Exploring Culture

Lingrolearning and BlackBoard discussion boards helped me gain a greater understanding of cultural perspectives. There were several activities to learn about how different Spanish cultures work, go to universities, and much more. I feel like I know very little about other countries, so it’s always eye-opening to learn about how people from all around the world do things differently compared to Americans.

The practices we did on Lingrolearning helped me better understand values and attitudes in the Hispanic culture as well as my own by showing the different ways that we go to school, the differences in Universities, their holidays, and much more.

“The fiesta that calls my attention the most is the Carnival of Cádiz on February 24. The Carnival of Cádiz is mainly involved in humor, through sarcasm, mockery, and irony. The point of the carnival is to forget about the pressing matter that we face today. Celebrations in Spain seem to have everyone involved, while in the United States, a lot of the celebrations are celebrated with friends and family. Mi celebración favorita es el 25 de deciembre. Es el día de la Navidad. I love being with family, and having the feeling of love, thanks, and gratitude all around me. I have all of my family come over and we have a big breakfast. I love watching people open gifts and celebrating the true meaning of Christmas.”

These different activities involved me learning more about Hispanic culture, but it was challenging to overlook my worldview of things. As an American, we are taught that America is the best country and we only focus on our history and culture. So Americans tend to have blinders on when talking about different cultural’s because it’s unusual to hear how different other countries are from our own. We look over other cultures and only think about our own.

The way I worked through the American blinders was to actually focus more on learning the information and taking the information that I thought was cool and comparing it to my own culture.

¨The university is huge and breathtaking! It’s like walking through history, which I love. UGR is older and more historic than ODU, which ODU is a newer college. UGR has a really good doctor program, which ODU does not have. UGR is also a lot bigger than ODU. I have not studied outside of the United States. I’ve thought about studying abroad, but I don’t think I would ever go through with it (at least not anytime soon) because I feel like I would get homesick.¨

Engaging in Communities

I believe that it’s very important to engage in my own and global Hispanic community because that is the only way you will completely know and learn the information. One thing I strongly believe is that the only way to truly learn how to be fluent in Spanish is to go to a Spanish-speaking country and learn head-on.

I have sadly not been able to go to a Spanish-speaking country, but I have been able to go to an LSA (Latino Student Association) event and learn more about Latino culture. I learned dances, different types of food, and different music, and it was truly a fantastic time.

Interpersonal Communication

Throughout SPAN 101, we did a lot of activities that involved talking to other classmates in Spanish and reading and listening through different assignments on Lingro learning and discussion boards. The conversations we had to complete with another classmate, was probably the most effective interpersonal communication because we had to plan what we were going to say and work together to make everything make sense. When it came to other assignments involving interpersonal communication, I was able to easily accomplish them, with some struggles in hearing exactly what was being said to me.

Through the conversations with my classmate, I was able to learn more about specific vocab and memorize phrases that will help me in the future when having a conversation. Below are going to be videos of me and Kalei, my partner, for our first and last conversation assignment we participated in.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zGvCNrxrATx69Pi5VFQhnR3dKcZBZr8r/view?usp=sharing

• Conversation 1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nBhFs4nj4R3XIMmV1UosZCsOTbv72qHE/view?usp=sharing

• Conversation 5

I’ve grown with each assignment/activity by being able to speak and memorize Spanish. Some things that I found difficult were the listening aspects that we had to do in Spanish and being able to pronounce certain words in Spanish. I overcame these difficulties by practicing the pronunciations that I couldn’t pronounce and by listening to Spanish assignments in Spanish until I understood what was being said. I think I excelled in everything in SPAN 101 because of my past experience in Spanish. This course was helpful in refreshing everything that I have learned. I think next time I will have more inspiration to want to learn more Spanish.

Presentational Speaking

The only presentational speaking we did was our oral exams. I think both of my oral exams went well. I don’t have the videos of them, but I would say they helped me hold a conversation in Spanish. The oral exams challenged me to think on the spot. For next time, I want to be able to talk more fluently in Spanish and pronounce everything right. For next time, I want to know more words and phrases to use.

Presentational Writing

We had a project in every module that involved writing. I think writing in Spanish is important when learning Spanish because it helps with learning Spanish in the future.

Writing in Spanish was easy for me, but sometimes it was hard to read the word count. I had difficulties when wanting to say a word, but we hadn’t learned the word in the class, so I would have to think of another word to use. I overcame these difficulties by finding other words to use. For next time, I think I could work on Spanish Grammar better.

Proyecto-5

Spanish-Project-number-4

Interpretive Listening

Most of the listening activities we did were through Lingrolearning and quizzes we had on Blackboard. The listening assignments on Lingrolearning were sometimes difficult to understand, but the quizzes were pretty simple.

I was unable to add a recording that we had to listen to, but all of the listening assignments could be challenging to me in a way due to them talking too fast. When the recording was too fast, it was hard to understand what was being said, so I had to relisten to it a few times until I understood what was being said. My takeaway from the listening experience is that it’s beneficial to listen to people speak in Spanish because it will help you learn about pronunciation and how to say certain phrases in the right way. I’ve grown through listening activities by being able to understand more Spanish as someone speaks it to me.

Interpretive Reading

I feel like we didn’t do many interpretive reading activities except for the ones on Lingrolearning. The readings did help me when it came to writing and understanding how to write certain things.

	1 de octubre de 2018Estimado comité:Por la presente, quisiera nominar a la maestra Celia García Aguirre para el Premio al mejor maestro de este año. La maestra García enseña español en la escuela secundaria de Pueblo, Colorado. Es una persona entusiasta, creativa y muy trabajadora. También es muy generosa con su tiempo. Por ejemplo, la Sra. García acompaña a los estudiantes cuando hacen las entrevistas a miembros de la comunidad hispana para crear un ambiente de confianza y para ayudar a resolver problemas de comunicación.La Sra. García también es muy graciosa. Siempre comparte historias divertidas sobre su tiempo como estudiante. Además, es muy compasiva. Conoce bien a todos los estudiantes y cuando alguien está callado o triste, intenta animarlo o ayudarlo. Más que nada, permite que los estudiantes sean ellos mismos (be themselves) y cree en ellos.Para finalizar, la Sra. García merece este premio porque vive una vida dedicada a apoyar el desarrollo intelectual y social de sus estudiantes. Exige lo mejor de sus estudiantes y es un modelo para todos.Quedo a su disposición para responder a cualquier pregunta.Atentamente, Victoria Cabrillo

Sometimes it was hard to know what all of the words meant in the reading, so I would have to look them up in order for the text to make sense. My takeaways from the readings were understanding what they wanted from us for the module and teaching me how to be a better reader in Spanish. Being able to read in Spanish helped me with writing and even listening. Overall, reading is beneficial to Spanish because it helps with understanding other aspects of Spanish.

Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication