Artifacts

Below I’ve attached a lyric video that the professor has shared with us in lesson 4. This necessarily is not and assignment but it is a video that helped me improve my pronunciation and ability to understand Spanish over time. This song is called ” Not going to be” by Pablo Alboran who is a Spanish songwriter. While watching this lyric video I was able to sing along with the words on the screen and approve my pronunciation. Over time I think listening to more Spanish cultured music or tv shows will better help my understanding.

Exploring Culture

Above is a page taken out of our textbook for the semester. One thing that I’ve notcied culturally is that soccer is a big sport in most Spanish speaking countries! This text discusses the rivalry between Madrid and Barcelona and how it start many years ago. Much like these two cities many different cities and countries have rivalries too just Like here in the USA! It made me relate it to how we in the USA have sports rivalries as well.

Engaging in Communities

It is very important to engage with your community whether it is English speaking or Spanish. Engaging with your community is simply getting to know the different people and backgrounds from which others around you come from. I great way I engage with my community is by going to my church and volunteering at Chesapeake Regional Hospital.

Presentational Speaking

This semester I’ve had the joy of interviewing with a classmate and we got to know us in Spanish. We were told to have a normal conversation as two strangers and it helped both of us with our pronunciation . Although it was a little difficult we both were able to have fun and help each other learn.

The student interview was difficult at first because I had never had a full on conversation in Spanish with anyone. It was challenging being asked questions and not being able to conjugate on paper but instead in my head. I was able to overcome that by practicing outlaid with myself and studying more everyday. I excelled at understanding when being spoken to in Spanish by studying definitions and practicing.

Interpretive Listening

In VHL there were a few listening assignments where we had listen and answer true or false statements about the excerpt read to us. It made you really focus on the pronunciation of different words and be able to understand it.

At first listening and answering questions was very difficult for me since I could not do it on the first try. For me it took listening to it over and over to understand at first. As time progressed I am now able to listen more easily the first time.

Interpretive Reading

In the VHL textbook this an excerpt on how people greet each other with kisses in Spanish speaking countries. While some may find this weird this is a common greeting in other countries.

I found this interesting because in certain regions in the US personal space is very necessary in order to not come off rude. Kissing on the cheek is endearing only to people you have a close relationship with. So when I read this article I thought it was different that this is how they greet. I do wonder how difficult it was to stop doing this greeting during the COVID restrictions. I took away from this that people in different countries have different customs and greetings, something that might be weird for you is normal to someone else.