Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Proyecto para la Unidad 11

This was my project for our first unit, which covered clothing, clothing sizes, and how to recommend said clothing pieces to others. For me, this was my lowest scored project and one that gave a lot of room for improvement. I did not do poorly in general, but was grateful for the revisions Professor Roy gave me as it showed me how to further my grammatical knowledge for Spanish. Overall, I managed to score an A- as I focused on my client (the prompt was to create a style box for a client) and I think it was an excellent jumpstart into writing full paragraphs in Spanish, something I think I am gradually getting better at. It allowed me to learn of the different climates and sizes that affect what one chooses in regards to their fashion and I even got to see some different Spanish advertisements and how to try to advertise clothing to the general public. This also served as my presentational writing as I worked on it and out of class, trying to work out what I wanted to say to the fictional Raquel and make sure I utilized the vocabulary list provided.

Proyecto para la Unidad 13

This was one of my more recent projects I turned in to my professor. It focused on immigration in Latin America, specifically focusing on Finita (a Cuban immigrant). For my project, I informed the reader about the issues that many immigrants from Latin America face, such as war, refugees, and feelings of abandonment. This was a very eye-opening project as I learned that many countries in Latin America deal with some form of government corruption, one that forces thousands out of their homes. For the second half of the project, I tried to offer a happier ending wherein Finita could reunite with her father and make a relationship with him. I was happily surprised to see I had improved on my grammar and conjugation within the project and, with the help of Professor Roy’s few revisions, I was able to achieve a perfect score, something I was very proud of.

TalkAbroad #1

For the TalkAbroad, WordPress will not allow me to upload the audio, but I scored a 95 on the final product and it was quite the interesting the experience. I focused on clothing and ecotourism by discussing the clothing necessary for visiting Niagara Falls in New York and my partner, Ezequiel, talked about the ecotourism in Argentina. I found the conversation a bit nerve-wracking, but thankfully my partner was very kind and beginner friendly. He did not speak much English to me at all so I was able to figure some words out on my own rather than him translating. Additionally, I was able to partially carry out conversation with Ezequiel and talk a bit more about the landscape than I had thought I could manage. It was intriguing to hear a native speaker respond in kind to my own shaky Spanish. I found the practice to be very helpful and it boosted my confidence in responding more often in the classroom setting as well.

TalkAbroad #2

For my second TalkAbroad session, I met Mariam from El Salvador. It was very interesting to hear the different dialect in comparison to Ezequiel and I found that I was a lot less nervous regarding my discussion with her. I spoke of artists I enjoy, such as Franciso Goya and Keith Harring, and she told me about an interesting artist who increases the head sizes of classic paintings, such as the Mona Lisa. The artist who did such was Fernando Botero, an artist from Colombia. I found it much easier to build off of the conversation due to the open-endedness that is offered when speaking of art in general and I found that I did not hesitate as much as I did prior. It was also funny to hear her jokes about living in the capitol of El Salvador, such as not liking how crowded it gets.

Culture

I found the vast differences in Spanish and Latin American culture to be very intriguing as I advanced within the classes. It was interesting to read different accounts of opinions regarding our unit topics through LingroLearning. I also enjoyed hearing how the countries differed in terms of art and ideologies, such as Spain being regarded as more of an outsider to Latin American culture as majority of rules specific to Spain were thought of as different or odd to those from Latin America. The projects given to us by this class were excellent at making Latin America appear more close in terms of society as they weren’t too different from the United States in some points. I enjoyed hearing about the small things, such as how slang is shown in text messages or the desired aesthetic regarding clothes.

Community

Community is very important within society as it is how an individual interacts with their fellow peers. To be able to learn how to widen my community with the knowledge of the Spanish language is very exciting as I find myself very gleeful when I understand something in a video or movie that is said in Spanish.

Interpretive Listening

Within our class setting, interpretive listening occurs very frequently as our professor constantly asks us questions in Spanish or has us work with our classmates to lead mini conversations in Spanish, which would involve listening on the spot to answers from fellow students. I found it very helpful in leading one on one conversations and it made it more common for me to pull out key words in conversations.

Finita La Gringa

Proyecto para la Unidad 16

This script operated as my presentational speaking and writing as I had to work on it in and out of class with the intention of acting it out with a partner. There is no recording for this display, but my class and professor were witnesses to my stellar acting abilities. The project focused on miscommunications through, so it was difficult in finding ways in which one could be confused based on text messages in a language I am not fluent in. Focusing on humor, I made a script based on someone bringing their friend, Blanca, to a wedding, but their other friend misunderstanding and believing they are wearing white to a wedding. I think I did well at pronouncing the words I had chosen for the script, but think I could have done better at memorizing what the abbreviations all meant in a texting atmosphere as sometimes I stuttered over the real word on accident.