I evolved as a self directed learning in many ways. I mentally engage the material I wanted to learn using ideas and methods you can immediately use within the Internet and what the global studio has to offer, material in reserves. I focus on doing a little every day to engage with the learning plan I had prepared for the semester. I tried to keep motivated in my learning goals, which was very difficult at times. As a self-directed learner I learned to take initiative and the responsibility of my learning. I selected and managed my own schedule and activities, which I could do at any time or any place.
I took activities based on my goals and with the help of a guide pursue successfully the plan. I never thought that self-directed learning would be this hard. It took me a while to get used to the informal method of learning. I feel like I did not accomplish my learning goals in regards to the language per say but I did learn a lot about the culture of the Persian language, I believe we had a very good guidance with Prof. Schinarello. I learned about myself that I really like the more conventional way of learning. I like having to follow a syllabus, also using a book with a prepared lesson plan. I also learned that my lack of motivation came from the fact that I also was not that interested in learning Farsi but Hebrew and that to really learned a language one must have complete motivation, which is why I was only able to learn the introductory part of the language.
I feel in my opinion that language is so complex that I need a precise framework to be able to accomplish my learning goals. I did learn that for the language acquisition one needs to target a language you want to learn, look for an environment to acquire the language in this case the teaching assistances, use a learning strategy, and finally a way to asses that I ended learned the language. I think I did develop skills as an observer of other cultures because as I had to do the culture posts, I had to read and learn about the evolution of social practices that were influenced by interactions between people, events, and situations of history in Iran. Culture keeps evolving and the different topic that I had to read about proved this to me. But I did became very conscious of the fact that there is more to culture than the eyes and books can tell and understand superficially, information and history has been manipulated in certain ways.
The language learning activities that helped me the most were the use of books with audio cds to listen to the pronunciation of the words, The teaching assistant I meet with as well, also the numerous internet sites that she recommended as well as the podcast sheets that maroof gave to us.
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