Artifact

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jBq3G5ria9ryDloiYd8MpJXKkFDxNK3c/view

Instructions

Exploring Culture

I think my greatest exposure and learning of Hispanic culture was through my professor and her lessons. She would add little additions of what different words really meant and how they were really used in a casual conversation. She also told us stories about how food was, encounters in a formal setting vs informal, and other things that opened my eyes to the diversity in Hispanic culture. To me, it instilled a deeper interest in learning more and hopefully experiencing things like her in a Spanish-speaking country. It also let me see how much family and community play a huge role in Hispanic countries compared to the very individualistic culture of the United States. Personally, I think that is one major thing the USA can learn from Hispanic countries in holding the family and community in high regard.

Engaging in Communities

Though in my university, there were not many Spanish speakers/learners clubs, Talkabroad came to help. Talkabroad was my first contact form a Hispanic from a different country and it was amazing. I feel like my first few contacts with the Spanish-speaking world were very positive and I would defiantly try it again.

Interpersonal Communication

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16DkhT9IRfmEzU3UKxUvI8Qz2QuW7-_g4/view?usp=share_link

In all honesty, I was extremely intimidated by my first TalkAbroad. This was my first chance to really test out my Spanish skills with fluent Spanish speakers and I didn’t want to mess up. My entire fear of it was looking like an idiot when in reality I did pretty well. I remember joining the video call and it was a relatively smooth conversation. The person I spoke with was extremely nice and considerate with their talking speed and listening. I made sure to give them the same respect in putting in my best effort and it ended up paying off.

I think my experience with TalkAbroad eliminated the fear of my mind in speaking a different language. I was always afraid of messing up even though I knew exactly what to say, how to respond, and all the different conjugations. But doing this filled me with confidence in my ability to speak freely and have a conversation. Even when I mess up, it’s just like messing up when I’m speaking English. I’ll just say excuse me and try again with no embarrassment or feeling of failure. I feel like if any beginning speaker with the same fear should try TalkAbroad and see how well they do and break their preconceived doubts.

Presentational Speaking

In the classroom, our professor pushed us to speak more Spanish than English. Though casual talks were in English, during instruction it was all Spanish unless it was a confusing question. For projects, we were tasked to do a video describing our family and I remember mine going quite well.

Personally, I think my speaking improved significantly compared to last semester’s class. It is again a confidence issue that I constantly deal with in speaking where I know what to say but doubt myself. I feel like if I find a place where I’m surrounded by Spanish speakers that it would help me break that fear. Because in this semester, I found out that casual speaking in Spanish is a lot like English in that grammar isn’t really a big deal. What you say still needs to make sense, but there’s no penalty for making a mistake since the message is already coming across.

Presentational Writing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14ugi3fW1Ve-1yw1JXc100tF9q0W80CTEFo5s9CDGWWw/edit?usp=sharing

Most of the class’s project was writing assignments where we either had to write a small essay or make a flyer of some kind. In my opinion, the flyer the class had to make was my favorite since I can talk about yoga and how it benefits people.

Compared to speaking, my writing still has a lot of work to do. My professor said that good speakers have trouble converting words to paper, which I can see. I still struggle with spelling which is a thing I carry over from English, and adding accent marks is always an issue. My grammar also needs a lot of work as well, since I am still writing Spanish grammar as if I’m writing in English grammar. In all, I just need a lot more practice writing and increased work on my spelling.

Interpretive Listening

Most of the listening activities we did were on LingroLearning through exercises. Other than that, the class listened to the professor while she asked questions in Spanish. The most common was a question-and-answer exercise we’d do to understand new vocabulary and verbs.

Personally, I think I improved greatly in my ability to listen to Spanish and translate it into English. I caught the habit of whispering to myself what is being said in Spanish to help me understand a question or make an answer. Though, I should work on making this habit into a mental thing and move the translation into my head. That will probably take some time to break this habit, but I feel like this is a great first step to understanding Spanish.

Interpretive Reading

Our professor mainly writes in Spanish while Lingro puts most of their exercises as Spanish flyers, texts, or emails. As a class, we also read each other’s work to correct it or to see how we can learn from them.

Reading is a strange combination of my skills in listening, writing, and speaking that I’m still untangling. How I read both Spanish and English is as if a second voice is speaking it to me inside my head. So when I read I fail to recognize some words due to my horrendous spelling skills in writing. Then, I start sounding the words out in my head and then understand them through my speaking and listening skills. This process takes a while, but I feel as if I practice my spelling and writing skills all skills will improve drastically.