Exploring Culture
I mainly used Google to explore the Hispanic culture. I have some and made some new friends who are Hispanic/Latino and come from all different areas. I practiced using Spanish in persona and with my friends online. I also asked them how their culture differs from ours. My favorite part about exploring the culture is the food!
I was best able to understand the values and culture through my friends by asking them questions. Through Google searches, I did come to find that many areas with Hispanic cultures don’t have as many opportunities for higher education. I used Google when I could not get answers directly from my friends. I did not necessarily hold stereotypes or misconceptions before because I have lived in areas with large Hispanic communities for many years. If anything my knowledge and understanding becomes more broad as I learn more from friends.
Engaging in Communities
The main community I identify with right now is the spiritual community. I like to talk with and be around people who are looking to self improve and take full ownership of their life, despite the hardships they may have faced. I do not really engage with any Hispanic communities. I do learn and engage with the Lakota community though.
https://www.starknowledge.org/our-roots
Presentational Writing
There was only one main presentational writing required for this course. At the end of unit 5 we wrote a letter of nomination for an award for someone we know. By the time we got to this project I was able to much easier understand grammar and sentence structure. Reading and writing in Spanish was much easier for me. I used google translator often to practice my sentences and see what the translator understood me saying
Estimado comité:
Distinguidos señores,
Por la presente quisiera nominar a Jasmine Freeman para a la mejor amiga de este año.
Yo admira mi amiga Jasmine mucho. Ella vive en Illinois y tiene treinta siete años. Ella es la madre de tres niños. Ella conoce me porque vivemos en a apartamento hace mucho tiempo, ella es mi compañera de cuarto. Yo conozco ella por dieciocho años. Jasmine es paciente, simpática, y muy generosa. Ella es bajita. Ella tiene pelo marrón y ojos azules.
Ella es paciente porque escucha tu mi problemas. Ella es muy generosa porque compra me una alfombra para mi apartamento. Ella es a muy buena amiga porque cree en mi hacer cosas buenas. Cuándo estoy triste ella me ayuda a sentirme mejor. Jasmine es chistosas y bondadosa con todas las personas. Jasmine ayuda me mucho.
Ella va a la escuela para su maestría en comunicación. Sabe hablar alemana y enseña niños joven. A Jasmine le gusta va a caminar y escucha música también. A Jasmine también le gusta crear arte y es muy creativa. Ella comparte sus materiales de arte para mi.
A veces ella es mandona y terca pero la amo de todos modos. En general ella es paciente y amable. A ella le gusta aprender. Ella sabe ayudar muy bien a las personas. Ella es un bueno amiga.
Quedo a su disposición para responder a cualquier pregunta.
Atentamente,
Nena Lotzer
Estudiante
Interpretive Listening
In Unit 2 we were required to complete an interview with a native Spanish speaker. Unit 4’s final project was a video of our campus.
The unit 2 final project of an interview proved to be the most challenging for me. I had such a limited grasp on the language and it was intimidating to speak with a fluent, native speaker. I even did the interview two times because I was so nervous the first time. Overall, speaking unscripted Spanish with someone who knows it very well has been my biggest struggle. I worked to overcome this by speaking Spanish with my friends whenever I could. Thankfully they were very patient with me as I learned.
I enjoyed interacting with my fellow classmates through Contrasena to provide feedback for each other once our projects were finished. I noticed that most of us were much more comfortable with our speaking skills as we took the project 4, which was a tour of our campus. Some of this was difficult to grasp but I really enjoyed the course program Contrasena. It allowed me to practice and learn a lot more visually, which I then carried through towards my speaking skills. One thing that really helped me with homework was physically writing it all down and then sounding it out as I typed my homework into the computer.
Through the use of Google translator and Contrasena I was able to really sharpen my listening skills to hear the slight nuances in the words and pronunciations. I also listened to a lot of Hispanic music so that I could train my ear to pick up words that I know.
Interpretive Reading
Most of our interpretive reading assignements came from our cultural exploration section in Contrasena. In every unit we learned a little more about several different Hispanic countries.
One reading assignment given was to look at websites of Hispanic countries. I chose to look at Puerto Rico since I have a few friends from there.
Reading was a little bit challenging and took extra time while exploring these readings. I often had to use google translator for a lot of the words that were not covered in class so I could understand fully what was being said. I helped speed this process up by changing my phone’s voice to text function into Spanish. I would open google translator and use my voice to text to read in Spanish what I was reading off the page. This helped me know if I was pronunciating properly as the voice to text would show what it understood. When I did this it was much quicker than just typing all the information in slowly.
What I found most compelling was to be the wide differences in Hispanic communities that were even close together country wise. It was interesting to see what countries have adopted a more United States type way of living and blending their culture or adapting it.
Presentational speaking
We had a few opportunities for presentational speaking this semester. Our class had 3 interviews throughout the semester. We were also required to make two seperate videos for end of the unit projects. One was an interview with a native Spanish speaker and the other was a presentation of our campus that included some of the spots we went to the most.
The most challenging part was the interview with a native speaker. It was very early in the semester and I did not have a very good grasp on the structure of the language. I even repeated the interview twice because I was so nervous the first time I did it. I did have friends who helped me practice, but I think it was more of an insecurity and a mental block.
As the semester progressed I was able to speak more clearly and fluently. I attribute that to practice and giving my brain some time to put all the pieces together. I was very nervous for the first in person interview with the professor. Upon reflection I decided the next interviews that I would take more time and not feel so much pressure to answer immediately. That gave me a few seconds to process the question and form a reply in my mind.
Interpersonal Communication
The most of my interpersonal communication was speaking with my Spanish speaking friends. I have a few Puerto Rican friends in Virginia that I was able to practice with at times. The majority of my Spanish speaking friends are online. It was nice to be able to practice with my writing and dropping voice clips. I feel that speaking with Spanish speakers is what helped me build enough confidence to speak the language. They were all very helpful and gave me good feedback. It was really helpful to that they could easily understand what I was saying, even if it was very basic to them.