Exploring Culture

In Spanish 102 we did various activities that introduced us to new cultures. For an example, in LingroHub (Online Spanish Textbook) there was an activity where we explored what different Latin countries valued. Argentina stood out to me. Argentinian people value social and family relationships. Religion, attire and loyalty are very important over in Argentina. Another exercise that exposed us to Latin cultures was Professor Garcia’s PowerPoints. Every week Prof. Garcia would create a PowerPoint that had the weeks lessons on it. In these PowerPoint’s he would implement Latin images and songs to bring us closer to the culture. In due time it became a staple for me and I actively enjoyed hearing and looking at them.

These practices helped be better understand values and attitudes in the Hispanic culture by just exposing me to them. I came into Span 102 with an open mind and ready to learn about new cultures. Just the exposure itself was enough for me to understand the new cultural ways. Its hard not to compare ones culture to your own but, I noticed that the Hispanic culture as the same values as me. These practices didn’t really challenge my world view due to the fact that they are so closely related to American culture. We both value our families, friends and religion. Overall it revealed to me that some cultures are closer to your own than you know and you can only judge once you’ve taken the time to learn the new cultures.

Engaging in Communities

It’s important to engage in your community because your voice matters. Even if you don’t believe it, go to the community meets and just listen. Its better to be informed than to just not go. Personally I believed that my voice didn’t matter but I ended up joining a youth teen committee and that changed my view on it. It is also important to participate in the global community because we need an arrangement of voices and different view points so that we can chose the best solutions.

Interpersonal Communication

In Span 102 we participated in TalkAbroad. TalkAbroad is a online video chat service where you purchase a 15 minute session and pick a language and country and you talk to someone in the countries native language. In Span 102 we completed two 15 minute sessions, the first session we talked about our families and the second session we talked about our favorite food. This was an great activity because it got me out of my comfort zone and forced me to use the skills that I learned. LingroHub was an online textbook where we did various activities ranging from speech, reading comprehension and writing. For the oral activities most of them were just responding to a question and then asking a question. These were smaller stake assignments but still allowed me to practice my pronunciation.

For spontaneous communication activities, I truly enjoyed them. At first I was a little nervous about them but overtime it became easier because Spanish finally started clicking for me. Spontaneous was easier than unplanned because I was already in the mindset of I’m speaking Spanish instead of just getting thrown into it. For unplanned communication it was harder but this is where I learned the most. I was forced to instantly correct my pronunciation errors and that forced me to remember them. Overall I learned that unplanned is the best way to learn a new language in my opinion. It forced me to use what I learned to respond/ask questions. I overcame the nervousness of speaking Spanish by just practicing. The more comfortable I was pronouncing words the more confidence I gained during for speaking in class.

Presentational Speaking

For Spanish 102 the only presentational speaking activities that we completed this semester was the TalkAbroad and I could include sharing our projects with some of our classmates. In Spanish 102 we didn’t stand in front of the class and give the traditional presentation. Also during this semester I was enrolled in Public Speaking which I gave multiple speeches in front of my class. Some of my speeches were formal and some informal. For the formal speeches we had to dress casual and make sure our posture was upright and we actively scanned the classroom with our eyes. This was the only instance that I gave a true presentation during said semester.

The challenges for TalkAbroad were new to me. Some of the challenges were, not being 100% fluent in a language that my partner was and just the overall newness of video chatting with someone from a different country. I overcame these challenges by preparing myself for the next TalkAbroad activity and I increased my study time for Spanish. The challenges for Public Speaking for very manageable. I’ve always been good at public speaking due to my father always using me to practice his speeches for his job. I can’t say that I don’t get nervous before a speech but that nervousness doesn’t translate to the speech itself. What I would do differently is going to extra mile of saying the speech again. More repititions never hurt. Overall I’m very comfortable with speaking in front of people and I don’t stress the idea of it to much.

Presentational Writing

In Spanish 102 we did various presentational activities. My favorite was the “Infografias sobre la salud y el bienestar”. We got to chose to either make an infographic on a mental health issue or physical injury/prevention. I chose Injury prevention of knee pain. Of course it had to be written in Spanish but I truly enjoyed the freedom that Prof. Garcia gave us.

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For “Infografias sobre la salud y el bienestar” the challenge was creating an effective and grammatically correct infographic in Spanish. Prof. Garcia was adamant on making sure that we didn’t just copy information into a translator and pasted it into our infographic. He wanted to challenge us on our Spanish knowledge and wanted us to use what we learned to create this infographic. The challenging part for me was making sure sentences were grammatically correct. I had all the words in my head but I’m used to arranging words in English. For example In English, adjectives usually go before the nouns they describe. In Spanish, adjectives usually come after the nouns they describe. After I overcame that, the infographic became easier. I truly enjoyed this project and I loved the outcome of it.

Interpretive Listening

In Spanish 102 the only interpretive listening activities that we completed were the assignments for LingroHub and the occasional listening activities that Prof. Garcia would play for the class. The LingroHub activities consisted of listening to someone speaking in Spanish and either interpreting or translating what was said. Same goes for the in class activities that Prof. Garcia would show.

At the beginning for the semester, I struggled with fully understanding what was said. I didn’t account for accents and how certain vowels are pronounced differently. I overcame this by continuing to be exposed to the accents. After I got used to the different accents I could then focus on translating what was said. What I found interesting was how I focused on the endings for words to get the general purpose of the sentence. This was effective until we switched gears over to past tense , etc. My takeaway from these activities was, you needed to study the vocabulary of said chapter in order to understand what was being said. You could understand what was being said but you wouldn’t catch on to what tense the speaker was speaking in.

Interpretive Reading

We rarely did any interpretive reading in Spanish 102. The only activity that I can think of was when we had to go to a Spanish college website and compare it to U.S college websites.

For this activity we had to list the differences between a U.S college site to a Latin college website. The only challenging part of this activity was the wording on the Latin college website. The layout and the wording were hard to understand and I overcame this by asking Prof. Garcia to help me translate it. The more interesting part of this activity was comparing the differences and I noticed that the layout of the Latin website was unclear to me and not as organized as the U.S website. I also noted that it might be normal for websites to look like.

Can Do Statement

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