Exploring Culture

While going back over discussion boards and assignments I realized how big family is in Hispanic culture. No matter what Hispanic family it is, the family seems to be of number one importance. I was able to see this when looking back on articles and DB posts.

Relating back to my tab under SPAN101, I had an experience growing up around Hispanic people. People I’d like to announce as a family since they treated me as so. These people weren’t the most fortunate with money but I did everything with them as if I was their son. Treated me no different, disciplined me the same, and fed me the same. Reading this article helped bring that back to me. It always defeated the stereotype of racism in my mind because I saw everyone the same and these people treated me the same.

https://oureverydaylife.com/importance-of-family-structure-in-hispanic-families-9890197.html

Engaging in Communities

In English, give a brief description of the value of, and importance of, engaging in your immediate community and the global community. As stated before, I don’t necessarily enjoy being outside a lot but I do recognize the importance of your community. I volunteered to help my local communities Board of Elections office to help run things for awhile as well as helped coach the little league basketball team.

At first, the idea of taking time out of my day to help without pay sounds not great. But I love to do it, no matter the pay or volunteering I love giving back to the community when it provides so many things for me! I feel reassured that I am able to help people, whether young or old, it makes me feel amazing.

Interpersonal Communication

This semester I contributed by using discussion boards to learn new things. I was involved in responding to people’s posts as well as posting great information on mine. With TalkAbroad, I was able to speak to someone foreign and get to know a little about them.

As I took SPAN101 just last semester, I was a bit familiar with some things coming in. But it took a turn because this was a bit more difficult, I did have trouble at times learning reflexive words and things of that nature. I wouldn’t share my grade but I did think I got better as I tried to listen a bit harder and fine tune the basic details in Spanish. I think with TalkAbroad, I had some great conversations as well as being able to get through work decently with my conversation partner. I think I excelled at speaking Spanish, remembering words a bit more challenging. I think I am getting there but it would require a lot more studying for it. I would say the TalkAbroad was the most challenging but also most intriguing.

conversationspanish

Presentational Speaking

For this semester, I was challenged with speaking to my professor twice. By far I think this was the most difficult thing to do due to nerves. I really wanted to excel in speaking to her with a normal conversation.

With each of the three assignments I was tasked to do for my professor, I think I did the best on the first one. We were able to connect on different subjects during that one conversation. They were spontaneous questions, I think we talked about video games in Spanish and I was really impressed with myself for doing that. I grew with that assignment because it gave me the confidence to feel like I could actually speak good Spanish with someone who teaches it. I was able to reflect on it by trying to go into the next one confident. The other two weren’t as great as I tried to study and remember certain words but it just got lost in the huge vocabulary that is Spanish. I completed one today, I don’t think I did the best but I certainly did try. I would definitely try to study to remember concepts and words better next time.

(I can’t use them because I don’t have the zoom recording)

Presentational Writing

For class, I had to complete a pamphlet to talk about sickness and well-being. It was fun, I was able to be creative and use Spanish at the same time. Other than that, I would say the discussion boards are a big presentational piece that I enjoyed doing.

With the pamphlet, I feel I grew with that by being able to directly express how I wanted to show my Spanish. We hadn’t really done anything before with that creativity and it gave me the opportunity to do something like that. Understanding that vocabulary in that section became easier because I kept using it. Learning the vocab, and certain reflexive verbs to use in certain situations. For the discussion boards, I was able to reflect on some things that have happened in the world and include my input on them. If I remember, there was a discussion about gender rights/gay equality and how different countries see that. I excelled at these things because it was my input being shared and I tried to be helpful with the information that was being given.

Depresi

Interpretive Listening

Also while completing this course, the quizzes seemed to have many listening parts. Whether it comes from studying for the actual quiz or listening to certain words from the sections.

I find it really challenging to listen to Spanish speakers and how they speak so fast. It really is hard to try to catch on to every word they say and how they say it to comprehend it. With the listening quizzes, I feel as if they became harder this semester because they have many different layers to them. It isn’t just basic Spanish anymore, this now includes all parts of Spanish and they want me to understand in that way. I also try to listen to people when I’m at work who are Spanish speakers and see if I could understand them. I also had an encounter of the video game where I matched up with someone who spoke Spanish and I was able to communicate some good things to him that he understood and I understood what he was saying back to me. I feel I overcame a bit of hardship understanding but still struggled in the long run because my quiz grades were bad. In the future, I can try to tune in a bit harder and really try to get the hang of it.

(I can’t include the quizzes that had them speaking)

Interpretive Reading

There weren’t many interpretive reading sources that I went to throughout the semester. I did read some articles to learn about sports in Spanish-speaking countries as well as watched videos for it.

I feel like the websites that I searched to learn about Sports for lingrolearning were straightforward. I had no trouble understanding any of that information. I did enjoy learning about the Sports they play in those countries because I am Sports Management major so that is always enjoyable. I already knew from past experience that people that play soccer call it futbol but I didn’t realize how big soccer was to so many Hispanic cultured countries, it’s actually amazing.