Exploring Culture

In this class, we gained knowledge and understanding about the cultural perspectives through lingro learning and our discussion boards. I feel that these products and practices helped me better understand the values and attitudes in hispanic culture by introducing me to a new point of view. Lingro learning did a great job of exploring cultural perspectives and the discussion boards did a great job in helping us differentiate between our own culture and perspective and hispanic culture and perspective. 

Engaging in Communities

I think it is very important to engage in your community and the global community. I think it is a great way to give back and be a helping hand to people who may be in need. I think the best way to live and be happy is by working together. We can all be more efficient that way. 

Interpersonal Communication

We were expected to complete two talkabroad assignments this semester. We had to go on the site, choose a person to speak with that interested us, and then we would have a conversation based on the topic given to us. I enjoyed it. It is nice being able to practice my Spanish skills with someone other than my professor. We also utilized flipgrid where we were given an assignment and from there would record our responses in spanish. We were then expected to respond to two classmates in spanish. I have also been able to utilize my spanish speaking capabilities outside of class three times so far. I love being able to communicate with people whose first language isn’t English because I know how much of a communication barrier they go through daily. I think I have done some tremendous growth since Spanish 102. I feel that I am more capable of listening and understanding Spanish, but I do feel that I have difficulty in responding and need to strengthen my speaking skills. 

Presentational Speaking

We completed some presentational speaking assignments this semester. We didn’t necessarily present them to the class, but we did present them to our professor. These assignments consisted of mainly proyecto assignments. There were lingro learning assignments where we would record ourselves speaking, but I feel that the proyectos holds more weight in this particular section. I think what challenged me the most in the presentational speaking portion, was attempting to speak into the camera without any notes or anything to help me. I think how I overcame this challenge was by knowing what it was I was going to be talking about, kind of studying beforehand what I was going to say and then flowing with it as I presented the information on camera. I think I excelled at understanding the information that I was speaking about, but I struggled with translating it into spanish. I will definitely study more next time. 

Presentational Writing

We completed multiple presentational writing assignments this semester. We learned about the writing aspect of Spanish the most this semester. We did a lot of projects where we had to do a lot of writing. For example, we had to complete a writing assignment where we had to create a text message thread that showed a miscommunication as well as use texting abbreviations that are commonly used in the Spanish language. I enjoyed completing this project. I love creating scripts, so it was fun to create a “script” in spanish. I think it was easier to create a conversation going back and forth between my two characters because I have learned a lot more words and have comprehended how to structure it. It was difficult to make a conversation in a sense of adding in text abbreviations because they are different from english abbreviations. 

Interpretive Listening

We did a lot of interpretive listening activities this semester. On lingro learning, there were instances where we would have to listen to a recording then answer questions based on the recording. On our Spanish examens, we would have to listen to the recordings and answer questions based on the listening activity as well. I think my strongest point in comprehension is listening. I can get a pretty good understanding of what’s being spoken, but I still struggle with responding. It is interesting to me how fast Spanish speakers speak. Sometimes I get confused because words start slurring into each other and I start having difficulties trying to understand.

Interpretive Reading

We did a little bit of interpretive reading. We did most of these on discussion boards and lingro learning activities. We visited websites, had to research different topics and record our information on what he found. I don’t think this part was very challenging for me. I feel that I can read Spanish easily. My main takeaway from the readings was that the Spanish language and culture is different in certain aspects, but there are some similarities between Spanish and American culture. I think I have grown tremendously in understanding how to read spanish. I think from the start of the semester and now, I have strengthened my reading skills.