Exploring Cultures
One practice that helped me gain understanding of cultural perspectives is watching different Hispanic and Latino TV shows and listening to hispanic songs. These TV shows challenged my worldview by making me expand my thoughts to realize that life is different and maybe challenging from person to person. Watching these various TV shows revealed to me that I may complain about small things but there are many people in other countries who have to worry about providing for their family members. Or trying to work and save money while living in a country that has a corrupt government and military. Or it is run by cartels.
Engaging in Communities
It is important to engage in my immediate community because it allows me to meet others who come from different backgrounds and discuss differences in cultures and beliefs. And it is important to engage in my global community because I have to opportunity to travel and learn about the differences in politics, and issues in their country versus issues in my country. These engagements allow me to expand my thoughts and become more culturally aware.
Interpersonal Communication
Throughout the semester I completed various interpersonal activities. Some examples are Boomalang chats and participating in discussion board post
During the semester I had to complete two Boomalang chats and each time I had difficulty speaking to my conversation partner because I could always think of my replies in English but struggled to reply in spanish. I overcame this difficulty by preparing ahead of time and answering the questions to the prompt beforehand. If I could do anything different I would try to form complete sentences. I learned that it is okay to make mistakes because I am still learning and not everything is going to come to me at the snap of my fingers. I also excelled at my discussion board posts because I could thoroughly think and plan what I was going to say ahead. With each discussion board I was able to expand my thoughts by commenting on other classmates posts and viewing the comments posted underneath my discussion board posts.
Example:
Interpretive Listening
As I watched the different videos assigned throughout the semester I was able to build my listening skills. I was able to make interpretations and answer questions based on these interpretations. One video I watched this semester was titled “Namnala” and this video was unclear at first because it seemed like the video was about a shop owner thinking about closing his store. However, as the video progressed I was able to understand the author’s purpose for creating this short film. My understanding of this video is that many things have memories and sentimental values attached to them. And when these things break, people are willing to do whatever it takes to keep those memories alive. I grew from this activity and others because I grew my listening skills and I am now able to better interpret videos in spanish and have conversations about them.
Examples:
Interpretive Reading
Throughout the semester we read many short stories. Reading these short stories allowed me to build upon my comprehension skills in spanish. One story I read was titled Celebración de la Fantasía. This story was the first story we read in spanish and it was challenging because it had complex vocabulary. In my other spanish classes I did not have to read short stories. However, I was able to overcome this difficulty by looking up the definition of the word and using context clues. My takeaway from this reading is that the mind is powerful and imagination and dreams last forever. What I comprehended from this story was that the man was drawing animals on multiple children hands until he had a conversation with a little kid about the watch his uncle gave him. I found the part about the kid talking about “watch” interesting because it is obvious the watch is fake, but his mind allowed him to believe that his watch was real and could tell time. As the semester progressed I was able to learn and understand more vocabulary in spanish and as a result my comprehension skills improved for reading. One story I read outside of class was titled Personas de usar y tirar. My takeaway from this article was that relationships are more fragile because people replace rather than repair. It is necessary that people build strong friendships and trust at first so later on the relationship can remain strong. What I found most interesting about this article was when the author said that “When quality is not enough, we tend to substitute it for the quantity.” And I believe this statement is true because many people go looking for friendships out of others when they have a friend that is already a good friend and is trustful and supportive. This article challenged me because it was long compared to the short stories I read in class, but I took my time and looked up words I did not understand the meaning of.
Example:
Presentational Speaking
There were many opportunities for us to participate in different speaking presentations. One example of a speaking presentation I completed this semester was a presentation about Happiness and what it meant to me. I had difficulty with this speaking presentation because I could not pronounce my words correctly and I could not speak fluently. But, by practicing my powerpoint multiple times and taking my time when speaking I was able to overcome this difficulty. After completing this presentation and others I became more comfortable presenting in spanish. I excelled at talking about people and moments that truly make me happy. If I could change anything about this presentation I would practice my pronunciation more next time.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eAwZmcum5pxRGQE9B5lU0aMKb9mUh4cb/view?usp=sharing
Presentational Writing
This semester I took another spanish class which was a writing class. This class required me to write many compositions. One of the very first compositions I wrote was a description paper describing my photo. And the last composition I wrote for that class was a refutation paper about illegal immigrants. Comparing my first paper to my last paper I saw a lot of growth. For example, in my first paper I used simple vocabulary and basic sentences to describe the colors and people in my photo. However, in my final paper I used complex vocabulary words and cited websites which allowed me to fully explain my reasoning as to why illegal immigrants are beneficial to the United States. As the semester progressed it became easier to compose sentences, but it remained difficult to meet the requirements expected. I was able to overcome these difficulties by practicing writing in my free time. I exceeded at using transition words because I use them english. If I could change anything about my compositions I would have a classmate review them before turning them in.
Examples:
