Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

The Flash Cultura video Naturaleze en Costa Rica was one I found valuable for my learning. Because I have visited Arenal Volcano I felt very connected to the video and had a base level of knowledge that helped my comprehension throughout the narration. I did not know about the aguas termales previously, but now I want to go back to Costa Rica to experience them! Some of my assumptions were challenged by this video as I tend to think that it is often only Americans who get to be tourists. This video showed lots of people from lots of different places enjoying Costa Rica.

I am adding another photograph that helped my understanding of what it can mean, practically, to be living in some Central American countries. When I was on Little Corn Island, a tiny island off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, I saw this beautiful, decorative wall. What I came to realize was that is was one of their ways of dealing with garbage. Getting trash (empty bottles) off the island was hard, and these residents were trying to repurpose some of it so that it didn’t litter their beautiful island. Since then, I have made a concerted effort to reduce my own garbage and try to recycle or reuse as much as I can.

Engaging in Communities

This is, really, one of the main reasons that I wanted to learn Spanish. At the beginning of a 4 day hike in the Sacred Valley of Peru, we were doing introductions with the people who would be providing support for us on our journey. Standing in a circle, we were asked to say our name and where we were from. Well, I was so embarrassed that I didn’t even know how to say “my name is Susan” that I missed truly listening to these men as they introduced themselves. As I reflect back though, and realize how little English they knew, the real lesson for me is that they TRIED. That is a lesson I have tried to remember through my semesters of Spanish. Even though I may be uncomfortable, I should stretch myself. I wish I had tried harder, through my own embarrassment at not knowing the language, to learn about them and their lives in Peru. I truly missed an opportunity to get more engaged in the global community.

Interpersonal Communication

This is definitely the area in which I struggle the most. The Talk Abroad activity was stressful for me. While I felt confident in speaking my prepared questions, I struggled to fully understand my partner’s responses. I was also thrown by questions she asked me that were ‘off-topic’ – I was not able to engage in conversation with her. I found, however, the activity of emailing with my profesora to be very helpful. She challenged me to use more Spanish in my communication with her, and, because she was helpful and supportive, I was more comfortable to try this.

I tried to upload the audio file of my Talk Abroad session, but it says that file type (MP3) is not supported. Here is a screen shot of it in my Google drive:

Presentational Speaking

I enjoyed the assignment where we needed to answer questions with a virtual partner in VHL. It allowed me to think much more slowly than I would in a normal conversation, and I did prepare my answers in writing. This assignment allowed me to use my problem solving skills, in that I was able to look up the words I did not understand, so that I better understood the question I needed to respond to. This helped me get more out of the assignment, and I was happy with my ability to put together decent sentences as responses.

Presentational Writing

This semester, my presentational writing assignment was to modify my Talk Abroad partner’s bio to make it as if I were introducing her to my classmates. I enjoyed this assignment and felt that it played to my strengths in that there was no time pressure as there is with conversation. I was able to understand the vast majority of her introduction, and was basically able to shift it from first to third person. I suspect there may have been an error or two with verb tenses. That is something that this semester has shown me I need additional work on.

Tutor-Bio-to-Update

Interpretive Listening

There were a lot of exercises in interpretive listening in 202, and I enjoyed them; however, I cannot say that I ever understood the majority of any of them. I was able to get quite a bit of understanding from the context, but the Spanish language was often too fast and too complicated for me to fully grasp. A great example of this is the Cruzar 9 de julio video. From the sequencing, I was able to gather that the video was providing step by step instructions on how to do something. And from the setting, it was clear it was focused on pedestrians in a heavily trafficked city. The supporting text in the book was helpful; I don’t think I ever would have figured out that hombrecito blanco o rojo was the name for the cross/don’t cross icon, although, in retrospect, it makes perfect sense!

I’m also including the song I chose on the Lyrics Training site, only because I found that so much fun AND so useful! I was able to play the game a couple of different ways, and practice multiple times. This was one of the most fun ways I found to try to improve my listening skills!

Interpretive Reading

I enjoyed the reading passages that were assigned to us this semester as, again, they played to my strengths of being slow, methodical, and able to look up the words I didn’t know. I picked the Carlos Slim piece to present here as I was truly impressed with how much of the article I understood on the first reading. When I reflect back on what I understood 3 years ago (nothing – I didn’t even know baño or cerveza!), I am actually pretty amazed. It was also enjoyable to read about such a successful man who came from humble beginnings. I was pleased that he still lives simply and is so philanthropic.