Looking back on my learning journey for the semester, my most valuable takeaway was that the experience of learning a language can be enjoyable and far more effective than the ways I have learned in the past. In the process of learning Spanish through middle school, high school, and college, I rarely found myself getting excited about my progress. I was interested in learning about culture, and I wanted to be comfortable making casual conversation in the target language but getting tested relentlessly on grammar and vocabulary made me fall out of love with the process of learning a language.

My experience with Dutch was much different and more positive. Instead of stressing about the exact vocabulary and grammatical words, I felt I could take my time and absorb the information as it came. The freedom to use topics that I already enjoy, like soccer, to learn a target language was a significant motivator. I found that consistency was the most important factor in becoming more comfortable with Dutch. In past experiences, I would avoid my target language until the night before a big test or quiz, then spend the night studying to get a good grade. Because my studies with Dutch were self-directed, I was much more motivated to devote time to learning daily. Whether it be 10 minutes or an hour a day, when I began immersing myself in the target language a little bit each day, I found my progress to increase greatly.

At the beginning of my learning journey, I was a bit too optimistic with the progress I was going to make throughout the semester. I planned on focusing my efforts on speaking and listening, and I wanted to be comfortable reading Dutch. Writing was never my priority, but I thought I would be able to write at a beginner level. At the end of the semester, I did not accomplish all the goals I set for myself. I am improving daily with speaking and listening, but I am not sure how long I could keep a casual conversation in Dutch. I can speak and write basic phrases, but nothing complex. When listening, I can pick out phrases and words that I know, but I easily zone out and miss details. However, I am not disappointed; I am very proud of my progress. Because I am enjoying the process, I know I am much more likely to continue my journey of leaning my target language, and that is very motivating. I hope to continue my journey of understanding how I learn best as I continue learning Dutch.

The content provided throughout the course were more beneficial than I expected. Understanding how sounds are formed helped me understand why I was struggling with certain sounds in Dutch, and it gave me confidence to keep trying. Learning about the structure of languages- syntax, morphemes, words etc. made me consider how my target language was structured and helped me identify patterns. SDLAP 105 taught me a lot about myself this semester. Thank you for a great semester!

My prior language experience consisted of three years of middle school Spanish, two years of high school Spanish, and one year of Spanish here at the University of Richmond. One part that I never quite enjoyed about learning Spanish in a standard school format is that it becomes so formulaic. At first, I was excited to learn the language, but as time went on, I got very tired of learning one chapter of vocabulary and one tense at a time to get a good grade on an exam. Eventually, I lost interest and did the bare minimum to get good grades on exams and papers. However, at the higher levels of high school Spanish, once the classroom spoke only Spanish and no English, I found that my interest returned, and I made much more progress. I found myself translating words a lot less and thinking in Spanish. My teachers had always preached to me not to translate in my head, but I never really understood what it meant until I had some level of immersion with the language. Unfortunately, the extended time away from Spanish caused me to forget almost all of it, and my studies at Richmond did not rekindle my motivation. At one point, I also downloaded Duolingo to learn French. My brother-in-law is a native speaker, so I am interested in the language, as it is likely that France will be the first European country that I get the opportunity to visit. I enjoyed the app but never stuck with it long enough to remember anything. I have picked up a couple of phrases from my sister and her husband’s attempts to teach their son French like “À tes souhaits.”

After taking the learning style survey, I was surprised to learn that my results showed almost a perfectly even split. My scores were 30% auditory, 35% visual, and 35% tactile. I feel like as I have gotten older, my learning style has gone from primarily auditory to primarily tactile. For example, I’ve gotten more out of internship opportunities where I can implement concepts than textbooks or lectures (unless the lecture is really intriguing). In the strengths assessment, body movement was at the top of the list which makes sense for me. I love to move around, and I often find that it helps me think as well. I like the recommendations that the website provides such as changing the types of tools used to take notes and taking walks as study breaks.

Throughout my years of studying language, I have relied on flashcards quite a bit, but I feel like traditional flashcards are more likely to get me a good grade on a quiz rather than help me learn a language. I’ve chosen to study Dutch because I think the Netherlands has an interesting culture, and I have relatives that speak the language. I would like to try using flashcards with pictures on one side instead of translations. Most, importantly, I want to be as consistent as possible with mostly speaking and listening practice. My main goal is to be able to understand natives and have basic conversations, so I must design my studies around that goal.

First, I plan on starting to learn Dutch through speaking and listening. I want to first learn to speak the most common phrases of the language. I plan on cementing 1 to 2 phrases per day into memory. At the same time, I want to get into the habit of putting phrases and key words onto flashcards and studying them for a few minutes per day. These flashcards will have pictures on them instead of translations. As far as listening goes, I mainly want to focus on consuming Dutch media with Dutch captions to help me follow if I can recognize any phrases. The media will consist of soccer games, Youtube videos relating to topics that I already enjoy, and movies. I will also use listening tools that I can find online. I want to put a lot of time into speaking with basic phrases and pronouncing sounds properly. I have a cousin from the Netherlands that I plan on asking for recommendations for movies and media outlets, and I can practice speaking to him once I am comfortable. I also want to try online speaking tools to practice primarily iTalkie and speech to text tools like voice notebook. Finally, I want to try to read and write a little bit. I will read Dutch news articles which will help me learn the language in context since I already have some understanding of current events. I also want to write practice emails and short prompts and use grammar checkers. My main goals for my learning plan would be to understand Dutch and be able to have beginner to intermediate level conversation. I also want to try to read Benny Lewis' book about language hacking to see if I can implement any of his strategies.