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“Chilean War of Independence.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Mar. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_War_of_Independence.

“Doing Business in Chile.” South America CL Guide, www.southamerica.cl/Chile/Business.htm.

 

What: In IPA 1 Part A we watched an ad for Aeromexico Airlines. After watching the ad 3 times, we were tasked with answering several questions. For instance, identifying the main idea, guessing the meaning of words from the context of the ad, identifying supporting details within the ad, making inferences, and reflecting on the cultural practices and perspectives.

Here of some of my responses. I concluded that the main idea was to advertise Aeromexico airlines to new flyers by demonstrating trust through showing nuns play soccer and that God is with them. For supporting details, I said that the ad was probably aired before a world cu championship because the nuns were playing soccer, and the announcer mentioned futbol at the end of the ad. I inferred that one of the taglines meant “with the best in the world, and in the air”.

So What: This activity demonstrates competence at a mid level of learning outcome #3, i.e. my ability to perform Spanish. I scored meets expectations (strong) for most of my responses. This is important because IPA’s focus on what you can do with Spanish, rather than what you know. Anyone can memorize vocab; however, not everyone can comprehend the meaning of a commercial or written text. Even though my understanding of Spanish is still at the mid level, I demonstrated that I have some understanding of the language and even the culture of Mexico.

Now What: In order to move to the next level of competence, you must practice comprehending Spanish documents. Whether that means watching commercials or reading articles in Spanish, either way it will help broaden your ability to understand the meaning of things in Spanish.

What: The Five Tricks Card Tournament was an exercise we completed at the beginning of the semester. We were divided into groups of four, and given an instruction sheet along with a deck of cards. The instructions were similar to the game of spades. Each person laid down a card, and the highest card of the first suit played won the hand, unless the suit of spades was played. At that point, whoever had the highest spade won the hand. At the end of the round, the person who had the most cards won the game and would rotate to the next group. However, the trick was that each group played the high card of a different suit. Additionally, no verbal or nonverbal communication was permitted. This required everyone to know the rules, and simply take the hand if they thought they won.

The game ran smoothly the first round because everyone in the group of four was playing by the same rules. However, the game became much more difficult to play when we rotated because the new player who came to our group was playing by different rules. Rather than the spades being the suit that beat out all other hands, the new player had the diamonds being the suit that beat out all other hands.

So What: My group’s initial reaction to the new player was to laugh at how he was playing. also, it didn’t take me long to realize he was playing by different rules. Nonetheless, we could not communicate so it was nearly impossible to tell him, in any way, the rules we were playing by. So, my group just allowed him to take the cards he thought he won. At that point, there was no meaning to the game because anybody could win the hand regardless of who had the highest card.

This exercise demonstrates competence with Learning Outcome #1 because students were able to understand cultural products and perspectives, i.e. understanding that language barriers drastically inhibit communication, and that it is important to know some of the native language and culture in the country you are visiting or it will be impossible to communicate. Also it demonstrates that playing cards is a popular hobby in Spanish speaking countries.

Now What: In order to move to the next level of competence with cultural products and perspectives of Spanish speaking countries you must study the language (vocab, sentence structure, common phrases, dialect within a specific country, common verbs) as well as the culture (in regards to time, food, family, values, attitudes, gestures and more). Doing so will ensure that you don’t mistakenly offend the natives, and make it so you can communicate basic ideas, such as, what you need or want, or even how to play a card game.