Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication
Exploring Culture
Throughout the semester I’ve been able to grasp a better understanding of cultural perspectives by conducting my own research in addition to using things such as YouTube and Google. When learning things such as foods, celebrations, clothing, and activities, I would find a video that showed some cultural events or just details about common Spanish culture. Seeing a picture of something or having platforms that are interactive help me gain a deeper understanding.
Using other platforms to further explain things such as YouTube and Google helped me visualize and see the experiences of Spanish culture. While reading is important, it’s hard to visualize the magnitude of these events, musical compositions, clothing, and foods. Seeing their culture made me realize the lack of credit these countries receive. Hispanic culture is amazing! From the food to the music produced, clothing, and food, this culture is unique and authentic. Their style is their own and doesn’t take from other countries. The challenges presented to me consisted of the lack of creditability they receive, how many people judge wrongfully due to their preconceived conceptions, and the lack of knowledge we have as a nation of other countries cultures. Before taking Spanish classes, I had very little knowledge of their culture. The most I knew was Mexican food which truly isn’t authentic. The American view of Hispanic food is things like tacos, quesadillas, and enchiladas. While yes, they may be Hispanic foods, over time the United States has truly simplified it. Learning styles of dances, drinks, foods, and activities truly taught me what Spanish culture is about. Their culture is very strong on close-knit families, happiness, and enjoying life.
Engaging in Communities
Engaging in your community is important for many reasons. The first reason why it’s important is to be able to meet old and new community members. This gives you the opportunity to build friends and new relationships. Interacting with community members is import also due to networking. Networking allows you to meet individuals who might know a little more than you in addition to finding new jobs or businesses. It is also extremely important to engage in your community to be the change you want to see. In the past few years, we’ve seen many young and older people come together to fight for change. There is power in numbers.
While in high school, I was one of the leaders of our teen mentoring group. This group was called Teen Enrichment. Throughout this program, we would have weekly meetings at school, hold events for the community for parents and children to learn about our group, and volunteer at events. Not only were we hands-on with our community, but we would also give away scholarships, connect teens with the right resources, and network with other businesses for those who did not want to go off to college and do other trades. The picture depicted above was taken at our town’s annual Braswell run. On January 20, 2006, Baron Braswell was wrongfully stabbed and killed. This was a case of mistaken identity that resulted in the death of a beloved son, grandson, and high school football player. His father is a minister and works at our local school board. Baron (“Duce”) death hit hard in our community. Many people were angry and knew we needed to stop the violence. Ever since he passed, his parents have held an annual Braswell marathon to stop teen violence. This is a huge event, and many businesses come out and support this cause. The marathon is backed by the county and advocates for other teen-focused groups to join. At this event, we partnered with our local basketball team to promote Teen Enrichment which was found at every high school in the county. Being able to help people stay on the right track and provide resources to those who need them is very important to me.
Interpersonal Communication
During the semester, I completed two TalkAbroad assignments, Flipgrid, and discussion boards. The TalkAbroad was my favorite assignment! At first, I was nervous and scared because I didn’t know my full potential and the extent of my Spanish-speaking abilities. I feared there would be a huge language barrier. Instead, I was able to understand and communicate efficiently.
The most difficult semester for myself were the discussion boards. Writing in Spanish at times is difficult due to remembering all the conjugations, verbs, present/past tense, and so on. There are so many changes you have to make to work and pretenses it’s difficult to keep up. In addition to the amount of material, we had to learn in such a short time. Learning multiple different pretexts and conjugations personally made room for a bunch of confusion. Watching tutorials on YouTube where they essentially dumb it down made it easier to understand. In my free time, I would practice and make a family member who teaches ESOL check my work. For both of us, this furthered our knowledge. One thing I truly excelled in was the depth of my vocabulary. Going into my field, it’s important to understand Spanish. Further practice and events will help me feel more confident in my speaking abilities. From the first discussion board and flipgrid to the last, it’s clear to see how much my vocabulary has grown. I’m not only able to understand more, but I can also write and respond back much more efficiently. TalkAbroad allowed me to communicate and learn from an individual from a completely different country. Not only were we able to communicate with each other, but she also taught me more vocabulary and popular food in her country.
Presentational Speaking
During the semester we completed multiple speaking assignments. We completed TalkAbroad, three speaking exams with our professor, flipgrid, and Lingro learning assignments.
Flipgrids, TalkABroad, and Speaking exams were all used to test our speaking abilities. The first flipgrid where we had to speak Spanish was probably the easiest. We had to say our favorite activity/sport and answer others accordingly. As stated above, the TalkAbroads were the easiest which is still hard to fathom. The second meeting I had with my professor was the hardest for me. I truly felt as though the final was easier than the other two. Pronunciation is what I excelled at the most. At though I’m still learning and trying, my improvement is shown throughout all the meetings. The only thing I would do differently is prepare myself more efficiently. I could have these tests and feel so nervous which lead to simple yet avoidable mistakes.
Presentational Writing
Many of the presentational activities presented to us were assignments from Lingro Learning, discussion boards, and unit exams. The most helpful assignments were produced by Lingro Learning.
Lingro Learning had a million assignments for each unit. The assignments would consist of vocabulary, grammar, completing sentences, and unit exams. Looking back, while there were a ton of assignments, it helped deepen my understanding of the Spanish language. While some were typing others were interactive and completely write on their own. Over time, this eventually became easier. The discussion boards help me with answering questions and statements in Spanish. This was not difficult for me. The main thing I struggled with was the final exams. I would feel as though I understood the unit material and then flunk the exams. Although I’m a horrible test taker, I would study harder, longer, and more in-depth.
Interpretive Listening
The interpretive listening assignments presented to us throughout the semester were once again mainly Learning assignments and the occasional quiz and flipgrid assignment.
Throughout the Lingro Learning assignments, phrases, stories, or statements would be said and we would have to translate the things we heard to complete the assignments. This activity allowed us to match the sound to the word. It also helped by hearing the correct pronunciation. When I first listened to this audio, I could pick out a few words to understand the concept of this reading. Repeating the audio, listening closely, and writing down what I knew allowed me to understand what was being said. During this story, the elephant became friends with a little girl and other elephants who were able to roam freely. What was compelling to me was that although this is a child’s story, it took me multiple times to understand what fully went on. This class has helped me grow by studying harder, practicing more, and giving me resources to obtain help when needed.
Interpretive Reading
Through this semester we retained a lot of information and furthered our reading abilities in Spanish. One of my favorite things to do outside of class is to read the news in Spanish to see how much I can comprehend
https://www.newsinslowspanish.com/series/ben/51/435
One of the most challenging things was trying to understand all that was being said. While there were clues and keywords I knew, I still had to fill in the gaps. Although it was kind of frustrating, it helped me learn new words and the things that were happening in other countries. For anyone learning new words, I’d recommend reading the news at a beginner/intermediate level to challenge yourself and learn new things. The most compelling/interesting thing was how simplistic it was. American news tends to be long, drawn out, and dramatic. Each assignment in this class has allowed me to become more knowledgeable in many ways. Not only has it grown and improved my Spanish, it’s also refreshed me grammatically in English.