Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

I’ve always tried to remember that there are a lot of different countries in this wide world and that every one of them is very different. Recognizing that different countries in different areas come with different practices along with different ideals and cultures you can learn to appreciate it. Having my own culture and practices of my own also allows me to recognize and appreciate different cultures.

Upon learning the way of Spanish speaking countries for about 6 years now I have learned a lot of things about the culture they have. We all are not birthed to have prejudice and know of stereotypes, but with being on this earth for a while I have learned of some common stereotypes within Hispanic culture. Also being stereotyped as an African American in today’s society I also recognized the common occurrence of always being stereotyped based on people’s perceptions of minorities. Learning of Hispanic culture I realized that the stereotypes put on this group of individuals are very untrue and very much centered around a simple consensus of ideas.

Engaging in Communities

Staying connected to your community as closely as possible is always a good way to feel like you are apart of something. The people in your community are not only the people who live around you, but the people who you are likely to see everyday. Having any sort of connection with them is vital because of the close proximity you have with them. With engaging in your community you show that you care about where you reside and spend most of your time.

My community for the last year or so has been right here at college, a home away from home some people call it as years go by I have less time to spend at my actual home. Engaging with different clubs, activities, games is not only thrilling but I feel like I am connected to where I will graduate in the future. Gaining new memories of this community every year means a lot to me and I want to engage more in the future, here are a few pictures of things I engaged in while at Old Dominion University:

Interpersonal Communication

In both of my TalkAbroad conversations, I spoke with Adriana from Nicaragua. We spoke about clothing as well as art and the reinterpretation of history. It was exciting learning about how different Nicaragua is from the United States and speaking in Spanish to Adriana.

With this additional TalkAbroad experience I feel as if I have grown my Spanish speaking skills. I have noticed that I have gotten better at responding to my conversation partner than last semester and I feel great about it. Through these conversations, I was also able to learn more about Nicaragua, a Spanish-speaking country, which could help me in the future.

Presentational Speaking

In this project, I completed a video on an ecotourism place, and I choose Nicaragua, mainly a waterfall in that area. I used my knowledge of vocabulary in the areas of nature and ecotourism to complete this project. In this other project with a partner, I completed a text message conversation and then recorded a video of it.

It was a bit challenging creating these videos as I spoke completely in Spanish and had to explain what I was trying to say in the video. I learned to speak more efficiently through this process and I feel like I have grown my speaking skills with it. Continuing to do these kinds of projects where I create videos will allow me to succeed in my Spanish courses.

Presentational Writing

In this course I completed to written projects that benefited me a lot. One project at the beginning of the semester I completed a style guide for a person that labeled what kind of clothing they like and don’t like. Based on that person’s preferences I then completed an outfit for them. On the other hand, in another project, I completed Finita’s story about her father and life as an immigrant.

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It was a bit difficult at first to complete the first project it as it was the first one in the semester, but I really enjoyed doing it. I created an outfit for a person and even explained how that outfit is good for them based on their preferences. Even with Finita’s story using the right grammar was kind of difficult. Making sure to use the correct past tense etc. as I completed the rough draft and final, did challenge me. But with both of these projects, I do feel like I have grown my writing skills, much more than last semester.

Interpretive Listening

In LingroLearning there are a lot of listening activities to complete in the course. A few that stood out to me is one of a description of an ecotourism place, and the history of a museum.

In the listening activity above you had various activities that dealt with the video afterward. You not only had to take away key points of the video but determine what kind of grammar they were using. In other listening activities like the video on ecotourism you also had to remember key things to answer questions. This really improved my comprehension skills and let me slowly understand key words in Spanish. I always love that listening activities are implemented into LingroLearning courses because they are always beneficial. Even though listening activities are sometimes a struggle they challenge me.

Interpretive Reading

I have read a lot of different things in class as well as in LingroLearning this semester. When I do the activities where we have to research in LingroLearning then take what we find and explain it is one of them. Nevertheless, the reading that stuck out to me the most this semester was the story of El Eclipse, here are some excerpts of it:

In these reading activities, it was difficult to interpret what exactly it was saying. I understood keywords and phrases so it did help me understand the general idea of these texts. With an interesting story like El Eclipse, I was interested in actually knowing what the story was talking about. So with these reading activities, I was able to comprehend a lot more Spanish vocabulary and grammar.