Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

In this class, we watched many videos, and read short stories or other readings that helped us learn about different cultures. Some topics that we covered were trash television, global businesses, love, video games, war, and more. A more specific example is a story we read about a woman making a Spanish tortilla, and she was unfazed by something that was happening on the news. With every cultural topic we went over, we looked at the similarities and differences between our own culture and others.

Reading these short stories and watching the videos helped me better understand the values and attitudes of Hispanic culture as well as my own by showing me that today our cultures are not that different from one another. They also challenged my worldview by showing me how other cultures can be impacted by American culture. A lot of American companies and television programs can also be found in other countries, and I did not know that so many did before. When we learned about global businesses, it was revealed that there are pollution and labor challenges all over the world. I did not have many stereotypes about Hispanic culture, but in the past, I have learned more about traditions that have been going on for a long time, and in this class, I learned more about modern culture. For example, when we discussed love, the video was about a couple in the present, and their wedding was modern. A video can be found in the link below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/R1oUnpwk2hf6dEtU9

Interpersonal Communication

In this course, I had two conversations with my professor. The conversations were one-on-one. We talked about school, life, and then this course specifically. It was not very long, only about 20 min. We also had group discussions every class, where we talked about an array of topics.

For the conversation with my professor, it was nice to have a slightly less structured conversation that in class. I was able to talk a good amount because it was about my life, but I did stumble over a few words that were specific to my other courses. It helped me grow because I learned new words, and I am better able to talk about what is going on in my own life. The discussions in class helped me grow because I was able to listen to many people in one conversation and respond. It also helped me grow because I was able to express and compare my opinion to others in Spanish.

Presentational Speaking

In this course, we had one big final presentation. It could be on anything we wanted, so I did it on Mario Kart. It had to be five minutes long. It also had to have a problem for us to discuss.

The most challenging part of this presentation was finding a problem that I thought would be fun to talk about, but also had a solution. I overcame this by finding a problem within something that I enjoyed doing, and coming up with a simple solution. I excelled at researching for the presentation to find the information that I wanted to share. Next time I will start making my slideshow as I work on what I am going to present because I made my slideshow after everything, and I felt rushed making it. This would also give me even more time to practice. 

Interpretive Listening

The interpretive listening activities we did in this course were the short films we watched in each unit. The longest one was 20 minutes long. We had questions for comprehension and analysis for every one of them. We also discussed them in class.

An example is Viaje A Marte which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea6bIXl5_9g. The most challenging part was understanding what they were saying because in a lot of the videos, they spoke faster than what I was used to hearing. To overcome this, I would usually rewind the video if there was something I did not understand. My takeaway was that my weakness is listening to things that are outside the classroom, and I need more practice with it. However, my interpretive listening has gotten better throughout each unit.

Interpretive Reading

In this course, we read short stories and articles. They ranged from a page to a few pages long. We would answer questions for comprehension and analysis for each one. We would also discuss them in class, and they always related to the theme of the unit.

The most challenging part was learning the vocabulary I had never used before. Luckily, there was a vocab lit before every reading and translation of selected words in the story. This is how I overcame the challenges; sometimes I had to read a paragraph more than once to comprehend it. I found a reading we did about a woman who was cooking while watching the news and the start of world war three was announced on the news, but she barely had a reaction to being the most interesting. With each assignment, I have grown to become a better Spanish reader and learn more about Hispanic cultures.