Exploring Culture

This semester we had discussion boards, in these we would watch educational videos about different cultural aspects in different Spanish speaking countries throughout the world. In these discussion boards we learned about different foods eaten in these countries as well as different medical practices or beliefs. Also on LingroHub we would have to research different countries on the different topics we were learning about.

Doing these assignments helped me get a better perspective of what it is like to live in the different countries we learned about such as Mexico, Argentina, Spain as well as other Spanish speaking countries. I got to learn about their national dishes and how their health care is free. Being able to see the difference is extremely cool and I enjoyed it greatly! I learned a lot by watching the videos as well as reading the articles.

Engaging in Communities

Engaging in our communities helps us to get to know and better understand those around us. It is important to stay engaged in our communities helps us thrive as a community. It is important to stay engaged in our global community so we know what is going on in our world.

I stay connected in my community by going to church, coaching every weekend and going to local festivals. I also do monthly family dinners at my best friends great grandma’s!

Interpersonal Communication

Throughout the semester we had TalkAbroad conversations. This consisted of us scheduling a meeting with a native Spanish speaker. We would have conversations about the current subjects in Spanish such as our families, what food we like to eat and what we do to stay healthy.

Navigating the TalkAbroad websites was difficult at first. I could not figure out how to add credits in order to schedule conversations. I eventually figured it out, I liked how before you schedule a meeting you got a description of the person you would be having a conversation with. There was also a star at the top for those that were good with beginners this I appreciated because it allowed me to feel like I would be understood better. I tended to have a hard time with the discussion boards because I would forget about the due dates, for each discussion board there were two posts, an initial one and a response to a classmate. I overcame that difficulty by writing down the initial due dates as well as the day the response was needed. I enjoyed the TalkAbroad assignments because I got to have a live conversation and work on my Spanish.

Presentational Speaking

This semester we had two presentations that we had to record. However I did not complete either of those assignments. Both assignments had a required time and I was unable to meet those times. Instead of asking for help like I should have I choose to not complete them. However we had a few assignments in LingroHub where we had to record ourselves as well as a zoom conversation we had with a classmate. In the LingroHub assignment we had a list of words we had to say or a topic we had to discuss and record ourselves.

Presentational Writing

During module 9, we made a medical pamphlet. In this we had to inform people on different ways to stay healthy. We used pictures as well as short phrases to show our viewers how they can stay healthy.

Completing this activity helped me to be able to better form sentences. During the assignment I became more familiar with my vocabulary. I enjoy creating visuals so this was an exciting project to complete. Difficulties I had to overcome while completing this assignment were correctly forming sentences and using grammar correctly. I overcame these difficulties by looking back at previous grammar lessons from SPAN 101F. It became easier for me to use google sites to complete this project, this will help me in future classes as well as in my career.

Interpretive Listening

During this semester we had different quizzes as well as LingroHub assignments where we would listen to someone talking in Spanish and answer a series of questions about what we just heard.

These assignments helped me learn how to correctly pronounce words and form sentences. We had different assignments about family, medicine, social media and food. Being able to hear how words or phrases are pronounced helped me speak more clearly and be better understood by Spanish speakers. At the beginning of the semester it was hard to keep up but after having a few listening assignments it slowly became easier.

Interpretive Reading

Throughout the semester we had to read different articles that were in Spanish. We also had descriptions on LingroHub that were in Spanish. We also had discussion boards that consisted of reading articles that explain differences in Hispanic culture vs American Culture.

Doing this discussion board showed me how similar our cultures are. In the Hispanic culture the fathers tended to provide for the families while the mothers tended to care for the family. This is very similar to the American culture. Growing up in Durham a lot of the Hispanic families had multiple generations living with them which is different than American families that are usually single generations. Reading the article assigned to us made the reasoning behind that more clear to me. I grew with this assignment by better understanding that Americans are not so different from others in the world. I became more aware of other cultures with each assignment completed in this class. I had great semester and enjoyed it immensely.