Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication
Exploring Culture
After being emerged in a Spanish speaking country and then coming back to the United States I was quite interested seeing how different the cultures were compared to one another. While in Spanish 102 during every chapter we would have cultura lessons and basically these lessons would of course use the vocabulary from the new chapter connected to the new culture that we are trying to learn. These videos and readings helped me better understand the values and attitudes in the Hispanic language. It made me feel as if I emerged in the culture in a way as if for example talking about the different foods they would eat for dinner. It also helped me see the value of the Hispanic culture and how the United States specifically can benefit from it. These products and practices challenged my worldview in a way that I did not think that it would. Like previously stated it allowed me to think and see the world from a different perspective and and not only see and experience things from the American point of view. Some of the challenges that these perspectives revealed to me would have to be, the grammar and different vocabularies having to do with these cultures. Some words were a little bit tricky or different especially since I have studied Spanish before and a lot of the times they have different meanings. When we were learning about the food that they would eat or the times that they would eat it was quite different compared to how we do it here in America. Here in America we usually eat dinner quite early starting around 5 and people are usually done around 8. In Spanish speaking countries they enjoy eating dinner quite late, they usually begin to eat around 9 which I actually found quite interesting.
Engaging in Communities
I think that the value and importance of engaging in my immediate and global community is important if you want to be introduced to new and different cultures. Once you connect to your community you tend to think about life in a different way and tend to be more empathetic to others. Learning a different language allows people to connect to the culture that they are learning about and in my opinion it helps connect to people that you never knew you would be connected too. Americans can be influenced about the type of community that Spanish speakers tend to have. While I was living in Spain neighbors would just go out in the street and talk to each other for hours and drink wine and eat tapas and I would never see this sort of thing in the United States. If there was one thing I would take out of their culture it would be their hospitality and friendliness to one another.
Interpersonal Communication
This semester was the first time I ever had to Talk Abroad. It was honestly a great experience and it allowed me to use the experience that I have been learning in my Spanish classes all these years and speak to native speakers so that I can actually use what I have been learning and not forget it as soon as I leave my class. Another thing that helped me a lot throughout this semester would have to be the Audios that we would have to listen to while doing our homework and classwork. These listening audios were played at the speed that native speakers would talk to me if I was ever in a Spanish speaking country and it helped me put my critical thinking skills to work.
I also love listening to Spanish music and if I do say so myself this helped me also with my Spanish. It would teach me words that I never knew and I would be able to use it in class and even while speaking to my family and friends. Now that I am better at Spanish while at Spanish restaurants instead of ordering in English, I would put my Spanish speaking skills to use and order in Spanish and I think that the waiters would really appreciate my effort even if what I was saying did not entirely make sense, I would say it’s more of an A for effort. I feel like with each assignment and activity I have grown significantly, at the beginning of this class I would doubt myself tremendously because I would not want to be embarrassed if I was wrong or something so even if I thought I knew the correct answer or how to answer whatever the professor was asking I would not. Now as the class has progressed and I have gotten more comfortable speaking Spanish I am quick to answer the questions, read and even talk in my Spanish cl, if my professor ever called on me out of the blue I would not freak out and would just answer the question as confidently as I could. I am not going to lie but the discussion boards were not my favorite things to do and they could sometimes be quite difficult but, doing them did help with my writing skills and they also introduced me to some more of the Spanish cultures that I did not know about.
Presentational Speaking
Outside of this class I did not do a lot of presentational speaking due to the fact that we are living through a pandemic, so it was hard finding things that I use my Spanish speaking skills at. I am lucky enough to have a lot of native Spanish speaking friends so if I ever wanted to practice or just speak and Spanish and get a correct response I would talk to them .
In this Spanish class we did not have any presentations that we had to complete this semester because this class is completely online this semester but if I had the opportunity to do one thing that I know I would struggle with would have to be the pronunciation of certain words that I say. Sometimes I have a tough time pronouncing some of the Spanish speaking words. Something that I would excel at would have to be the proper use of grammar and sentence formation in Spanish I believe that I am really good at this and it would help me throughout my presentation for sure.
Presentational Writing
We had many writing activities this semester due to the fact that our class was completely online so in a way I feel like I improved my writing skills the most. Homework and discussion boards were a big component in the improvement of my writing skills.
Every week we would have a handful of homework assignments due and these assignments would vary from 30 minutes to as long as two hours to complete, it may seem quite excessive for homework but, in a way the more you did the better you would get over time. The more I would write in Spanish the more I would understand, for later assignments and even classwork that we would be assigned while in class. When we would not have proper instructions or a good example to help me through the assignment and it would make completing the assignment quite frustrating and un-motivational. For some reason I did not like looking in my textbook if I had a problem completing one of the writing assignments and that was my downfall. Next time to cut down on the amount of time and frustration I will start by looking in my textbook for the answer or another example.
Interpretive Listening
This semester we had a bunch of listening audios especially in our homework. At Least in every homework we would have to listen to someone speak and then we would have to answer questions in regards to what we just heard.
I have heard a lot of different things as I navigated my way though this class. I would listen to them describe their daily routine, what they would talk about what they would eat on a day and how they would order different things while in a restaurant and so much more. I love hearing how native speakers talk and how quick they talk as well I can confidently say that nothing was unclear to me while listening to the recording I seemed to catch on to them quite easily. They would speak fast like I previously stated but, once I repeated the audio I was good. I think it was because I have studied Spanish before leading up to this class and I like to practice as much as I can while I wasn’t in class. Something that I would take away from this listening experience would have to be that whenever someone is talking in Spanish especially because they speak quickly you have to be very attentive to what they are saying if you want to catch it. It’s hard to get lost in the different words so attention is key.
Interpretive Reading
Reading is such a major factor while learning the Spanish language because it helps you when it comes to speaking and writing. I really enjoy reading the Cultura flashes that we had to read at the beginning of each new chapter, they kept me interested because they would connect to one another like a story. Once and a while we would have to read these Cultura flashes in class which helped us with both reading and writing at the same time. During our test we would also have to read a short paragraph or story relating to what we have learned in that specific chapter and use our critical thinking skills to answer the questions and piece the story together.
The Cultara flash videos and reading were indeed my favorite because it allowed us to read, write and listen all in one. The readings keep me engaged in what we were learning throughout the semester because I would want to see how the videos would connect to each other and tell the story. The little paragraphs that I would be reading during my quizzes or tests also helped a tremendous amount because they would almost sound like something you would read on a newspaper or magazine in one of these stories, They were either daily routines, restaurants reviews, or fun activities that people would rave about to convince others to try. Sometimes they would use words in there that we may not have learned yet which would make the reading a little bit difficult to understand, and keep up with but if you use context clues then most of the time you would be able to figure it out. From the reading that I have had to do in this class there is one thing that I would take away from it and it would have to be indeed use context clues because I promise it will make figuring out tough words or words I did not understand a lot clearer and it will definitely save me a lot of time and stress.
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