Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Some products and practices I used to help me gain understanding of cultural perspectives were involving myself with things like famous Spanish figures and navigating Spanish websites. It helped me understand what Spanish culture values and how they structure some of the daily things they use. This practice also helped me expand my worldview on culture. I did not realize how different the everyday things American culture uses compared to Spanish culture.

Some practices that helped me gain an understanding of cultural perspectives were the assignments given this past semester that had me read and evaluate the culture of other Spanish speaking cultures. I enjoyed hearing about how students from those countries spent their time at their respective universities.

I read paragraphs people from other Spanish speaking countries wrote about their culture. I learned a few new things like “siesta” and how students spent their time at their universities. It seems that the schedules of Spanish students and students in the United States are similar. I found that the Spanish students were more social throughout the day. In some countries, they also incorporated time for a “siesta” or a mid-day nap to help rest and continue being productive throughout the day. I noticed that Hispanic culture seems to value their health and mindfulness more than the United States culture.

Engaging in Communities

It is important to engage in your community so you can socialize and help others for the benefit of the entire community. Your immediate community is important but it also contributes to the global community. So, the more impact you have in your immediate community, the more impact you will have on the global communi

Interpersonal Communication

Some interpersonal writing and reading activities I have completed this semester are activities in class where we wrote and read certain excerpts from LingroLearning. In class we would form paragraphs or conversation with other students and then evaluate each others writing and reading. This help all of us work together to learn the topic covered.

One interpersonal spontaneous communication activity I completed was conversations we would form with classmates in class. We completed a number of spontaneous conversation assignments and this helped me to think quick on my feet in conversation and develop creativity when forming my sentences. One interpersonal unplanned communication activity I completed was the unplanned assignments the instructor would give me to complete. She would put verbs and incomplete sentences on the whiteboard and I would have to figure out what verbs or adjectives were missing and conjugate them accordingly. I found I excelled at providing a number of adjectives to help form my sentences but I need to work on conjugating verbs and using different verbs other than the ones I know. I can work on this by practicing conjugating verbs in different sentences and using verbs I dont know as well.

Presentational Speaking

In this class we were instructed to complete a number of different speaking activities. One activity we had was a project where we had to describe places on campus we go to regularly. The places I describes in the recording were the library, the student center, and the university business college.

This project challenged me because I had to use a number of adjectives I did not know well. To work on this project I had to study and form paragraphs using the adjectives I learned to describe the places I go to on campus the most. I made sure to go slow and take my time when speaking so my presentation was clear and effectively communicating what I was trying to say. I would speak louder next time so people can hear what I’m saying more clearly.

Presentational Writing

A presentational writing assignment I completed in class was the first project I was given in class. In this project I had to write out basic information about be and what some of my qualities are. I was required to hand write this project in class.

I feel I did well with this writing assignment. I had my professor check my rough draft one class so I could see what I needed to change. I found this assignment the least challenging because I felt it was easier trying to memorize what I was going to write compared to having to think on my feet like in a speaking scenario. I could use more adjectives to describe myself next time. That will help me provide more information about myself to the reader.

Interpretive Listening

In this class one interpretive listening activity I had to complete was another assignment where I was assigned a partner and I had to record a conversation with my partner. In this conversation me and my partner are describing our day and what we are going to do throughout the day.

The listening activities were relatively difficult for me because sometimes the speaker would go too fast for me to catch everything the speaker said. However, if the speaker spoke clearly and slowly I was able to understand most of what they were saying. It would take me a few moments to form what I was going to say but after I formed that I was able to continue the conversation. Some listening activities included vocabulary that I was not familiar with so I would have to find out what a certain word meant. I felt every listening activity got easier because of my understanding of sentence structure got better throughout the semester

Interpretive Reading

A interpretive communication activity I was told to do research for website written for native Spanish speakers. For the assignment I was to evaluate the structure and see how well I could navigate the website.

I found that the website browsing was actually quite difficult when it came to actually trying to find something. Native Spanish websites seem relatively similar to the websites in the United States. When it came to trying to find what I was looking for, that was challenging. I overcame this by using a dictionary to see if i could find words that I thought were similar to the one I was looking for. I feel that with each assignment I learn something new every time. Its helpful because it shows that the more I practice, the more I learn Spanish.