Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Interpersonal Communication

I Participated in TalkAbroad, a program that allows for english speakers learning Spanish to have a converstion with those from the Spanish speaking world. My conversation was with a woman from Mexico. Our conversation was about clothes and Latin American literature.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XNi2hK-i-RCIN4cky3EMBslDO7UOdqIi/view?usp=sharing

Reflection: My partner was from Mexico, specifically she was from Yucatan. We talked about what clothes people wear in Mexico and how it depends on where they live. Like in some regions like by the coast where she lives, it’s more common to dress for temperate weather but in places like Sonora or Jalisco it’s a lot hotter and you have to dress accordingly. We talked about the places that we like to buy clothes and we both liked shopping at thrift stores although she prefers open air markets as opposed to brick and mortar stores. We also talked about Literature and the influence of authors like Garcia Marquez and Ocativo Paz on Latin American Literature since the boom. She said she had a lot of respect for Ocativo Paz but that he’s not a better writer than some contemporary Mexican writers like Fernanda Melchor. During our conversation, I didn’t have alot to say about clothes and I found it hard to say that I don’t spend a lot of time shopping without sounding sorta clunky. Literature on the other hand I could speak about with more confidence, and I didn’t find myself trying to translate my sentences in my mind. I guess it’s because I understand my opinions enough that I can find the words to express them confidently, albeit not perfectly grammatically correct but in a way that’s not as hesitant or nervous

Presentational Speaking

In our unit covering Influencers, I spoke about the YouTube channel Redlettermedia. A channel that reviews movies and discusses the film industry. Below will be my presentation about the channel.

Reflection: I feel like my presentation could’ve been designed with better aesthetics. I didn’t go into as much detail about their other segments such as Mr.Plinkett’s reviews or go into the inside jokes that are all over their videos.

Presentational Writing

For one of our unit’s we had to write a story in Spanish. The focus of the unit was our usage of the imperfect and preterite. My story was about a boy and his cat, and the arrival of a new train in his village.

I really enjoyed this activity! I enjoy writing, so the process didn’t feel laborious, and I didn’t feel too nervous about it. I think this activity helped me get a better understanding of grammar and I would like to do more fiction writing in Spanish, or at least more creative composition work.

Interpretive Listening

During our unit going over the future tense we listened to Espectacular by Fangoria. While listening to this we had to identify the uses of future tense.

Fangoria – Espectacular (Videoclip Oficial) (youtube.com)

We did a similar activity listening to music by Marc Antony, these listing activities were fun but a little difficult. The difficulty came from the speed of Spanish being spoken requiring multiple listens to catch on to certain lyrics.