Written Reflection on Cultural Competence

This whole section of cultural competence in the Spanish major at BYU was something that I
didn’t value much initially when I first started my studies. In my head, I just wanted to get
better at the language, so I preferred my grammar classes over my culture and literature
classes. As time went on during my studies, I realized that I started to have a change in mindset
towards my classes, and I began to enjoy learning more about the cultural practices and cultural
products of different Spanish speaking nations. Something interesting is that initially, I only
really cared to learn about Latin American countries, primarily because I served my mission in
Ecuador. I was resenting for a while the fact that I had to take a couple classes about the
culture and literature of Spain. I’m grateful that I ended up taking those classes, because I
began to realize how all of the Spanish speaking world is connected somehow.
In my portfolio for this section, I included a couple papers and presentations which I felt
demonstrated an analysis of either a cultural practice or product of a specific Spanish speaking
country. For the cultural practices section, I included a paper which I wrote on the importance
of soccer in Spain, and a presentation which I did on several cultural aspects of Guayaquil,
Ecuador. Each of these artifacts demonstrate the importance of cultural practices within a
country.
For the cultural products section, I decided to include a presentation which I created on the
economy in Spain, and a final exam from my Latin American literature class. The reason I
included the presentation about Spain’s economy, is because I believe that the economy of a
country is a direct product of its culture. Spain is a country that has had its ups and downs
throughout history, but it is a determined country which strives for excellence in many aspects.
This strife for excellence can be seen in Spain’s economy. I included the final exam in my
portfolio as well, because I was able to analyze several literature pieces from different Latin
American writers. Each piece of literature is a direct product from the cultural upbringing of the
artist.
The best part about cultural learning, is that you get to invite another culture into your own life.
I loved the how in depth some of my professors would teach about the culture or literature of a
specific country. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t understand why learning about different
cultures is important. I could see how passionate my professors were about these different
cultures, and it started to spark a similar feeling which I had while I was serving my mission. I
grew to love the culture in Ecuador, but my love for it only started to grow once I allowed
myself to be immersed in it. Even though we weren’t able to immerse ourselves into a specific
culture while at BYU, we did our best to learn and comprehend it as well as we could. A goal I
have for myself is to always be open to learning about and accepting different cultures into my
life. I feel like our Heavenly Father loves when we are able to branch outside of our own ways,
and immerse ourselves in another culture.