Exploring Culture
Watching informative videos on hispanic culture facilitated me in my understanding of cultural perspectives. Music videos in Spanish with popular hispanic dances and dress styles, as well as documentaries on how hispanic cultures celebrate different holidays throughout the year played a big part in helping my understanding of the culture in Spanish speaking countries.
Watching how people gather together to celebrate annual holidays helped me better understand the values of hispanic countries. Typically, hispanic holidays consists of dancing, clapping, singing, eating, and even sometimes theatrical scenes. Seeing the unity of the culture confirmed my main idea of the benefits of coming together as one.
Overall, learning about the Spanish culture has improved my perspective of the lifestyles and customs of Spanish speaking nations. Seeing people come together like family during the festivals has reminded me of the positive attitude those nations have.
Engaging in Communities
Making your voice heard is crucial in today’s society. Just as crucial, is having support from the people around you. Staying engaged in my local community through personal friends, professional work ethic, and outside personal events such as concerts gives me the chance to let my community know that I support them, no matter the culture or language they speak.
Although I do not have any photos or video clips to insert here, I do have a positive experience to support my journey in learning about the Spanish culture. Where I work, most of the people there speak English, making it difficult for Spanish speaking clients to communicate their needs and to get involved with our organization. Over the course of my time working there, I have encountered people who are Spanish speakers, and I have even grown personal friendships with some of these people. Throughout my time in SPAN 101, I have been practicing my speaking form with my Spanish speaking friends, while simultaneously learning about their cultures.
Interpersonal Communication
I do not yet have experience with TalkAbroad, however, I have numerous audio activities that I have completed throughout the semester. I also have a document writing about my mother listed below.
I found it easier throughout the semester to read in Spanish than to listen and speak it. Over the semester, I have had three conversacions with my professor in Spanish, and each time I was improving on my listening and speaking skills. Listening to videos in Spanish has been helping me improve in that area. Discussion board posts has also kept my reading skills strong.
Premio-a-la-mejor-persona.docxPresentational Speaking
I have done a few conversacions with my group partners throughout the semester. The first one I did was about my week schedule, where I then had to coordinate a hypothetical time and place to meet in person.
Gaining practice with speaking in Spanish was done in these group conversacions. I do need to improve on listening and interpreting what my partner has to say.
Presentational Writing
I have completed many writing compositions including nomination letters, descriptions of people, and my weekly routine. Below is a copy of my nomination letter for “Premio a la mejor persona.”
Throughout this semester, I have gained substantial knowledge in reading and writing in Spanish. In cases like this, where I am learning a new language, the more practice I get, the better I become. I still have room for improvement, as there are some articles where I have had to look up what a word means.
Premio-a-la-mejor-persona-1.docxInterpretive Listening
One assignment I’ve done for interpretive learning is watching a student introduce her school to her viewers. When I first watched it, I had the mute button on, so that I could practice interpreting the good or the bad qualities of her school based on her hands and facial expressions.
In this assignment, I watched the student wave her hands “no” when talking about things she does not like about the school. I also observed her wave her hands when describing her roommate as being messy. In the very beginning and the end of her video, the student waved “hello” and “goodbye” with a smile. Watching her facial and hand features helped me gain practice in learning what certain words indicate.
Interpretive Reading
In this class, I did a research project on the most popular social media network in the United States versus in Columbia.
When I googled, “the most popular social media in the United States” and “the most popular social media in Columbia,” I first googled in English, in which I got an immediate answer for my question. When searching the two questions in Spanish, I had to click on a website and read the article to figure out the answer to my questions. I have strengthened my skills to ask questions in Spanish, but I need to practice reading real-world articles without having to look up so many words.