Exploring Culture
Products that have helped me gain a better understanding of culture would be the website Lingrolearning. Practices that have help me gain a better understanding of culture would be the homework on our Lingrolearning website and the zoom meetings with the teacher. These things have helped me better see and know the difference between cultures. Not everyone does the same things or even speaks the same. Being able to see how everyone is different is good because it shows us that new things are being produced but also not every country is doing the same things which is what makes each culture and country different.
Some products that helped me better grasp the Hispanic culture and my own is seeing what we all do differently which is where Lingrolearning comes into play. This website helped see what he Hispanic culture does, eats, listens to, and as well as wears. This product helped challenge my worldview by letting me see what was different between everyone and not just seeing my own culture and what we do. It shows that every culture is important and can help myself. These challenges revealed that I can also like other cultures and what they do better than my own cultures. This helped me by seeing I can practice some of the things they practice but also helped me see that I may want to visit different places just to experience the culture. This caused me to throw away all of the stereotypes I had towards the culture of others because it lets you see people practice different things because we all live in different places. Just because we are different does not mean we should all treat people differently because of the things we practice or do.
Engaging in Communities
The importance of engaging in the community is important. I believe this because even though some people or populations may be better off than others, people should want to help by making the community better for everyone so that we are all succeeding and doing well. We should all want to see every community succeed and do better. Giving back or helping in ways that are possible for others is a good deed not just for yourself but for the others.
An experience I have had participating in the community is giving out free car washes, donating clothes, and also helping others when I see that they may need it. The experiences that I participated in might not be something you commonly think about when thinking about helping the community but this for me was a way to give back the ways I was able to give back.
Interpersonal Communication
During TalkAbroad 1, this consisted of myself and a stranger that spoke just Spanish having a conversation. At first, I was nervous but then once the conversation went on it was better. I actually understood and comprehend what was being said by my partner. She was very patient and made it very easy for me to understand. My partner was very helpful with explaining better and slowing down when needed. During TalkAbroad 2, this conversation was a little bit harder due to the chapter we were going over. I had the same partner and still this time she was still patient and very helpful. I had 2-3 zoom meetings with the teacher and those started off well but then as we continued to go on with the chapters it got a little bit harder. The teacher was easy to talk to but I was nervous each time due to thinking I wouldn’t know what she was going to say or not knowing how to respond. I also had a conversation with a student that was in the class which I was still nervous because it was someone new and didn’t know what to expect. This conversation was pretty easy flowing and wasn’t bad after I completed it. I have completed 6 discussion boards throughout this semester. These discussion boards helped me see things differently and understand a little bit more. It made me think and watch videos about the culture.
As described above are the interpersonal communication activities I have had throughout the semester. With each individual activity I have grown. With the first TalkAbroad 1 it was easy and I understood a lot more than compared to TalkAbroad 2. With TalkAbroad 2 it was harder, I wasn’t able to understand as much due to the chapter being harder. Also, with the zoom talks with the teacher the first one was easy and I was better at understanding what was being said but with the second one it was harder and could barely answer what was being asked. I think this was due to not really understanding everything in the chapter for the second talk. The discussion boards throughout the semester were easy and I was able to understand and complete what needed to be completed because it was all written so I could think about what I needed to and think about how to write the things I wanted to write. I believe I have grown with these assignments by just being able to grasp certain words out of the conversation and understanding more than I could before this class. What was difficult was trying to remember that words to understand what would be talked about during the conversations or even the discussion boards. I overcame this by going over the words multiple times and trying to remember the ones that I was able to. I excelled at the discussion boards because this wasn’t timed and I could do this when I wanted to as long as it was turned in before the due date. What I would do differently next time would be study the harder chapters more and ask for help when I know I need it.
Presentational Speaking
During this semester, I completed several speaking activities to see if I understand and grasp the concepts that were taguht. At the beginning of the semester we had to our alphabet in Spanish and say the word that went with that letter as one of the first assignments. Next, we had several different proyecto to do throughout the semester that were having conversations with a partner or our teacher or even just a recording of us speaking.
The speaking presentations that I completed this semester were very challenging. The one that was most challenging was the recordings we had to for one of our proceyto. This one was talking about our careers and what we do with our career in the future. With this assignment you had to memorize multiple sentences without looking at notes. This was challenging because sometimes it is hard to memorize that many things without looking at notes that can help you. I overcame this by writing my sentences out sooner and studying them for days straight so I could do good on the assignments. I would say for these assignments I excelled at making complete sentences. Next time, things could go differently by practicing the sentences before hand so that I am able to better memorize the words.
Presentational Writing
Presentational writing I have completed this semester would be the flyer in Spanish. This assignment was written in Spanish to show what was taught and what was remembered. This assignments was about what was taught throughout the entire semester. Which included vocabulary, grammar, and culture.
The flyer that was completed for the semester is explained above. This assignment helped me see what I really remembered from what was taught throughout the semester. With this assignment, it was hard because I had to remember the accent mark or the letter changes that happened with some of the words depending on the form that was used. Also, I had to write complete sentences in Spanish and they had to actually make sense. I think the flyer I completed was pretty good due to me making complete sentences and remembering what was supposed to be done and said but also with changing the forms when needed. What was easy was knowing the material but the difficult part was trying to think about how to put it in the correct words. Next time I could do better by taking more time to study the word changes and knowing exactly where the accent marks are supposed to go. Also, practicing before hand by writing sentences.
Interpretive Listening
An interpretive listening activity I had was a lot. I had homework videos on Lingrolearning, I had quiz videos I had to listen to, music that was posted in the modules, and games. These activities were very helpful.
Different things I have to listen to include videos , music, and quiz videos of a person saying the words or grammar we were going over for that module. Each of these videos were helpful. The music helped by listening and learning the lyrics because some of those were words we were learning. The homework videos were super helpful because they allowed me to participate in the video to learn the form changes and the vocabulary itself. The quiz videos also helped because they allowed me to write things down and better remember for the quiz. What was most interesting was the homework videos only because I was able to participate in them. My takeaway from this experience is listening is always key. You learn a lot when you listen but also easier sometimes when you listen to others talk.
Interpretive Reading
The interpretive reading activity I have completed during this semester is the website Lingrolearing. This website was very helpful in taking notes and also in providing information about the cultures and what they do. Also, it was also helpful with the vocabulary and the grammar part.
The activity I described above was Lingrolearning which is a website we used throughout the semester. This website helped me with writing notes, learning the cultures, learning interesting facts, and also vocabulary and grammar. What was challenging for me was the activities provided on the website was to help you better your understanding. I overcame this difficulty by going back through the modules on the website and using that to help me do the activities. What was most interesting were facts that even the teacher did not have time to go over. My takeaway from reading was that even though I do not like reading it is very important because if you do not read then you miss out on a lot of things the teacher did not go over or did go over but you missed.
