Things are going well in my language journey and I think I am making some great progress. I am focusing more on vocabulary rather than grammar which I thought I would do the opposite at the beginning of my language journey. It has definitely been interesting to learn articulatory phonetics in class and recognize words and sounds in Catalan that relate to things we’ve discussed, like nasalization of words, fricatives, or diphthongs. I also enjoyed learning about culture and how it relates to languages because cultural barriers are really what set native speakers apart from secondary language learners. Catalan is spoken in many areas of western Europe so there are different accents and even some different dialects which affects grammar usage and pronunciation of words. For example, Catalan speakers in Barcelona pronounce letters the same as Spanish speakers; though that is not the case for Catalan speakers in France and Baleria. I have been watching “Merlí” which is a Netflix series in order to help me get used to the pace the language is spoken and also how native speakers sound. It helps me recognize words in people’s accents. Watching a show has helped me with my communicative competence because even if I don't understand everything in a sentence, if I catch a couple of words I can grasp the idea of the sentence, or even put together the sentence and figure out the meaning of the words I did not understand/recognize. Also, Mariona and I meet 2x a week which allows me to use context-embedded competence because we are speaking face to face. I think eventually I will use strategic competence when I am speaking to a native speaker. I can find a way around words I don’t know if I am trying to say something by rephrasing the sentence or using synonyms or words that will help me get my point across.
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