Things are going much better than I thought it would. As expected, I have encountered some obstacles tackling things like dictions due to my speaking habits. This makes reading and writing more difficult than I initially assumed, but it also shows me that I still have a long way to go.
I initially wanted to (re)learn Vietnamese as a way to reconnect and communicate with my family. However, as I learn beyond the grammar and vocabulary, I have become more drawn towards the language as not only a way to be connected to my family but also as a way to learn about my culture. I found myself looking forward to learning about things that have happened while I was not there to witness it; I’m listening to the music that I have previously found no interest in, and I’m learning aspects of my culture that are fundamentally different from the environment I grew up in.
While the things we’ve learned in class weren’t as helpful to me in terms of learning the language, it helped me learn more about the culture of my target language. I used to be very frustrated with the ways some articles or songs are written because they’re simply just not the kind of Vietnamese that I am used to, that is everyday Vietnamese. However, learning about Vietnam’s history and Chinese’s heavy influence on the culture, I’ve come to learn about Sino-Vietnamese that is still used in some academic or religious aspects — things that I previously have no interest in.
In order to improve my communicative competence, I will simply have to expose myself to situations where I will be forced to use the language more. With the upcoming break, I will be spending an extensive amount of time with my family, and that is a great way to get some practice.
Based on the readings by H.D. Brown, the kinds of competences that are emphasized in my plan are sociolinguistic competence as well as strategic competence. My plans emphasized sociolinguistic competence because while I have some fundamental understanding of the Vietnamese from my past education as well as background, I lack the experience of growing up in that specific culture and thus there are some missing part of my understanding of not only the culture but the language as well. On the other hand, I also emphasize strategic competence because, again, as I grew up in a completely different environment, my understanding of the rules and usage of the language are fragments compared to that of a native speaker, prohibiting an effective usage of the language.
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