Exploring Culture
I believe strongly that it is important to learn another language during ones lifetime. Spanish is used widely around us in the United States which makes me want to partake in gaining a deeper understanding in the Hispanic culture and be able to hopefully fluently speak spanish. I think it would be great to be able to get more involved in conversations. If an individual would like to better understand values and attitudes in the Hispanic culture I believe research would be one of the best options in order to expand ones knowledge. I was not aware the stuffed peppers and Paella was originated in Spain. These two foods are things that I highly enjoy and somewhat eat frequently in Pennsylvania. There were also more familiar foods that I saw that I was not aware originated in Spain.. I think it would be a great idea that people try and make these dishes more well known to where they came from. Doing research on the Hispanic culture really opened my eyes to things I never knew which makes me more prone to do more exploring.
Engaging in Communities
I started learning spanish in first grade. Although I never really understood the language until I got to middle school and high school. Spanish is one of the most spoken languages throughout the US. With that being said, as many people as possible should take the time to understand different cultures and learn spanish. I do not think it should be mandatory. However, engaging in the community to those who do not speak english would probably be a good idea and provide help. Just like in grocery stores, there should be at least one person working there to be able to offer help to someone who does not speak english. Considering the fact that the grocery store is a highly common place where most likely everyone goes.
Interpersonal Communication
One of our assignments was a discussion post which was us picking a song by Juan Luis Guerra. I chose the song Bachata en Fukuoka. Watching the music video a few times helped me to understand a little bit on what the song was about. Although it was still difficult to fully understand.
The reason it was difficult to fully understand is clearly because I am not fluent in spanish. It gets difficult and sometimes frustrating when you are not certain on what is happening or what someone is saying. What started to help me more throughout this course was looking things up, learning background information, information on Hispanic culture, and music. I have not overcome that difficulty completely since I still have a lot more learning to do. The more assignments as we have throughout the course helps me to better understand and grow especially with now doing more research.
Presentational Speaking
One of the presentational speaking activities we completed this semester inside the class (virtually) was the activity with our partner that we had to record on supersite. Which was where one of us came up with questions from an activity in the textbook and the other had to respond in a full sentence.
The challenge that I still have and need to continue to work on is just connecting certain words and properly using them in a sentence or conversation with another individual. The presentation that I did with my partner helped me to create our own sentences as well as work together. I excelled more on the pronunciation and fitting together the sentences. Although I did have a few mistakes when I was first putting them together. It was challenging at first but as we move forward it becomes a little easier. Now I continue to use the textbook so I gain a deeper understanding and basics of having an actual conversation in spanish.
Interpretive Listening
Frequently the activities we do on supersite are videos of us listening to scenarios in spanish and or doing fill in the banks to a recording in spanish. The more we do these types of activities it becomes easier to pick up on a lot of words. The more time and practice put into listening, the easier it becomes to be able to translate vocabulary words and such to english.
A great tool that has helped was watching youtube videos that are in spanish. There is a wide variety of videos as well. I have always had a harder time learning spanish so watching these videos do provide a lot of guidance for this course. I would not say I have overcome this difficutly yet but the more practice and watching these videos will help a ton. My takeaway is just to continue taking time to watch youtube videos. I have grown each activity by doing my research and spending a little more time going over the textbook and again watching youtube videos.
Interpretive Reading
In this specific course, there is a great deal of reading involved especially when it comes to the textbook and supersite. When it comes to supersite there are a bunch of activities that involve reading. What has helped me during this course is mostly the demonstrations in the textbook that also give an explanation. This is very helpful for me because it makes it easier to understand the words presented.
Above is just an example of what is in our textbook that we use frequently in our studies. These are the types of examples that are used a lot in order to help students gain a better understanding on a certain topic. I would personally say that the images provided do actually help. However, there are times when it can be somewhat difficult to understand. The only thing moving forward in the class that helped me with that specific struggle was to just reread the conversation or example a few times and use the hints or explanation of words. When doing so, the image/conversation becomes a little bit more clear. I have definitely grown from each assignment since I think the most interesting and helpful part of these readings is that they also tie into past chapters and they continue to progress as we move forward in this class. I also like the fact that everything is typically broken down in the textbook which certainly makes things a little more clear.