Reflect on your learning experiences this semester.
(a) What insights have you gained about yourself as a language learner and cultural explorer? What did you find difficult? What have you enjoyed? How will you continue your learning?
(b) Which readings and learning activities did you find most useful? What would you like to learn more about?
Being raised by Bangladeshi parents, I have always felt proud of the country we originate from. However, not being able to speak the language always put me at a disadvantage and created boundaries between those who could speak Bengali and myself. When I finally wanted to learn the language and break those boundaries, I found myself juggling with so many classes and extracurricular activities that it prevented me from taking time to learn the language. After registering for this self-direct course, I was able to finally carve out time and focus on connecting to my mother language. Through this self-directed course, I have learned how much effort it takes to learn a language, but it can become easier if one truly puts their time and energy into it. In addition, I have learned that culture has a big impact on the language. Bangladesh is a country that fought for their language and their independence, and this demonstrates how important the language and culture are for Bangladeshis.
The main thing I appreciate gaining from this experience is connecting back to my roots and being able to talk to my fellow Bangladeshis. I have learned so much about the culture and the language so I feel a lot more culturally aware and comfortable around native speakers. Although I greatly enjoyed learning the language through various aspects, it was not always so easy. When first sitting down with my language partner, I became very afraid and hesitant. I felt as though I was way too ambitious to develop such skills in such a short amount of time. For me, speaking has always been a difficulty as a language learner. Sometimes I felt my accent was too Americanized and native Bangladeshis would not be able to understand what I am saying. However, after practicing and speaking to native speakers, I have been able to greatly develop this skill. In order to hone in on this skill, I practiced for hours speaking the language aloud with my language partner, relatives, and sometimes just with myself. Even though I was very scared of the speaking aspect of my learning, I can definitely say that I have improved greatly and am able to speak to native speakers with more confidence.
Although this semester has come to an end, I do not plan on stopping my exploration of the language. I desire to learn more and I understand that there is always room for improvement. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to take this class and understand how self-directed language is structured. Although I have learned a lot through this course, I wish I were able to learn reading and writing in Bengali. However, I understand that by focusing on the speaking and writing I was able to greatly develop those two skills in such a short amount of time. In the future, I hope to practice more of my speaking and listening and also take on writing and reading in Bengali. From all the activities that we have done in class, I enjoyed learning about phonetics and the International Phonetic Alphabet. It was through this lesson that I was able to finally speak well and with less of an accent. I also appreciated the readings we had done at the very beginning of that class. I was able to learn about certain habits and ways to learn a language on my own. Lastly, developing a “Learning Plan” greatly helped in the process of learning a new language. Through it, I was able to create a structure and goals of my language. Overall, I am very appreciative and thankful to have gotten the opportunity to take this course. This course has definitely broken a lot of the barriers that were aforementioned.
Replies