Exploring Culture

Throughout this semester I have had many assignments on Lingro Learning that involved studying hispanic culture. This allowed me to research and better understand the nuances between different hispanic countries. Through these assignments I was able to learn many very interesting things.

One thing I learned was the ability to narrow down my search to get results from a specific region. Hispanic culture is much more diverse than I expected. Each country has different traditions, celebrations, and quirks. They even have different ways of speaking. Before taking this class I had no idea about the vast differences between different hispanic cultures. One of my favorite assignments all semester was when we learned about different celebrations that happen in each month of the year. I was fascinated with all the different celebrations and a bit jealous that there are not similar celebrations in the United States.

Engaging in Communities

Engaging in your community is important for several reasons. It helps build character, it helps those around you, it builds up a sense of community, and it can also encourage others to do the same.

In the past I have participated in many community outreach activities through school and through church. It has always felt great to be able to help others and at the same time make new friends. In this example my high school had an event where students raised money for cancer research and that included collecting donations and then shaving your head.

Interpersonal Communication

This semester included many different forms of communication with other students. Through discussion boards I was able to discuss people and things that I liked while also describing them. Also, I participated in five different oral conversations with my partner, starting with just introductions and then by the end of the semester I was able to describe people that I admire. 

At the start of the semester I was extremely nervous about recording conversations and speaking in Spanish to my professor. I thought that I did not have enough experience and that it was too soon in my studies to be able to be successful. This nervousness is evident in my first conversation with my partner. I have trouble making eye contact and I stumble over my words. I also speak with very little confidence. By the end of the semester I got much better at the live conversations. My voice became much clearer and I had much more confidence in myself. I believe that these assignments have helped me be more prepared for Spanish 102 next semester.

Presentational Speaking

This semester I had several conversations with my partner, as well as a live conversation with my partner while my professor was present. 

The many different conversations with my partner helped me to better understand the material, as well as allowing me to become a more comfortable speaker. The conversations also allowed me to think on my feet better as a speaker. During the live conversation with my professor present, my partner asked me where the Starbucks was on the fake campus we had studied. I did not see a Starbucks on the map earlier but I was able to think quickly and say that it was next to the cafeteria. This moment stuck out to me because it made me think that I was really learning the language. This assignment was not recorded but I do have my last partner conversation to show the improvements I made throughout the semester. 

Presentational Writing

In this class the majority of the writing was done through discussion boards with other students. The only other writing assignment was a formal letter that was meant to be a nomination for a person you admire.

Formal-Letter-2

This assignment was very daunting to me at the start. All of the discussion board posts were shorter and less than a full paragraph. The formal letter, however, was one hundred words long. I had never written this many words in Spanish before for one assignment and I was very discouraged. I decided to just start writing and see how much of it I could do. I surprised myself by being able to write about seventy-five words in my first attempt. After going back through the materials in Lingro I was able to find more sentences to include in my letter. I was also able to find better descriptors for what I was thinking. Now I feel better prepared to tackle assignments like this in the future.

Interpretive Listening

In this class there were often quizzes that were due on Lingro or on Blackboard that involved listening to a speaker and writing down what you heard. This varied from simple words to different conjugations of verbs.

The majority of the quizzes on Blackboard involved listening to a speaker and either selecting what I heard or writing it down. I did very well on these quizzes and did not have an issue hearing differences in conjugations. These quizzes were only on lockdown however so there is no way to place a recording of one as an example. 

When I would struggle with a particular topic I always tried to find a youtube video to help me. This would give me new content to listen to and help me learn. Most of the time if there was English subtitles, like there is in the above video. I would listen with my eyes closed and try to figure out what was being said that way. This really helped me learn whenever I was stuck.

Interpretive Reading

The majority of the reading that I had to do in this class was during Lingro quizzes. There are many quizzes that involve a word bank or a verb that I would have to fill in myself and conjugate myself if necessary.

The majority of these problems were very difficult for me. The word bank problems were easier but I really struggled with the conjugations. Being able to read a paragraph and understand what is going on is very difficult when you are new to the language. There were often words included that were not on our vocabulary lists so I would have to look up the meaning of words. These quizzes taught me the importance of knowing the conjugations and understanding when to use them.