Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication
Exploring Culture
One of the most helpful activities in this class that helped me gain understanding of the Hispanic culture was in Chapter 10 Cultural Exploration assignment. This assignment helped me better understand values and attitudes in the Hispanic culture. I never thought about the cultural differences when it comes to working and the gender stereotypes that different Hispanic cultures have. I did not know that the Spanish speaking countries have similar gender stereotypes in the workforce that the United States has. In the Hispanic culture, some children and adults have an older set of beliefs to the workforce and believe that specific jobs are fit for a specific gender, instead of it being normalized that either gender is fit for any job. It is unfortunate to know that this is not only an occurrence in the United States, although over time this will improve in both cultures as there is already a slight shift in change about this topic. This challenged my worldview because I have never thought about other cultures and their social stereotypes. I had my own stereotype that the United States was the country with the biggest problem of gender stereotyping, but now I am aware other countries and cultures also struggle with this problem. It is interesting to see that in Spanish speaking countries there is a view similar to the United States, that women are more fit for jobs such as teachers, nurses, and childcare providers while men are seen more fit for jobs such as police officers, fire fighters, construction, and engineering.
10-Exploración cultural | LingroHub (lingrolearning.com)
Engaging in Communities
It is important to me to engage in my immediate community and global community. Without my immediate community my mental health would not be as good because I would not have a sense of being a part of something bigger than myself. The global community is just as important to me. It helps me broaden my knowledge on different cultures and make new friendship outside of my usual comfort zone.
Apart of my immediate community I like to do volunteer work to feel more fulfilled in life. Helping others brings me joy and gives me a sense of purpose. Apart of my global community, I like to explore different cultures other than my own to challenge my beliefs of the world. The photos below are photos from my most recent trip to the Dominican Republic. In a few weeks I will be going to Costa Rica to further my global community and knowledge of Spanish speaking countries.
Interpersonal Communication
One form of interpersonal communication that I did this semester was through TalkAbroad. This opportunity allowed me to be able to speak to a native Spanish speaker and practice my Spanish speaking skills I learned in the class. This helped me grow in my Spanish skills because I was able to listen to how Spanish words are correctly pronounced and which part of the words have an emphasis on when it comes to accent marks. It was difficult to speak to my partner in TalkAborad. Sometimes I needed her to repeat herself or speak slower. It was also difficult because it was the first time communicating with someone new, and it is in not my first language. I was able to get over these difficulties by not being so hard on myself by reminding myself this is a learning lesson, and it does not have to be perfect. I excelled at understanding what was being said, but forming my own sentences from scratch and speaking to them was the hardest part. If I could have done something differently, I would have practiced pronation more beforehand. I learned to just take it slow and take it one word at a time, there is no need to rush speaking Spanish, or it will make it more difficult to think of the correct words and annunciations.
Another form of interpersonal communication that I did this semester was speaking with my classmates through discussion boards. This allowed me to practice Spanish writing skills when it came to making the initial post and responding to my peers’ posts. This helped me grow my Spanish skills because I had to make sure I spelled words correctly and added the right accent marks in the right spots. Sometimes it was challenging to remember a word I needed in my sentence to make sure it was a fully completed sentence, but I overcame this by writing the words I knew first then coming back and filling in the blanks later. I excelled at reading my classmates responses and posts because it is a lot easier for me to read Spanish than to write it and speak it. If I could do something differently, I would have tried to write more of the discussion posts in more Spanish to challenge myself more.
Below is an exmaple if interpersonal communication through a discussion board assignment.
This assignment was about the different stereotypes in Spanish speaking countries regarding the workforce. Below is my classmate’s response, then my response is followed after.
Topic: DB 10 ¿En qué estás trabajando? (odu.edu)
Presentational Speaking
One presentational speaking activity I have completed this semester for Spanish 102F is in LingroLearning in Chapter 9 about health topics.
In this activity, I spoke about reflexology and the different parts on the foot that have pressure points that can help other parts of your body. This presentation was a bit challenging because I had to pick from a body part and explain what symptoms you can have with that body part and what benefits can occur with reflexology pressure points connected to that body part. I overcame this challenge by taking it step by step with each body part and reviewing the vocabulary from the lessons to be able to tie two information points together. I exceled at knowing the body part names, but it was more challenging to list symptoms related to that body part. If I could do something differently next time, I would have added more details to my description to practice more Spanish speaking.
9-Vocabulario | LingroHub (lingrolearning.com)
Presentational Writing
I completed a presentational writing assignment for this course in chapter 7 on the topic of sports. In this activity I wrote information about a sport I like to practice.
I grew in my Spanish writing skills in this assignment because it was a great practice activity to pay attention to spelling and accent marks in Spanish. It was difficult to form full completed sentences for this activity. I overcame this difficulty by writing the key words I know in Spanish and coming back to the filler words afterwards. I excelled at knowing how to write the key words. Next time, I could have done better by adding a little bit more information to further practice my Spanish writing skills. Next time I can also incorporate new words in my sentences that I look up on my own to further challenge myself.
7-Vocabulario | LingroHub (lingrolearning.com)
Interpretive Listening
One example of an interpretive listening assignment I have completed in this course is in chapter 6 during vocabulary review. In this assignment, I listened to descriptions of a family and had to answer questions correctly regarding the family description.
In this assignment I heard information about Javi’s family members describing where they fall on his family tree to him. Some key words I heard were “aunt”, “grandma”, “mother”, and “sister”. What was challenging to me was identifying when a word was for a stepfamily member or not, because “stepmom” and “mom” in Spanish sound similar. I overcame this challenge by replaying the conversation to relisten to the words that I was unsure of. I found the cognates most interesting with assignment and how easy it was to understand some of the family words. I took away from this listening experience that I have to pay close attention to what is being said. I cannot just assume or predict what someone is going to say until they have completely finished their sentences. I tried to predict what was going to be said and it made it harder for me to understand because I was not focused on what was presently being spoken. I have grown from this activity because I know how to listen better to Spanish to understand what is being said.
6-Vocabulario | LingroHub (lingrolearning.com)
Interpretive Reading
In class, I have completed interpretive readings assignments. One example of an interpretive reading assignment is in Chapter 8 in the culture section. In this assignment, I read about different Spanish speaking countries and their main dishes or comfort foods in their culture.
This assignment was a bit challenging for me to recall all the words from previous lessons and classes to piece together the entire readings. I was able to overcome this buy not rushing the assignment and reading portions of it, then coming back to a few minutes later on the parts that I was stuck on. This gave me a chance to recall words from older lessons. I found it most interesting how different Spanish speaking countries dishes are compared to American dishes. Their dishes are a lot healthier than America’s. What I took away from this lesson is now different diet and eating styles are around the world. I grew in this assignment because now I have a better understanding of other countries cultural dishes.
