Exploring Culture
TalkAbroad helped me gain better understanding of cultural perspectives. Using TalkAbroad helped me feel more relatable and allowed me to explore the Hispanic culture with someone who lived in a Spanish speaking country. It made me realize that Spanish speaking countries are not as different as I assumed.
I was shocked that my TalkAbroad partner and I enjoyed so many similar activities of ecotourism such as traveling to parks and hiking. I was nervous for this assignment at first but it was really fun and interesting once we began. TalkAbroad is always interesting but I am always nervous before I begin. Overall, I was happy with my performance and it made me realize how fast and fluent native Spanish speakers were. Although I had to ask my partner to repeat herself occasionally I still feel we had a good conversation and got to learn about each other. This assignment made me realize that we are all not as different as we may seem. We share similarities in our lives and shared the same hobbies or even enjoy the same paintings.
Engaging in Communities
It is important to engage in your community and the global community because you can meet all types of people. Especially as a bilingual individual you can communicate with many more people and get to make connections across your community. There are many opportunities were you can volunteer and meet other individuals who share similarities as you.
Interpersonal Communication
I have done TalkAbroad multiple times now, I am always nervous at first but then realize it is not as hard to talk to a native speaker as I assume. TalkAbroad is always interesting and ends up being a fun assignment. The 15 minute time limit seems like a long time before the conversation starts but actually goes by very quickly. Lingrohub had many assignments where I had to listen to a sentence and choose the correct answers to match the audio. I would have to listen to the audio multiple times to fully translate what was being said but this was good practice.
Throughout the semester I have gotten better with every Assignment. Sometimes it is hard for me to retain all of the Spanish I am learning. The best thing for me to retain my Spanish is to continuously review because I tend to forget vocabulary when I don’t use the language. I am still getting used to the speed at which Spanish speakers talk and sometimes have to listen to the material multiple times on Lingrohub or ask people to repeat their sentences with assignments such as TalkAbroad.
Presentational Speaking
My favorite presentation speaking activity was Proyecto 16 when we had to make a video face to face to resolve our misunderstanding. This was entertaining and more fun than most projects because we got to do it with a partner.
The main challenge I had was trying to remember the dialogue. I looked at the script to help me get through the recording but overall feel good about how the project turned out. I could do better by trying to memorize my script better next time or by recording the video in segments where I don’t have to remember as much. Next time I will take more time on my video but my partner and I rushed more for the convenience of not having to meet again.
Presentational Writing
My best example of presentation communication is Proyecto 11 when I made a custom outfit for an individual based on their preferences. Also Chapter 16 challenged my writing ability by having to make a text conversation using abbreviations.
I was very confident with this assignment and understood clothing very well. I just had to make sure I read the individuals profile good enough to match the style. I enjoyed this assignment because it was fun putting an outfit together. Overall, I don’t think I could do better on either assignment.
SPAN-201-Proyecto-11Interpretive Listening
The most intensive learning activities I did this semester were in Lingrohub. I had to listen to an audio and pick the answers that matched the audio.
Sometimes I struggled with these and I overcame this by listening to them multiple times and breaking down the audio into different parts so I could gather all of the information. But overall I did good on these assignments I just had to take more time to complete them. I gained more comfort overtime with these assignments and they definitely helped improve my Spanish capabilities.
Interpretive Reading
There were many interpretive reading assignments throughout the semester from many assignments in Lingrohub, participation assignments in class and Proyecto 14. Lingrohub had assignments where we had to read information about individuals in Spanish speaking countries and got to learn about their culture and lifestyle. Proyecto 14 was great practice because I had to do research on the Museo del Oro to create a timeline. It was fun and a good way to explore through a Spanish speaking countries website and sources. I was also intrigues by the short story “The Eclipse” which I was able to read through Lingrohub.
I enjoyed the assignments were I got to explore different Spanish speaking cultures. There was a lot of information in these assignments but it was very information and I got to use my Spanish knowledge to complete the assignment. Sometimes I would look back at the information provided because it was easy to get the different individuals mixed up. These assignments made me realize that Spanish individuals are not so different from me. With each assignment I gained confidence.