This semester was interesting for me, as I was enrolled in 105 but not 110 like many of my classmates. Initially I intended to be in both classes, where I would teach myself Farsi. However, I had to think about the rest of my semester schedule and learning style realistically. I know that I require a lot of structure and methods to hold myself accountable when starting a new language. I reflected on taking Arabic in the past--a difficult language similar to Farsi--and thought about how I struggled when the professor did not really reinforce our learning. This made it difficult to incentivize me holding myself accountable. I decided that it would be best to just enroll in 105 and leave Farsi for when I had more time to devote. Instead, I would explore the fascinating cultural side of languages (an area I've always been interested in) and use my knowledge to keep up with Italian, a language I've studied extensively both at Richmond and while living in Italy.
I planned on using several methods to keep up with Italian. I have Italian books, magazines, and newspapers that I could practice reading. I also own some movies in Italian, plus have access to many more via Netflix. I had grand plans for revisiting some of the trickier rules in my old Italian textbook. Duolingo also began offering an Italian program. However, the actuality of how I practiced did not always match up with my vision. Because I wasn't taking 110, I didn't set a very firm learning schedule for myself, thinking I'd just "pick it up when I can." This was not the most effective approach, because without scheduling actual time for myself to sit down and force myself to learn in a routine manner, it was only going to get done sporadically. I also left a crucial segment out of my plan--I didn't really have ways for myself to practice speaking, which is the aspect of Italian I struggle with the most. I realized that I definitely need more structure when learning a language.
Additionally, the methods I did utilize were more passive. I was absorbing material but not necessarily practicing it actively. I watched and listened to some Italian movies without subtitles and was able to translate easily. I also got in translation practice by following my Italian friends' posts on Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps the most active thing I did was forcing myself to think in Italian at times, having a little conversation in my head. My favorite parts from my past Italian classes were when I'd leave class and think in Italian for about a 10-minute window, so tried to make myself recreate that. Nevertheless, my big plans for studying grammar and reading books in Italian really fell through. I was able to learn a lot from this experience though. In the future (starting over the summer) I plan to continue with Italian and learn more French. To really do this well, I'll need to set up a strict time schedule for myself (such as practicing for a half hour at the same time each day) and come up with some sort of "lesson plan" for each session. I know myself, and it's difficult for me to commit to self-structured language learning without imposing a very rigid practice schedule. In fact, I think this holds true for learning a lot of new things, whether it's learning a new language or another topic entirely, or finding the time and motivation to exercise. This lesson is especially important for learning more difficult languages in which it's often easier to quit or not give my all than it is to hold myself to learning. In the future I hope to work in a field where I'd have to learn and utilize critical languages to be successful, so I'd really have to establish the best methods for me of learning a language to retain it.
In addition to my personal focus on Italian, I really enjoyed 105's emphasis on the intersections between language and culture. I found the topics we discussed fascinating, and I liked hearing about everyone else's language progress and the cultural issues associated with their languages. Perhaps one of the most interesting pieces was when we talked about untranslatable words from other languages, and the repercussions (positives and negatives) of languages dying. These issues tied in closely to themes I was discussing in some of my other courses. All in all, 105 really reinforced the importance of culture for me and allowed me to reflect upon how I most effectively learn a language. These are ideas that I am certain will continue to serve me far into the future.
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