Effective Reflection

Learning a new language will always be fairly difficult, especially as you continue to grow older. When things get difficult for me or I’m overwhelmed, I tend to get anxious and stress myself out. The past few months have pushed me to overcome some of that anxiousness that I was feeling because I learned the more you practice, the easier it becomes. Towards the beginning of the semester I didn’t really practice as much as I should’ve, giving the information was easier, as it became more rigorous, it was no way I could keep up without practicing. My main weaknesses are pronunciation and sometimes the spelling. The spelling becomes difficult in which you can forget accents. If you continue to practice the pronunciation, the spelling also gets easier. Compared to the beginning of the semester to now, I have definitely progressed and Spanish is becoming more fluent. I can’t wait for Spanish 2!

Exploring Culture

The music and the food are the main products that helped me understand their culture more. After recently taking a trip to Mexico, I appreciated this class more. I was able to interact, eat and dance with some residents there as well as the staff at the resort. I haven’t picked up on any of their practices, at least not yet. The way they greet each other is completely different from the way we do things here in the United States. While in Mexico, I didn’t see anyone greet each other with kisses, and sometimes not even a hug. I don’t know if that is due to COVID, but I didn’t witness it. It is rare for us Americans to greet each other with a kiss unless it’s family, but now due to COVID, it is extremely rare for us to even be too close to one another There is nothing wrong with the way they do things, it’s just odd for me coming from a different culture. Learning about the culture in Spanish speaking countries opened my eyes, made me more open to new experiences. I would love to study abroad, giving me the opportunity to learn and adapt to a new culture as well as a new environment.

Engaging in Communities

I believe it is so important to participate and engage in the community to give back. Some people are not as fortunate as we may be and need a little assistance. Not only do you get the chance to help others, but you also engage in the decisions being made in your community. Below I have attached a picture of me volunteering at a flu shot clinic. During this clinic I was very nervous. Although I was in the nursing program, I had never administered any shots before. Our instructors as well as other peers were there to guide and assist us. This was one of the most fun clinics that I have participated in, giving that it will be a part of my career in the future.

Interpersonal Communication

This semester we have had several assignments that involved all three modes of communication. We have had oral zoom meetings with our professor where she would ask a few questions and promote a natural conversation. Along with the zoom meetings with our professor, we were assigned a partner to also have a conversation with while getting to know them. Lastly, we’ve also had to record our responses to some of the questions on our assignments.

I loved participating in these assignments. Since everything is online, I had a chance to interact with other students in the class. I not only got the opportunity to learn about my partner from our oral video sessions, I also learned about my other peers and got the chance to see their families. The discussion boards gave me new and different perspectives based off the responses of other peers. My growth through these exercises increased my vocabulary. I had to know what I was saying as well as my peers. If I didn’t know what was being said, that forced me to flip back to my notes to prepare my response.

Interpretive Communication

During this semester, some of our assignments on VHL included audio and or videos for us to watch. They were all informational in which they would teach about greetings, music and dance, and maybe scenarios provided with following questions.

As we progressed through the semester, the things that were said in the audio recordings were a little difficult. For someone to speak a language that they are fluent in, it’s easy, but when you’re not so fluent you need things to be slowed down. I felt as if because they were so fluent, the pace was faster then I could interpret sometimes. When completing these assignments that had the audio and or video, I would replay it over and over to make sure I had everything right.