Exploring Culture

Throughout this semester in Spanish, I learned lots about the culture. I learned it from the videos provided to watch for discussion boards, things I had to look up for projects and texts/videos in homework on lingrolearning.

Watching the videos allowed for me to hear how fast and fluid the language should be spoken. It helped me to understand how to greet and say goodbye in different countries in the Spanish speaking world. It made me realize that some countries struggle heavily with things like food insecurity and stereotypes. One thing I will say is that before this course I didn’t realize the difference between Hispanic and Latino. Now I know that they are two different things.

Engaging in Communities

It is very important to engage in community. Engaging in your own community is important so you can see what is going on around you. Engaging in a global community is important to know what is going on in the world.

I am involved with my community here at Old Dominion University. I like to feed the ducks at our pond and am in a large university group chat. The best way to be involved with the global community is by social media. I learn a lot about what is going on in the world from TikTok and Reddit.

Interpersonal Communication

I completed two TalkAbroad conversations with some very friendly people. They made it easy and fun. Having someone speak to me and having to pay close attention to what they said made it easier to learn spanish.

For the first TalkAbroad this semester I found it very difficult. Even though my partner was going slow and aiding me with images it was hard for to keep up with her words. The second TalkAbroad I found a little easier because I had gotten some advice from my professor about how fluid the language is. It made listening easier because I wasn’t trying to listen for all the words in a sentence. It also helped me to speak better so my own sentences weren’t so broken up. Next time I think I would try to listen harder and respond with better answers.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nJAgr5prnMbcGpVAOGISrHLwoMnx8f5U/view?usp=sharing

Presentational Speaking

For this semester we did lots of video projects. We had to speak on a certain subject on video. 

I normally hate presentations. They make me nervous. But creating these videos were fun. I got to pick and speak about something that interested me. Doing these helped me to become confident when speaking for presentations in not just spanish class but in my other classes as well.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E3qP3-nKEBx1cuQMA7mBTOFMB6OABKXp/view?usp=sharing

Presentational Writing

Between discussion boards and projects this semester there has been many writing assignments made. The projects were more large essays while the discussion boards were more about thoughts on certain things or on videos.

For the projects we would learn about something during the week. Then we would pick something that has to do with it like for stereotypes I had to write about any I’ve experienced. Doing these helped me to learn how to conjugate and put accent marks better. The discussion boards helped me to write about certain things more specifically.

proyecto17paso2

Interpretive Listening

We did a conversation with a partner once this semester. We really had to listen as they spoke.

The conversation with my partner was a listening exercise because they also had limited Spanish speaking skills. So it made listening that much more important to be able to understand what they were saying. I think was important because it made me hear words and translate them faster.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R8h7Asbn7OyuJ-1CEAt6vGvWdGhR0Err/view?usp=sharing

Interpretive Reading

In class this semester we had to watch many videos for discussion boards. We also had to read many stories in lingrolearning to complete assignments.

One video we watched that I found really interesting was the influencer man. The story I liked was the poem in lingro learning. For one assignment we had to read a poem we found, and I picked one that I found really interesting. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sUGHupU-kaNf3HE0Zi8acyTbgZeK_bpN/view?usp=sharing