Public Speaking in the Spanish Culture PDF

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This is my first essay for COMM 1020...

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Title of Paper: Public Speaking in the Spanish Culture

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Public speaking is used in all cultures no matter where you are. Yet, even though every culture uses public speaking, it is always different in each one. The one thing that all the cultures have in common is that is that being able to effectively make your opinion clear is very important. For the Spanish culture, speaking in public is different than it is in the American culture. I chose to interview my dad because he spent most of his life in Spain, and he grew up in their culture. Through interviewing him, and the article “Nonverbal Communication Rules in Spanish Cultures” written by Claudia Stanic, I learned a lot about how much people in Spain rely on nonverbal communication to get their points across. When I was talking to my dad, I learned that Spaniards give most of their speeches at public events. They would usually give them at fairs and bull fights. Yet even though people give speeches during these events. At bull fights, the bull fighters dedicate their speeches to either a woman in the audience or the leaders in the audience. My dad talked about one of the bullfights he went to as a teenager, and how he always found it interesting that no two speeches were ever the same. Every bull fighter would dedicate his speech to someone else, and they would never sound the same. This is the same with any speech that is given: no two speeches are the same. When people tell stories in Spain, they do not just state the beginning, middle, and end. Rather to them the journey of the story is what is important. My dad said that when they tell any stories, they use gestures to help get their point across. This was back up by Stanic, she said “People often talk over one another, using their hands wildly to make a point or contorting their facial expressions to reflect their thoughts” (Stanic, 2017). This also applies to when they tell stories. According to Stanic, this is how they show they are actually interested in what someone has to say.

Title of Paper: Public Speaking in the Spanish Culture

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This also leads into how people in Spain share their opinions. Just like with how they tell stories, they rely on their body language. According to Stanic, “Sometimes, especially in business meetings, a Spanish person will not express his opinion with words. He will, however, reveal his message through nonverbal cues” (Stanic, 2017). When you think about it, the ability to just rely on your nonverbal cues to get your point across sounds pretty intriguing. While I was interviewing my dad, I noticed that he was using a lot of nonverbal cues to explain his points. For example, when he was explaining the speeches given at the bull fights, he was using gestures and facial expressions to help with his explanation. In the end, people in Spain tend to rely more on nonverbal communication than we do in America. In America, we rely on our ability to verbally explain our ideas and opinions, but that is not how it is in Spain. Their ability to converse through words and nonverbal cues have helped them become very creative and expressive when it comes to telling their stories or ideas. They rely on their bodies to do the majority of sending the message than we do. Yet, it is also a very effective way to enhance their public speaking. They use everything the have to make themselves heard, and they do not stop until their points are made. Compared to American culture, the Spanish culture is very expressive and that is not a bad thing.

Title of Paper: Public Speaking in the Spanish Culture

Sources

Lewis, C. (2021, June 20). Phone Interview. personal. Stanic, C. (2017, October 5). Nonverbal Communication Rules in Spanish Cultures. Getaway USA. https://getawaytips.azcentral.com/nonverbal-communication-rules-in-spanishcultures-12363547.html.

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