this help the learner practice speaking, listening, and also practice engaging in a natural conversation. This conversation was challenging because it was my first time speaking with a native Spanish speaker so I had to overcome the challenge of not understanding every single thing that was said while forming a response in Spanish.

The discussion board posts taught me a lot about the Spanish culture and also my classmates. I was able to learn about their family, favorite sports, food, and even if they would participate in medical tourism. These were my favorite assignments because there was no pressure and we just had to express our opinion.

Presentational Speaking

A presentational speaking activity I completed this semester that challenged my ability to speak in Spanish was the audio assignment, where we had to pronounce consonants and vowels in Spanish. This took a lot of practice because some were very different from English. Similar to the alphabet, I found it easiest to memorize most of it. Next time I will practice pronouncing more sounds in Spanish especially the “r” consonant that I struggle with.

https://canvas.odu.edu/courses/137493/assignments/969058?module_item_id=4160098

Interpretive Listening

The assignments that challenged my interpretive listening skills the most were the TalkAbroad and Flipgrid assignments. During the Flipgrid assignments I had to listen to what my classmate was saying in order to respond accordingly and answer their questions. This was fun because everyone asked different questions and I also had to create questions to ask. This assignment also helped me prepare for the TalkAbroad assignment. The only difference was that the Flipgrid was easier to prepare for.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oDFhFsMUwd7_Pc75m94XFpFSwrEK3VpA/view?usp=share_link