Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication
Exploring Culture
Having many friends and relatives that are Spanish speaking and of hispanic decent allowed me to get access to a lifestyle and personal experience much different than mine. After discussing and learning of cultural differences in class I was able to ask them about it and see if it was something they still took part in. Such as siesta, I discovered once coming to the United States many people no longer take part in siesta because of the cultural differences and work culture that exists in America.
I learned that all most cultures have similarities, while differences do exist most cultures all want strong family values and healthy communities. I also always thought the America opinion on a strict no rest work culture was more harmful for the workers than it was beneficial for the businesses. I think siesta is something America would benefit from allowing their employees to take part in. I think it broke some the barrier I had in my head that all people all over the world are fighting upwards and struggling to balance work and rest, but it seems this does not exist everywhere. I think many cultures would benefit from allowing their workers to just have a bit more rest.
Engaging in Communities
I think local communities suffer greatly, especially in higher populated areas. Many people do not engage in their communities because they believe someone else will do it, but if everyone has that mentality then no one will do it. I am active in my local community by helping with multiple organizations such as Humanities behind bars, Stop Hunger now, Sunrise movement, New youth majority, I volunteer at animal shelters, and I volunteer to help assist teachers in special needs classrooms. Everyone has empathy towards a cause and a charity exists for it. Many people struggle in life and just need a chance to climb out of the hole they have gotten trapped in, if just a few people band together a person can overcome any obstacle. Communities thrive and grow when people are successful so engaging in community service helps a community grow stronger which in turn benefits everyone.
The global community is something that is helped benefits the entire world. While admittedly it is not as easy to help with as say your local community it is still important. Many countries are in worst conditions than ours and many people on a global scale struggle with poverty, food insecurity, and unclean drinking water. Global volunteer work does not have to mean going to another country to work on an issue hands on. It can mean donating money to a non profit organization, just do your research and make sure the organization is clean and altruistic.
Interpersonal Communication
We worked on a project that assigned us a partner and we had to work on communicating in Spanish to one another and record the video. We also had to record ourselves discussing campus and what we liked and disliked about it, it was required we use body language to help communicate our points. I also think communicating with fellow classmates online reviewing each others projects helped, allowing us to need to listen to one another in order to leave good feedback.
I work in the customer service industry and often we have customers who are not strong english speakers. This was always upsetting for me as I wanted to help them but we were both hung up and struggling to communicate. I think being able to understand some Spanish, even at a beginner level really has helped me give people the product they want. The activities helped me by making me force myself to sit and study, making sure I knew words and their definitions. I think I am strongest at remembering what words mean, when spoken to in Spanish I usually understand what is being said to me, formulating a response is the struggle I currently face. Usually, when someone talks to me in Spanish I understand what they are saying it is just grammatically forming a sentence that I struggle with. To help me study and prepare for it I have started writing full sentences on flashcards and using those to study. This way I learn the vocabulary as well as the grammatical structure of the sentences. This helps me with speaking and writing in Spanish. I learned to think more creatively about studying and catering the studying to my learning style. I would use the new tactics of studying to help improve my communication skills in Spanish.
Presentational Speaking
I completed three oral exams, tests in which I communicated with the professor in Spanish at varying lengths. I also performed two projects in which I spoke to a classmate about classes in Spanish, I also created a video in which I spoke in Spanish about my campus and where I study.
Speaking with a partner was a challenge just to get a good meetup time in which we could practice and record. It was close to the beginning of the semester so both of our Spanish was fairly weak. We got better by just practicing out how the questions would be performed until we got comfortable with it. Speaking alone in order to talk about campus was a challenge because the video length had to be longer so that made it more of a challenge for me. Especially, because I edited the video with clips I recorded earlier which meant I had to say that video in a particular order. I just kept practicing until I could repeat what I had written from memory and that helped in the clarity of my video. For both situations I would of loved more time to practice and when working with a partner it would of been nice to be able to have more time to meet up and rehearse.
Presentational Writing
For certain projects I have written a script for myself, I also have done some written assignments for homework and exams, and a co-worker of mine who speaks Spanish leaves me notes in Spanish to which I try my best to reply in Spanish as well. Below is the script for my presentation on the campus.
Writing scripts I think I excelled at the most because I had time to sit with it and think for a while. For homework and exams I usually struggle, it is never the words themselves I have issues with it is the grammar that gives me the most issues. I think through each assignment I have learn more skills to be better written in Spanish, but I also learned new ways to prepare and study that have helped me tremendously. This I feel gave me a lot of help in growing as it may each future experience just a little easier as I had a new tactic to help me learn the material.
Interpretive Listening
I think the homework sections in which we heard a story and had to answer questions about each part helped as far as interpretive listening. I really had to focus and replay it multiple times in order to get a strong grip on what was being said. It provided great insight on what it is like to listen to a Spanish native speaker who is not talking slow in order to help you.
Just from the professor teaching I felt I had to focus really hard and listen at times. Any assignment online that required me to listen to someone speak Spanish and answer questions always made me listening as careful as I could. The only way I found growth was multiple listens, I do not think I was ever able to process it fully on the first go, so don’t be afraid to play in in secession in order to grasp every detail. I think it overall made me a more insightful listener and know what certain words are helpful to listen out for.
Interpretive Reading
All the cultural learnings provided to me by the text book were readings I had to really focus on in order to comprehend. They usually spent time describing different people from different countries and how they are all different culturally. The readings were always written completely in Spanish with no translation.
I usually spend time dissecting the words I do know and how they could fit near or around other words I know. This allowed me to use context clues in order to assist in my reading. I sometimes find myself stuck with a sections where no words are clear to me, to alleviate the problem I just look up the definition of some of the words, once again using context clues I am usually able to fill out the rest of the meaning.
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