Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

The practices that helped me gain a better understanding of cultural perspectives were the assignments in contresena that we were required to do for the class. There were videos where students were at a college and with the little bit of Spanish that they knew and they were talking to students that only spoke Spanish. The students were talking to another student trying to explain what they were trying to say while not knowing fluent Spanish. I have also experienced a situation where I was at a store called B and I, I was looking for my wedding dress. The store is a Mexican store so everyone that works there, for the most part, speaks Spanish. Since I only know a little bit of Spanish I was trying to speak to the cashiers and workers in Spanish. I have also encountered a situation at Walmart. There was a family paying for their items at the cash register, the cashier didn’t speak Spanish at all. The family that was buying things didn’t speak or understand any English. The cashier was speaking to the family in English and they were guessing what she was saying.

I currently work at a community clinic that takes state insurance. We have a lot of patients that only have state insurance or don’t make a lot of income. We offer a payment plan to help those that do not have a lot of income. I would complain a lot when patients that do not speak English would walk up to the counter to ask if I speak Spanish. I would say no and have to call a Spanish interpreter on the phone. I would think to myself, why come to the united states and assume people speak your native language? I was not aware of how difficult it is to be in a place where no one speaks English until I went to B and I, a store that is run by Mexicans. Now that I have experienced what it is like to walk in a place where no one understands me, it is really hard to try to communicate. I have a better understanding of how the patients feel when they walk into our clinic. I have now been able to help them out with as much Spanish as I have learned from this class and they are happy. The obstacle that I have overcome was not being considerate of how other people are feeling. It is one of the things where you have to experience it to understand it. I have experienced it and now want to do anything to help people to feel welcomed and comfortable. I have experienced a growth mindset to try to look at things through other people’s eyes and get a better understanding of how they feel. I no longer want to stereotype anyone or make them feel uncomfortable because it is not fair. I have now come to a realization that everyone deserves to be treated equally and with respect.

Engaging in Communities

It is important to engage in the community because we can help each other in a time of need. As a community we are all part of the same area, therefore we should be working together to build trusting relationships with each other. It is also important that everyone in the community knows that they are important and are cared about. By building trusting relationships with each other, we can help provide resources and help each other. Time is precious and goes by very quickly. We all deserve peace and to feel happy. We can help support each other in every possible way.

I personally have not helped in my community as much as I should. I was not aware of the importance of being a part of a community and helping each other. I have helped out people that are patients at my job that do not speak any English at all by directing them on where to go in Spanish from what I have learned from this class. I have also helped out someone at a store that didn’t understand any English by translating for them in Spanish. They were very happy and grateful. I felt accomplished that I was able to help someone out in their time of need.

Interpersonal Communication

https://youtu.be/VjOSw3Yk_V4

For Spanish 101, there were 2 assignments where we had to speak in Spanish and record ourselves on flipgrid. The video posted was about naming a person that you know that you like, and name a person you know that you don’t like and the reasons why you like the person you like and why you don’t like the person you don’t like. There was another assignment where we had to record ourselves speaking Spanish while acting like we are having a conversation by screen recording a video of a person asking us questions in Spanish. The goal was to reply fast enough after she asked the question so that it looked like we were having a real-life conversation.

It was nerve-racking to record myself in a video because I have really bad anxiety. The more I kept recording myself the more I felt more comfortable with it. I did have to record and delete and record again multiple times, but it was worth it because I feel like I got more practice that way. I would definitely try to practice by writing out what I want to say before I record myself so that I don’t mess up so often. I do feel like I excelled the majority of the time by pronouncing the words in Spanish correctly. It did feel better when I had to respond to other classmates’ videos because I was able to see that I wasn’t the only one struggling to make the video perfect. It was nice to see everyone else trying as hard as they could and putting in so much effort to get it right.

Presentational Speaking

One of the speaking activities was reading and saying the letters of the alphabet in Spanish correctly. When you press the speaker key on the side of the letter a person pronounces how to say the letter. This was how we would learn and practice how to pronounce the letters. During the assignment, we had to screen record ourselves as well as on webcam to pronounce the letters.

I know that I was having a difficult time pronouncing the letters of the alphabet that were closer to the end. I will practice saying those letters before I record so that I am not pausing so much in between letters. I do feel that I excelled in pronouncing most of the letters without having to think about it. I had to delete and record this video at least 3 times because I couldn’t pronounce the letter W correctly.

Presentational Writing

One of the writings that were assigned in class was discussion questions once every couple of weeks. The discussion questions were to get an idea of how things are done in the Spanish culture or what celebrations they celebrate and when. This particular question was asking which of the 12 months that is celebrated in Spain was your favorite and why.

I was having such a difficult time with the discussion questions because I don’t like the idea of other people reading what I write other than the professor. I have always had a difficult time with what other people may think about my writing. After the second discussion question and seeing that people actually said nice reply’s to my posts and asked some questions too, I felt more comfortable about writing these assignments and replying to other classmates’ posts. I feel like I have excelled in writing a good amount of sentences. The one thing I feel like I could do better at is organizing my writing.

Interpretive Listening

This was a learning activity on contresena, the online workbook where we had assignments. The goal was to listen to the conversations happening to choose the best match of what was being said in the conversation.

There were a lot of assignments like this that we had to do. It was difficult because in Spanish their language is spoken really fast so it was difficult to understand the first time listening to the audio. As I kept playing the audio multiple times I was able to understand what was being said so I could choose the best answer. I feel like after the first 5 activities of listening I was able to answer the questions and listen to the audio less since I had more practice each time with different assignments.

Interpretive Reading

In the contresena assignments, the students were required to fill in the blank with the correct verbs and conjugate them. In other words, we had to choose the correct verb and put it in the correct verb form depending on who is doing the action. For example the word -ir means to go. If the sentence is talking about Joe and me, the correct verb would be Vamos as in meaning we go.

The assignments were pretty challenging, but as long as you know the correct endings of the verbs and what the verbs mean it gets easier with more and more practice. The most interesting thing I found out during this assignment is that if you don’t use the correct verb form when it is said in English it makes no sense at all. There are also some occasions where there are two verbs together you don’t conjugate and change the second verb. I believe that by making mistakes and realizing them by practicing over and over again, I have grown a lot from the beginning. Practice is key and I just need to remember that everyone makes mistakes. Also that learning a new language is not easy but with practice, I can learn it fairly quickly.