Exploring Culture

Our Vista Higher Learning online textbook covered Spanish culture from many different countries in every chapter, detailing differences in mannerisms, colloquialisms, food, family, and lifestyles in general. These sections from the textbook would then be reviewed in class, where students would express their opinions and impressions on this new culture. On the VHL Supersite, we would watch 15-minutes episodes of an educational “reality show” following an American exchange student who has moved to Mexico. The show was completely in Spanish and provided vivid examples of the Mexican lifestyle, and the proceeding questions would test our understanding of this information.

These practices revealed tome how much of my personal values and habits come from Hispanic culture. While I had thought my Puerto Rican culture to be nearly non-existent, these cultural lessons showed where many of mannerisms originate. My family and I are really close, and my father would tell stories of the many family gatherings he used to have back in Puerto Rico. People are very social and close in much of Hispanic culture, and that was something I always expected of people I met in America. It was very refreshing to see a raw and proud version of a culture that is often stereotyped into nothing.

Interpersonal Communication

I often practice spontaneous interpersonal communication at home with my parents, over the phone with my boyfriend, and with coworkers and customers at work. Interpersonal communication in my Spanish course consisted of planned interviews.

The course interviews were very short and repetitive, so they did not test much else than my memory and pronunciation. While at work, unplanned conversations sprout between myself and coworkers who cannot speak much English. This often proves to be a challenge for me, since I am a bit embarrassed about my accent and how comparatively slow I speak my native language. I also have to have quick responses and translate uncommon words from English to Spanish in my head. It proves to be difficult sometimes, but the challenge is exciting and it encourages me to continue practicing until I regain the flow and rhythm I had a long time ago.

Presentational Speaking

The majority of our presentational speaking was done during class. We would be called upon to repeat new vocabulary words with the professor and also to answer questions from the textbook. Most noticeably, we completed two student-student interviews over Zoom. All interviews were completely in Spanish and required a greeting, at least five questions from the current chapter in the textbook, and a farewell.

Next time I am required to do presentational speaking, I would like to prepare myself in a more professional manner. I need to not use my fluency as an excuse for laziness and put in effort towards memorizing what I have to say before I record. These interviews were great practice for my accent and pronunciation, but I will practice more on my own time and do multiple trials inn order to turn in the best work.

Presentational Writing

The only presentational writing done in my Spanish 101 course consisted of two compositions and their corresponding rough drafts. These compositions culminated all lessons from the previous chapters and challenged students to create a formal piece with a natural flow in Spanish.

I do not often write in Spanish, so one of my challenges was learning common Spanish grammar rules; I had the habit of applying English punctuation— like Oxford commas and conjunctions—into my Spanish compositions. I look forward to further challenging myself with longer and more complex writing in the near future.

Interpretive Listening

Our VHL lessons would often have audio clips during practice and quizzes, where we had to listen to voice actors have conversations in Spanish. We would then answer interpretive questions based on the information shared in the clips.

These listening activities made me grateful that I am fluent, but at the same time I quickly became impatient with how slow and repetitive the audio clips became. The best practice for me, personally, comes when my boyfriend randomly asks me questions about our culture and rules at home, grammar, and pronunciations. He’ll often ask me how to say a word in Spanish, and I’ll respond with my knowledge of its roots and usage (alongside what not to say). When I don’t know a word or phrase, I’ll ask my parents or do some quick research on the word, its origin, and conjugations. Even though I am fluent by definition, I’m very happy to have someone who is equally passionate about the language and culture. It encourages me to learn more about my family and heritage.

Interpretive Reading

Our interpretive reading practices came completely from VHL, quizzes, and tests. Practices would include Spanish paragraphs with blanks for missing verbs, where we could choose the correct verb or conjugation to complete the narrative.

Maria tiene que ___ (ver, ir) a la librería. Ella y su hermana siempre _____ (compramos, compran) nuevos libros en los fines de semana.

While in this Spanish course we did not consume large passages of Spanish writing due to it being a beginner class, I was always interested in the cultural sections of the textbook. I’m excited to see how future Spanish courses will test my comprehension skills and reveal to me new facets of the culture I wish I had absorbed more as a child.