Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Products and practices that have helped me gain understanding of cultural perspectives are visiting both Mexico and Puerto Rico. Both of these places are both Spanish speaking places that have helped me with a better understanding by visiting different cultures.

Visiting both of these places made me realize how similar and different they’re both from the United States. Visiting these two different challenges challenged my worldview since it gave me a different perspective of other cultures and places outside of the states. Seeing for myself how different and also similar these cultures are to mine really changed the stereotype that most people talk about with Mexico and Puerto Rico. A few examples of how my perspective changed because of many stereotypes is how when I visited Mexico and Puerto Rico, Many people say both of these places are poor and have uneducated people living there which isn’t true because there are good locations at both of these places that aren’t poor. Another example of a stereotype in Puerto Rico is that all Puerto Ricans are loud and aggressive which is also not true.

Engaging in Communities

The value of, the importance of, engaging in my immediate community and global community are important for various reasons. The first is bettering the community by building good personal relationships with people who have many common interests and similarities as I do. Another is the social impact of the community by attending events and having a positive impact on my community is important and also giving back by volunteering in church, etc. Lastly, having personal growth in my community is essential. Extending my understanding of different cultures and communities is another thing that’s important to me since it can improve and better my community.

Interpersonal Communication

Talk Aboard was a fun website I used during this semester. This website allowed me to speak to two other people from different countries. During our conversations I was able to learn information about each of their cultures and talk about how similar and different our cultures are from one another.

After completing my first Talk Abroad experience, I was able to identify what I could do differently to make the next conversation I have better and easier for me to have a better understanding. At first I thought it was difficult to pronounce certain words to understand the person I was having a conversation with. But because the person I was speaking to knew how to help me know what they were talking about, it became easier as both conversations went along.

Presentational Speaking

An example of presentational speaking I’ve completed at the beginning of this semester was completing and presenting the spanish alphabet which was then when I knew I needed to practice the most on my pronunciation of letters and words.Next time I know to pronounce the letters and words correctly and the vowels.

Interpretive Listening

An example of Interpretive listening activities I’ve done this semester was listening and responding to the multiple activities on contresena and also completing the talkabroad assignments.

The challenges I faced while completing these assignments was understanding what was being said in the recording and then repeating what was also said back with the correct pronunciation. I have grown from each talkabroad I’ve completed by knowing what to look forward to and being better prepared for each conversation. 

Interpretive Reading

An example of Interpretive reading activities I’ve done this semester out of class was on social media. I’ve been on instagram reading captions that people post and one that I recently had seen was by a celebrity, Eva Mendes.

This post included a caption that was not in english, that was talking about the flyer on the post. Reading this caption was not too hard since I already knew what Eva was talking about in her post below. The most interesting thing from this caption was Eva talking about Hollywood not being ready for Cuban fire.