Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

The module 1 Adventuras video: Bienvenida, Marissa, and Cultura reading: Saludos y besos en los países hispanos article really helped me understand the greeting styles in Hispanic cultures. This really showed how different cultures define and interact with other peoples personal space.

This assignment had a direct application in my personal life. I finally understood why my friends from Peru were so friendly. I still remember being a little shocked when my friends mother gave me dos besos the very first time that I met her. Having this cultural knowledge helps me understand some of their customs and not appear to be uninviting or otherwise not friendly.

Engaging in Communities

Local and global community engagement is very important because it is an easy method to show love to one another. Small and simple gestures can go a long way to restore hope in humanity and for some prevent or discourage life altering decisions. A few years ago, my wife and I volunteered at a soup kitchen in Virginia Beach to feed homeless or otherwise extremely disadvantaged people. At first thought, it was an inconvenience to me (my wife’s idea) but after arriving at the location and the work began, the experience quickly turned around. I realized that there were people that legitimately needed help and it cost me nothing but time away from video games to make someone’s night and keep them from being hungry. It wasn’t spectacular food, we made our family’s Cajun red beans and rice but the look on their faces of pure thankfulness is irreplaceable. A perspective like this can never be learned from a book, it has to experienced.

Interpersonal Communication

During the semester, I exercised my Spanish communication skills the most during the oral interviews. Speaking with both students and the professor was a great way to make linguistic “muscle memory”.

I had an opportunity to exercise this muscle when visiting some friends of mine that from Peru. In an unplanned response to a question about the classes that I was taking, I was able to respond in Spanish and tell them that I was studying Spanish in a complete sentence which impressed them very much.

The biggest difficulty that I have faced during this semester is learning a new vocabulary. I have been able to overcome this by listening to Spanish music and attempting to learn the Spanish description from a visual referent directly instead of comparing it to the English equivalent. In doing so, I have been able to better “hear” the Spanish words from speech instead of being overwhelmed in interpretation. I think next time, I will start with this approach and get pictorial flashcards.

Presentational Speaking

Presentational Writing

Several assignments required me to write in complete sentences in the correct form and spelling. This caused me much anguish at times, but I quickly learned that accents are important and was shocked to learn that two words can be so similar that only one character drastically changes the meaning. Presenting assignments in this manner also reinforces the skill of gaining textual meaning from contextual clues surrounding the missing data. This is exceptionally important in real life situations where words that I don’t yet understand are presented in written form and there it cannot be translated directly.

Interpretive Listening

There were several activities this semester that involved interpretive listening. Each module had an adventuras video which featured characters that exemplified the concepts presented in the module. In addition to this exercise, several of the exams had questions that must be answered using information that is interpreted from an audio recording with no visual cues.

One of the interesting things that I heard this semester was the non-distinction of the “b” sound from the “v” sound in the spoken Spanish language. From an English speaking persons perception, there is a big difference between the two which causes a word such as vivir is to be heard as bibir which was obviously not studied. I was able to overcome this simply by immersion; I had to train my brain to hear in Spanish.

Interpretive Reading

The coursework this semester required us to read several different flyers and pamphlets that were completely written in Spanish. Often there were words or phrases that were not yet introduced in the assigned text and I was forced to use contextual cues to determine the intent and meaning of the text.

Determining textual meaning from text has become increasingly easier. I find myself reading product instructions or written notices in public places more easily with a more clear understanding of what is being communicated.