Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication
Exploring Culture
Some of the few areas that helped me get an understanding of cultural perspectives was the discussion posts in class. Along with the discussion boards, I found the LingroLearning book with the “Exploración Cultural” sections very interesting to learn about as well.
One major cultural difference was when we had a discussion post about healthcare in Spain. Since healthcare is drastically different in the United States, I found that healthcare in Spain is something we might be able to copy. I found that my fellow students believed in the same thing, and that we can change for the better. I also found food in Latin America extremely interesting, especially since I once lived in San Diego, CA – extremely close to Mexico. I’ve always known Mexican food, but didn’t realize that other Latin American cultures have such a drastic change, compared to Mexican food. Because of this, I’ve taken my wife to an authentic Cuban restaurant, which we wholeheartedly enjoyed. I found the dish “Lechon Asado” extremely close to my own Filipino culture, and loved the dish a ton.
Engaging in Communities
The importance of engaging in local and global communities is extremely important in growing as a person. We also can engage in different communities to learn more about cultures, gain friendships, and understand new ideas.
I found that since I have since joined a Latino club last year, I’ve began to try and start ordering in Spanish in different restaurants, asking permission to practice my Spanish first before I actually order. I’ve gained long lasting friendships and enjoyed my time with new friends and new cultures.
Interpersonal Communication
TalkAbroad as well as the one-on-one to the professor are some of the activities I’ve completed in this class. I’ve also had a handful of discussion boards that allowed me to interact with my fellow classmates. Along with that, I’ve been able to order food in Spanish in certain restaurants and speak Spanish to certain friends of mine as well.
Telecollaborative conversations such as TalkAbroad and the one-on-one with our professor was something I was very nervous about. I almost always opened with the statement “Estoy nervioso” to almost all my conversations, but I always came out of the conversations feeling extremely accomplished that I did something I thought I was going to fail at. I found that when these conversations went in a direction I wasn’t expecting, I really enjoyed them. If I can go back, I wish I asked more questions to my conversation partner.
I also found other telecollaborative conversations through discussion boards extremely informative. It allowed me to see other fellow students and their thoughts on different cultural topics. Because the discussions were in English, I found that they were easy to comprehend and found new things about different parts of the world.
TalkAbroad 2 – La buena salud y la comida
Presentational Speaking
Some of the presentational speaking activities are the small assignments that we did in LingroLearning, as well as our first speaking assignment. We didn’t do any presentational speaking in front of our fellow classmates, but these recordings from LingroLearning and the first assignment are ways we presented our knowledge in speaking Spanish.
The challenge for all LingroLearning as well as the first assignment is the knowledge on how to speak Spanish. I didn’t find any of the assignments too challenging, but I found myself wanting to be perfect every single time, by re-recording myself over and over. If I could do it all over, I would try and be better at pronunciation, since I found that some of my pronunciation was incorrect at times.
Presentational Writing
As far as presentational writing, there were many LingroLearning assignments where we needed to write different compositions about certain aspects of what we learned or different cultural parts of the Spanish-speaking world.
Each of these activities were extremely difficult because of the nature of writing in Spanish. For me personally, I found the experience extremely difficult, since I personally am not great at conjugating verbs. For me, I don’t feel as if I excelled at anything, and found writing Spanish extremely difficult. One thing I wish I could do better with is memorizing how to conjugate verbs properly. I find that when speaking Spanish, that’s what I struggle with the most, and it can be seen reflected when I write Spanish as well.
Interpretive Listening
Many assignments in LingroLearning allowed us to listen to Spanish and interpret what they said. I also found that certain discussions we did made us listen to Spanish speaking videos and interpret what they also said.
I found that certain discussion posts that had us watch certain videos spoke extremely fast. At times, I would have to repeat the recording or the video multiple times. Luckily, I was able to practice listening to Spanish through friends as well as watching many Spanish speaking videos. I was also able to listen to myself order food, and have certain Spanish-speaking workers respond to me, despite me trying to practice. The most challenging part of these listening exercises is trying to interpret what to say. I found that if you think in Spanish, instead of asking yourself what the video or audio said, that it gets a bit easier. What’s most interesting is that as I practiced more and more, I began to understand what is said faster.
Interpretive Reading
Reading within LingroLearning is a major part of all assignments. Assignments included trying to interpret what the composition says, and ask questions about it. Some assignments also included reading the sentence and filling in the blank with the best answer.
Some of the reading assignments I found extremely difficult, especially after learning a few vocabulary words and making us read full paragraphs. I would need to re-read the paragraphs consistently to try and figure out what it was saying. The most challenging part was trying to remember what the words mean – something I still struggle with today. However, as I began to read more and more Spanish, I found myself slowly overcoming it naturally by pure memorization. It was really interesting to see myself improve my reading comprehension in real time, something I thought I would not be able to do. Each assignment reinforced older vocabulary words, while making me learn new words as well.
