Exploring Culture

There were many activities throughout this course that showed us little glimpses into the Spanish culture. In this particular assignment, we read a page about the benefits of employees in different Spanish speaking countries and how they compared to the United States employee benefits. It was very interesting to see the types of laws they have in these countries. One of the things I found most surprising is that the maternity leave in Chile is 24 months long!

Engaging in Communities

In an assignment at the beginning of the semester, we were given the option to meet with a tutor or a classmate to talk about our hopes and worries and to feel a sense of community through this online class. After meeting with them, we shared our experiences and what we learned.

I met with Anna, a classmate, on Thursday the 8th at 8:30 in the evening. We first introduced ourselves and talked about our past experiences with Spanish classes. Then Anna helped me refresh my memory on the definitions of the subjunctive and the indicative and reviewed how they are used and examples of the context that they are used in. We talked about the conjugations and the little grammar difficulties we have when doing homework or studying. We talked some about the vocabulary and what we did and didn’t already know before this chapter. It was nice being able to talk to another member of this class and to feel like I’m not alone in this!

Interpersonal Communication

Talk Abroad meetings were a very nerve wracking assignment for me in past semesters and I was definitely feeling the same way this semester. The meetings composed of fifteen minutes of talking to a person online who was a native Spanish speaker. It is difficult to navigate through the conversation, but every time I do one of these meetings, I know what to expect a little more and I feel myself adjusting to their way of speaking a little bit more. I have linked the audio from my last Talk Abroad meeting for reference below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7gay7DHSbsgPC7qzf2OvDWdtnOQPio7/view?usp=drivesdk

Presentational Speaking

As well as doing the Talk Abroad, we also did some assignments, like virtual chats, that required us to record our vocal answers to questions that were asked to us online. This helped us to practice our pronunciation and to speak clearly and smoothly. In this audio recording, you can hear that the girl is the automated questions and my voice is replying to the questions.

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/ZLMtXwX6zewwRdiRA

Presentational Writing

Here we were asked to take the profile of our selected Talk Abroad partners and to change all of the pronouns, possessive adjectives, and verbs from the first person to the third person. This helped me to find those parts of speech and to change the narrative of an entire paragraph or two.

Interpretive Listening

I always love watching Spanish commercials. Not only does it give you a lot of images to match the words they are saying, so that it sticks better in your brain, but it also gives you a better understanding of the culture and what the people in that area find important or interesting. This is one of the videos we watched and below is the comprehension assignment that followed.

Interpretive Reading

Some of the reading excerpts that were assigned throughout this class were hard to fully comprehend. There are some words that we did not study and it takes a long time to read, but sometimes when I would read over the questions I would realize that I was able to grasp most of the important parts. It is so important to read and to learn, and it is even more beneficial if you are doing it by learning another language.

Although this is my last Spanish class, I hope to keep practicing and not forget what I have learned over the past few years. It has been a difficult, but colorful road and I hope to keep growing and exploring new languages and new cultures.