Interpersonal Communication Theory: Symbolic Interactionism--Experience in Aruba (Morgan Raddatz)

An Aruban road sign in Papiamento meaning "Steep Hill Slow Speed"

After learning about  many Interpersonal Communication Theories which influence how people use interpersonal communication; the Interpersonal Communication Theory called Symbolic Interactionism connected  most recently to a situation in my life. According to the PowerPoint viewed in class titled Theories of Interpersonal Communication, the Interpersonal Communication Theory of Symbolic Interactionism is defined by how humans act towards other people or things on a basis of meanings they assign to those people or things. The meaning is then formed though social interaction, thoughts and language. But depending on the language and culture; the way social interaction and thoughts are expressed can vary.

Throughout my life I have always been a social person who enjoyed having conversations and sharing my thoughts with others. Therefore I have been using Symbolic Interactionism since I was  learning how to talk. However when I was eleven years old I began learning the Spanish language which introduced me to a different culture with a different language. Since the first day of my middle school Spanish class I knew I wanted to keep learning Spanish since I could use it to communicate to  people who did not speak English like me. Therefore I continued taking Spanish while I was in high school and when I started college I knew I wanted to have a minor in it. After taking four Spanish college courses I obtained my minor this past May. I am still not at a bilingual level but I consider myself to be at the intermediate or advanced conversational levels depending on the topic. However this last summer I had the opportunity to utilize my Spanish language knowledge while on a family vacation.

Two weeks after I obtained my Spanish minor my family and I went on a family vacation to Aruba. It was the first time my family and I  took a vacation outside of the country. I was excited because I knew  Aruba is a culturally diverse island with four languages spoken by its resident population. The languages spoken on Aruba are English, Spanish, Dutch and Papiamento (which is a language based off of African, Portuguese and has some influences of English, Dutch and Spanish). Although English is  spoken and understood in Aruba some people tend to be proficient in some languages over others. This was the case with a few of the workers at the resort my family stayed at. Some of the resort workers came from the nearby Spanish speaking countries of Venezuela and Columbia or they grew up speaking Papiamento (which has a closer linguistic relationship to Spanish than to English). However since I had a knowledge in Spanish I could communicate better than my other family members since they do not know how to communicate in Spanish. 

For example, the worker who was in charge of cleaning our room each day was originally from Colombia. One afternoon my mother had to call her on the phone to ask her to clean up a broken glass bottle of Sangria that fell onto the floor of our room. However when my mother  tried to explain what had  happened in English the worker did not fully understand her. Therefore my mother had me explain what had happened to her in Spanish since it was the worker's dominate language.  So I told her, "La botella se cayó al suelo y es  roto" (The bottle fell to the floor and is broken). She understood what had happened since I explained what had happened in a language she was used to communicating in. While in Aruba I had other opportunities to speak with native Spanish speakers and also to learn the basics of Papiamento vocabulary. But this situation gave me more confidence in my Spanish conversation skills. It also let the resort worker develop a communication bond with me. This is because throughout the trip she would ask me in Spanish how my day was and talk about other conversation topics. Overall by utilizing my Spanish knowledge I  had a chance to use the Interpersonal Communication Theory called Symbolic Interactionism not only for myself; but also for my family's benefit.