Exploring Culture

Being able to research  in Spanish has allowed me to realize that we’re all alike in the same ways in cultures. One example of researching universities in Spanish speaking countries is just like any universities in the world. I often wonder if their courses are easier or harder. Another example is in Spain people greet and say goodbye with a double cheek kiss.

Learning about new types of practices is cool in different cultures. I always wondered why they make their own products like food, drinks, and many more things differently. I often wondered what time people in Spanish cultures eat lunch and dinner. I recently learned that lunch is around two or three pm other than around the afternoon. Dinner is around nine or ten at night. These different things between the United States and Spanish cultures are pretty cool and I believe cultures continue to grow year after year. I found out more things that I wouldn’t think I known from researching Spanish cultures.

Engaging in Communities

The value of participating in a community is really important to show appreciation for the world you are a part of. Being able to sell food to the community for a lower price. When I used to be at home I would sell dinners at my church. When I used to be in high school we used to participate in parades.

Interpersonal Communication

Working with this allowed me to grow with knowing what I was hearing. It was difficult at first to not know information while trying to understand it. The activities on LingroHub allowed me to understand what I was hearing.

We did a big variety of assignments on LingroHub that allowed us to listen to audio of conversations. Then there were times we had assignments that we would have to listen to what a person on these assignments and even in class and respond. This taught us to think and actually understand. It was difficult at first if you couldn’t comprehend what was going on which reflected if you did your homework or not.

Presentational Speaking

Activities in class that allowed me to speak helped me be corrected on speaking wrong. My professor helped me correct my mistakes with oral presentations. Sometimes when you look online for help it’s not always helpful. 

By doing oral presentations and participating in class allowed me to be able to know and be confident in speaking. Speaking is crucial to know how to do with every word. Depending on the accent or not in a word will determine what you’re trying to say. Speaking has come easy over time but sometimes I still have tongue twisters on words that I’m not sure of.

Presentational Writing

Different compositions in and outside of class consisted of practicing the material followed by the project for every unit. These projects allowed us to write out the basics for our unit one while moving along for us to be able to go into broader assignments. These types of assignments allowed me to work on my grammar and most of all be able to understand what I’m writing about.

At first the projects were challenging to me because I wasn’t sure how I would be graded on how I wrote. For example, I would be writing my numbers out instead of writing them in the English form all together instead of writing them out number by number. It’s not many rules but the rules for writing in Spanish are critical if you want to be understood.  I can say writing and speaking are similar in many ways but can be misunderstood if one word is wrong.

Interpretive Listening

Different material throughout the semester on LingroHub allowed me to understand more spanish. Different material involving universities and writing letters allowed me to understand what many words sounded like and for me to be able interpret what I was hearing. Working on vocabulary throughout the semester helped me understand what I should be hearing.

At the beginning of this semester I was unclear on what my professor was saying from the first day of class. I took two courses of Spanish in high school but I really didn’t learn everything that I should have to be successful with it now in college. As classes went on and by me doing the homework and participating in class helped me overcome the part of me being clueless on what was going on with material that was somewhat new to me. Reading and listening to videos from LingroHub about conversations with people at universities and even letters allowed me to comprehend and get a grasp on what was being said. Practice and my professor helping in class helped me understand Spanish more.

Interpretive Reading

The reading that I took part in during this semester mainly was researching material about countries. Exploring and learning about cultures, universities, and famous people allowed me to see the cool experiences that people have. These readings were cool to me because before we were assigned to do research, I never would have done these readings on my own.

None of these readings were hard to do. Finding the information when I wasn’t familiar with it was a tiny bit uneasy but other than that it was a cool experience. Whenever I’m curious about something I can just look it up about cultures in spanish. Even when I’m unaware of what a word is I can look it up.