My learning experience this semester was definitely different than what I imagined when I initially enrolled in this course. I imagined that my work would be similar to how I taught myself in high school, which was a lot of memorization and note taking. But this semester I felt like the majority of my time was spent on the cultural research and etymology studies from the SDLP 105 requirements. While I understand the importance of both of these, I also felt like it was taking away from time that could be spent actually studying the language. While I thought the required readings and videos for class were interesting, I wish we were given activities that were more related to our languages. But I understand that this is difficult, as everyone in the class was learning different languages at different levels. I also found that the language partner system was different than I imagined. It felt more formal, and a lot of our time was spent discussing deadlines such as the learning journals and cultural journals. Although my partner was very helpful and answered any questions I had, we were both very busy and therefore we didn’t really have casual conversations that would help me practice the language.
This semester did give me a lot of insight on myself as a language learner and culture researcher. At the beginning of the semester, I talked about being a visual learner and how that has both helped and hindered my learning. Especially when I was having difficulties after starting to have conversations in Korean, I had to find learning techniques that worked for me and my specific learning style. The thing that changed the most was how I learned vocabulary. In the past, I used to learn individual nouns and verbs usually through memorization. Yet when I heard these words in a sentence, I found it hard to recognize them immediately. I found that it is easier for me to remember words through application. For example, through a song lyric or a quote in a movie. I am not sure how I will continue my learning in the future. As I stated in previous journals, I do not encounter Korean frequently in my daily life and therefore think my next best option is to find a penpal to help me improve in conversation.
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