Exploring Culture

In this class, I gained an understanding of Spanish culture. By doing that, I have practiced conversing with strangers from another country and asking each other about their culture. I have also gained knowledge from Ligrolearning that helps me be more educated on Spanish culture, whether about food or even how their families are.

The way these practices helped me better understand Hispanic culture. Such as the Talk Abroad assignment it was allowed me to talk to another person who lived in Hispanic culture. It did not just help me learn more about the culture and challenged me to learn more since I need to become fluent in Spanish. I was allowed to talk to her about the culture and her stereotype, such as Football in America compared to football in Argentina, along with the foods they eat that are different from America.  

Engaging in Communities

I was raised in Virginia Beach, so I was always at the beach, which made me care for the beaches more as I grew up. Some residents of Virginia Beach and tourists honestly did not care how they treated the beach, and I wanted to make a difference. I got together with the locals I knew wanted to make a change and clean up the trash on the beach so we could keep our beaches clean. 

Interpersonal Communication

I have got the opportunity to learn Spanish in different ways, and the main ways I have had the chance to learn more about the language are conversations with classmates, students, and strangers. This allowed me to gain more knowledge. Suppose it was something I needed to be saying right or not. It also allowed me to talk to others to converse in Spanish, along with the discussion post that let me know how to type better in Spanish, which is different from English.

I would never think in a million years I could have a conversation with someone that does not speak English in their language. At the beginning of this course, I only knew a little I barely remember what I learned in Spanish 101. When I started doing assignments such as Ligrolearning and Flipgrid, this allowed me to prepare myself for conversation with a stranger or even a professor. I excelled in these assignments but needed help qualifying for random discussions, not knowing what could be asked. I learned from this by learning the vocabulary from Ligrolearning and reviewing it to prepare myself for everything that could come in a conversation.

Presentational Speaking

This video is from the beginning of the semester introducing myself to the class. This explains who I am, where I am from, and what my major is. 

This video gives me great joy from where I am now. There are some words I had trouble pronouncing because it was just the beginning of the class. Now I prepare myself for upcoming topics rather than just butchering them as I did in this video. I could do so much better today if I had to.

Presentational Writing

We wrote discussion posts for this course to interact with each other more in Spanish. This helped me gain the experience of interacting with other writers instead of talking, which made it easier for me to understand the language.

From our first discussion post, I can see the difference in how I write in Spanish to wear. I have ended this class, especially the topics when we learned more about the kids’ culture, knowing what they want to be when they get older, and comparing it to how kids are in America. 

Interpretive Listening

Listening was the topic I learned the most in this class. I could learn from the vocabulary that allowed me to comprehend what I was listening to instead then guessing. 

I could listen to who I was talking to because I could use context clues from what she was saying to keep the conversation going. However, I struggled when I needed to learn all the topics. But now I prepare for the issues which allow me to listen and comprehend what they are saying.

Interpretive Reading

I have gained the most knowledge from the reading from this class, such as vocabulary. The Ligrolearning offered a lot of homework that allowed you to learn more about the language.

Such as the “Las profesiones” vocabulary reading that Ligrolearning offered, I could use it and learn to educate my mind to talk about jobs in the Spanish language. If I had these types of reading, I would be able to excel in this class and learn or understand what is going on. I could comprehend STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) jobs, the topics of what they do, and the difference between Spanish and English.

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