Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

A few practices that helped me gain understanding of cultural perspectives are watching the Cultura videos and taking the quizzes on the videos.

Watching these videos helped me to better understand values and attitudes in the Hispanic culture by letting me see and hear what it was like to be in Spanish speaking country. They challenged my world view by making me acknowledge the fact that the world is filled with cultures vastly different from my own. I had to accept that everyone lives their lives differently. I believed that families around the world were much like my own. However, the Cultura videos showed me that many Spanish speaking families have more than just the immediate family members living in one home.

Engaging in Communities

It is important to engage in your immediate community so that you develop an understanding as to how your community works and flows together. In turn, this is why it is important to engage in the global community. Communities across the world must learn to interact with one another peacefully. An understanding that every community is different must be made to allow such peace.

I interned with a large animal veterinarian over the summer. This gave me the opportunity to truly see and interact with many working parts of my community. I met many new people, including Gama, a hard-working man from Mexico who worked on a local dairy. I learned a lot about their culture from him, along with a few new Spanish words.

Interpersonal Communication

Our class completed several interviews with both fellow classmates and our teacher. We also wrote discussion board posts about ourselves, our hobbies, and our schooling. We completed two different compositions, one describing our families and the other describing our school.

We were put into groups during class to answer questions in Spanish. Our discussion board posts were used to talk about ourselves, and then respond to our classmates’ posts, as well. We had to complete an interview with a partner from class and record it. Being split into groups to speak was challenging because we were under peer pressure to get the question correct. I felt that I was excelled in the interview. I tend to do well under pressure. I learned that I usually know more and remember more than I think I do. I will try to have more confidence next time.

Presentational Speaking

We had to complete a recorded interview with a classmate. We also had to give a presentation describing our hometowns to a friend.

The interview with another classmate was challenging because we both had to get our part correct. It was also challenging due to having to speak in Spanish for three minutes. We worked hard to have a fluid conversation with one another. I excelled at the presentation of my hometown because it was very easy to speak about something with which I am extremely familiar. Next time, I would want to be in person for the interview with my classmate.

Presentational Writing

We wrote two different papers. One described our family. The other described our school’s activities.

I believe both assignments were difficult. I had to make sure that my grammar was correct for both papers, along with making sure that my sentences were a reasonable length. I believe I excelled at the grammar portion of the papers. My teacher did not make many comments regarding grammar mistakes on my paper. Next time, I would like to make my sentences longer especially on my first paper.

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Interpretive Listening

We had several different listening activities we had to complete. The Cultura and VHL videos required us to listen and interpret what was being said by the characters. Tests and quizzes also involved a listening portion.

I heard several different recordings of how to pronounce different words. I had to listen to a recording and say whether or not it was true or false. One thing that was challenging was when the speaker would speak too quickly ,and I would not catch what they said. I just kept listening until I understood. My takeaway is that it is hard to understand a language that is usually spoken quickly. I believe that my ears have begun to adapt and listen for different key words and sounds.

Interpretive Reading

There were several different stories we were required to read throughout the semester. We would then be required to answer questions about the readings. One of the stories was Real Madrid and Barca: rivalidad total.

This assignment was about soccer which is very popular in Spanish speaking countries. Something that was unclear to me was the history behind the rivalry between Barcelona and Madrid. However, I delved deeper into the history and it began to make sense. My takeaway is that soccer is something Spanish countries are extremely passionate about. I have begun to understand how complex this world truly is with each assignment.