{"id":425,"date":"2022-12-05T15:28:02","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T15:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/basicspanishdraft2\/?page_id=425"},"modified":"2022-12-10T03:29:04","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T03:29:04","slug":"102-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/spanish-2\/102-2\/","title":{"rendered":"SPAN 102"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exploring Culture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The products that would help me is listening over any conversations I would have in Spanish. This would have been any of the TalkAbroads and Flipgrids. An other thing that helped through the class that also allowed me to gain an understanding of cultural perspectives was using Contrase\u00f1a<\/strong>, where we were able to explore other countries and their views on health care, food, and occupations. Lastly, I enjoyed watching videos for the discussion boards and seeing how people in Spanish speaking countries view certain ideas or topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These practices helped me get more of an insight of the culture. Watching a video about how children view jobs and gender stereotypes makes it easier to understand that some things are similar. When reading an article about healthcare in Spain, it is easier to see a huge difference. I also appreciate the culture more when I learn specifically from someone who is in the country, living it everyday. This is always why I loved talking to a native speaker. I was asked how many people lived in my house and my answer was simply two; me and my husband. My partner went on to explain that he had maybe 12-15 people in his hometown house, including his grandmother. These experiences made me think about how I live, and how America is compared to the other countries. It is not too common to have extended family live together. It revealed to me that we do not prioritize the same things and some Spanish cultures. I started to see that we should probably stop thinking about the future as much and just enjoy time with family, enjoy sports, and enjoy living. This is not as assumption that live in Spanish countries is “easier,” but I believe that me, along with many others who have not learned the culture, take for granted what we have in life. This includes our family, religion, and opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engaging in Communities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, engaging in the community is very important. It is a key factor to success and I believe that it pays off. This does not, by any means, mean charity or service work. Just getting out and being around people is what is important for the mind and soul. If there is a festival, or some public event that is safe to go to, then we should attend and try to meet others. Not only will people be able to experience new and different activities, but they may also meet others from different cultures, and learn a thing or two about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I have moved to Virginia, I have attended events for my husband, who is apart of the military. I am not too familiar with people he works with, but going about and seeing everyone is a fun time! The military is full of all types of people. We just recently went to a holiday party and my favorite part was seeing how people dressed up! I did not expect it, but I saw many colors and many different types of dresses that actually reflected certain cultures. The music was a diverse mix and everyone got to enjoy watching as we learned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other participations in my community was back in North Carolina. Through high school, I was apart of two different clubs that gave us the opportunity to do community service. We got to go to elementary schools and partner up with the kids to do fun activities together, I coached a soccer team, and helped in hosting school festivals. I think that when you are connected to your community, you appreciate it more and appreciate the people around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below you will me photos from the events described.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interpersonal Communication<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TalkAbroad was intimidating when I first learned about the concept of it, but on completing the first one, I was excited to do the second one. Though my Spanish still is not the best, my partners were super understanding and helped boost my confidence. We also had to participate in Flipgrid videos, where we had to conversate with our professor. I enjoyed this because I was able to practice the conversation and what I wanted to say prior to actually recording myself and posting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I started my first TalkAbroad, my fear was that the partner would not understand what I wanted to say. I was afraid that his dialect would affect my understanding of what he asked and that there would be no connection to the conversation. After my first few minutes, I grew to learn that it was an exciting, connected conversation with two friends. Though I did not understand some of the things he was saying, he still worked through it to help me understand with hand motions, or rephrasing. My nerves were able to ease and I felt much more confident the second time around. I felt like I could understand more because the fear was not as present. Of course it is scary to talk in a language you are still not fully comfortable with, but it is still such a great learning experience to be able to do a spontaneous conversation. My greatest difficulty was the accent that my partners talk in. I grew up in the south, and some may say my accent is very southern, so I am not the best with understanding diverse accents. The way I got through it was to explain I did not understand. With this, my second partner pulled up an image on her phone to help me understand what she was talking about (it was vitamins.) After this we were able to move on and talk about coffee and soccer! What a took from all of it was that people just want to have good conversations. If they are willing to talk to you, they will be understanding and helpful, and have a great time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presentational Speaking<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I have mentioned a few times in this site, Flipgrid is one of the programs that helped in practicing the language and feeling more confident in conversations. Here, I was able to practice for days before submitting the final result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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