Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication
Reflection
I learned listening comprehension and written/oral interpersonal modes of communication through this course doing written and oral evaluations for every unit. I did a comprehensive oral evaluation on how to describe myself, my personality, my university life and schedule, and learned to describe buildings. Finally, to describe someone I know that I admire as well as write a formal and informal letter in Spanish. Scroll down to Presentational Speaking for examples of my work.
Exploring Culture
I watched many videos in Contraseña and in the classroom that taught us about different cultures and their schedules.
In Latin America, university students live with families or live in off-campus housing not associated with the university. In the United States, a lot of the Universities require that you live on campus for at least the first year. Most students live on campus or in campus associated housing. The drawback of this is that universities in the United States are much more costly when it comes to tuition and housing around the area. In Latin America, they have a much larger enrollment due to the low cost of attending (this is a reflection from Unit 4 on culture in Contraseña). I learned in a presentation by Professor Padilla that in Latin countries they take siestas, or naps after lunch. Some people even choose to go home for lunch and a nap before returning to work later in the day. This struck me as fascinating since we have nothing like it in the United States (it opened my eyes because I did not think different cultures could change daily activities during work weeks to that extent).
Engaging in Communities
My goal is to add my engagement in the community later on.
Interpersonal Communication
Presentational Speaking
Embedded below is an example of me describing my entire weekly schedule and even filling out a calendar in Spanish. This helped me articulate many activities that I like to do (and allowed for me to be able to have a conversation with someone about their schedule and the like).
Mi-HorarioI ran into challenges when talking about the length of an activity but the feedback from Professor Padilla helped me polish my skills when speaking about it.
Presentational Writing
Embedded below is an in depth description of myself and personality. This assignment helped me understand how to have a conversation to get to know someone. It taught me how to describe how I am feeling in the moment and describe assignments.
Proyecto-1-My-DescriptionI learned there was a cultural difference even in the way Spanish speakers state phone numbers in this assignment. I found it quite interesting that they way numbers are said is affected by difference in culture.
Interpretive Listening
In Contraseña Unit 5, I did many interpretive listening activities such as the one below that is denoted Conversar 5-26. I was not allowed to download the audio file, but you can see I received a 10/10 score in simulating a conversation. I listened to the prompt and then spoke phrases to describe how I am doing and that Greta is an admirable person.
Interpretive Reading
I read about different cultures and had to understand their own colloquialisms as well as trends in these countries. Pictured below is a screenshot from Contraseña, Unit 4, Cultural Exploration. This shows my interpretive reading about different cultures and people from them. It talks about university life over in places such as Paraguay.
