Exploring Culture

Over the course I completed five cultural exploration assignments, in which two topics we discussed stood out to me. In Unit 6 we discussed the legalization or prohibition of same-sex marriage, the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community and their rights within the Spanish speaking world. Puerto Rico, Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador are among a few countries who have legalized same – sex marriage. Whereas countries such as Guatemala, Cuda and Honduras have prohibited it. Despite some progressive efforts to allocate rights to members of the LGBTQ+ community, discrimination and prejudice is still an on-going issue that many couples face across the globe. In Unit 7 we explored the world of sports. Soccer is a world-wide popular sport that most people love to participate in and watch. Within the Spanish speaking world Men dominate the sports world. They are more likely to gain positive recognition and financial benefits compared to their women counterparts. 

From these two units I learned gender roles, family and identity are valued highly in Hispanic culture. Although, in unit 7 we are discussion sports it portrays the influence and value of gender roles in Hispanic culture. Men are seen as the providers and protectors of their families. The sports world is a platform that many men can use to build an image, career, and fan base to establish revenue to support one’s family. The importance of Gender influences the ideal of the family unit and identity. As identity is becoming more fluid, unit 6 highlights how gender fluidity is reshaping Hispanic culture. As some countries are becoming more progressive and inclusive with new modern ideas other countries are still holding on to their beliefs and values. This raises challenges between groups/ generations who value traditional beliefs vs the ones who value modern beliefs. This division is common across the globe. It emphasis the influence of culture and community on one’s identity. For me it revealed how much culture and people’s opinion matter in our day to day lives. Because we all want to be accepted but also be able to define who we are despite the label’s others try to place on us. It caused me to view the world differently by showing me that traditional values in and of themselves are not bad the implication in which they can be used is what causes harm. 

Engaging in the communities I am apart of on a micro and macro scale is extremely important to me. I value engaging in my immediate community because it teaches me how to development and sustain relationships within accessible environments. It also aids in character development and self-awareness. Over the course of this semester personally I learned that I have develop patterns in my life that provides me with comfort, consistency and convenance. However, as I am expanding my community by learning a new language, culture and engaging with new people they challenge me to take risk and motivate me to live uncomfortably by introducing new ideas, beliefs and practices. This Discomfort is teaching m how to overcome adversity, how to effectively communicate, research and explore old and new traditions and learn how to identify and work through conflict that may arise. I value engaging in the global community because we can cultivate platforms to evoke change when necessary, inspire others to embrace new ideas and perspectives and establish communities/friendships/support groups in time of crisis or just in every day life.

During this course I used TalkAbroad and Lingrohub databases. TalkAbroad introduced us to Spanish speaking individuals from various parts of the world to engage in conversations and provide a foundation to get to know more about each other’s lives, culture, and experiences. The database provides a selection of people in which you could choose to talk base on profession, similarities, hobbies, interest and more. The Lingrolearning/ Lingrohub database equipped us for the TalkAbroad conversations and comfortability in engaging in conversation with their oral and audio activities. These activities reinforced pronunciation of vocabulary, fundamental steps on how to maintain fluidity in conversations and how to structure and communicate responses, interest and ideas.

Throughout the completion of each activity and assignment I notice that my pronunciation and fluency improved significantly from Spanish 101 to now. As I progressed through the course, I begun to learn how to use alternative descriptive words to communicate my ideas. I learned that it is okay to make mistakes and how to minimize the feeling of embarrassment when engaging in conversations. A few challenges I faced were difficulty in understanding a question that was being asked, knowing when and when not to us possessive, indefinite articles and there placement. I am still in the process of overcoming this difficulty, however, I am doing additional training with the duolingro app to further immerse myself in the language.

This semester I completed a presentation describing myself and my family. You will get to know our personality traits, hobbies, dream and much more. I hope you enjoy!

The two presentational speaking I competed this semester was Mi Familia and instructing how to cook my favorite dish to eat. A challenge I faced over this course was self – doubt. When it comes to my education and showcasing new abilities I tend to place high expectation upon myself to be perfect. This resulted in me being frustrated and intimidated whenever I had to present or speak in Spanish. Although, I still get nervous when I have to present I am becoming a little more carefree when mistakes since I am still learning. Furthermore, I have learned that I cannot simply learn by myself. It is okay to asking for assistance from my professor and peers. One thing I would do differently next time is giving myself more time to prepare for my presentation.

In this presentational writing assignment, I wanted to bring awareness to a form of anxiety called panic disorder. My pamphlet informs the reader of symptoms that may occur, resources Old Dominion University provide and recommendation on how to relieve feelings of anxiousness to prevent a panic attack.  

When completing this assignment, I learned how to properly use formal commands, reflexive verbs and use related vocabulary to discuss health and mental health. Something that I notice about my approach to writing was I like to write in English first then translate it into Spanish. This way I can go step by step translating each word or phrase and learn how to formate them into proper sentences. Some difficulties I faced was recalling vocabulary and remembering how to use irregular verbs and where and when to place indefinite articles. I am still in the process of overcoming those difficulties, however, I know that it will take time. I am beginning to complete additional writing activities outside of the classroom to help advance my writing skills. I excel at knowing what I wanted to say and how to partially communicate it for the reader to understand. 

In comparison to Spanish 101 this course relied heavily on listening, comprehension, and our context clues skills. The various units on Lingrohub and in-class activities primarily incorporated listening activates as indicated by the image below. Sabores de nuestra Tierra informed me of a food delivery service in which the integrates and recipes are provided to teach and introduce new styles of food to individuals front doors. 

Although, I have some previous experience with learning and listening to others speak in Spanish a challenge I faced this semester was quickly picking up on the meaning of phrases and/or words. When conversating or listening/ watching Spanish movies, tv-shows and music I often feel lost because of how fast the person is talking or pronouncing certain words. I am overcoming this difficulty by rewatching or relistening to listening activities to try to pick up on words or phrases I know to help me understand the context of the sentence and/or question. What I found most interesting is as I become more proficient in translating the meaning of conversating the more engaging the conversation becomes. It also influences me to think about how I would respond if I was included within the discussion. 

This semester the units I completed in Lingrohub incorporated a lot of reading exercise. They were easy to comprehend because they use majority of the vocabulary we learned in the unit and how to apply new grammatical concepts.  

The example provided came from unit 9 where we discussed health and preventative measure, we should take to protect us from illnesses. I did not have much difficulty with reading this semester, however, at times when I was introduced to new words, I did have to use the Spanish dictionary to understand the meaning of the word. One suggestion I have is we should incorporate more outside reading into the course that is related to the topics we are learning. This would increase our vocabulary by learning new words and further immerse us into the day-to-day life of living within the Spanish- speaking world.