Throughout this semester I have learned important things about how I learn in general, as well as methods and balances important to the language learning process. Regarding general learning, I have found that writing down and orally repeating what I write (both while and after) helps me remember information faster. The oral aspect, I have found, has less to do with audial learning, but rather, I believe it has to do with the act of saying the word(s) and becoming familiar and comfortable with saying those words. More specifically to language learning, writing out conjugation tables or tables with the many variants of possessive and reflective pronouns has helped me understand the structure of the language. Because structure and conceptual coherency is important for my ability to understand, writing out these tables help me become familiar with the process used to determine the use of which words, when and how to manipulate them for sentences. Though listening does very little for me in regard to memorization, I have found that listening to native speakers (in person or in video) has been very helpful in my confidence while speaking; by listening to others I can begin to “feel” the flow of the language and thus produce my own sentences with less insecurity. Further, listening to my Pakistani friends throughout the semester has been a great way to assess my progress and as encouragement when I see the progress.
In regard to learning about culture, I have found that although I appreciate and enjoy learning about new cultures, the way this is most effective for me in through means like our cultural project. The cultural project did not simply ask us to find out emblematic features of the culture, but instead look at products and practices to understand cultural perspectives and their significances. I am a person who does not simply want to be told this and that are aspects of the culture; I want to see why these cultural phenomena occur so that I can more deeply enjoy and appreciate whatever new insights I gain into a culture. Besides the cultural projects, I found the articles by Crystal assigned for the second week very interesting and insightful (when one applies it to one’s own experiences with language). These articles, though perhaps a little dry, brought to mind important ways that one should look at the process of deriving and applying meaning when studying a new language. Finally, I found the articles on bilingualism very interesting. I personally would place myself somewhere in between a monolingual and a bilingual, and found it interesting to compare the information in the readings to myself and see if, how and where I might spot distinctions between myself and both monolinguals and bilinguals.
I felt that I was moderately successful in achieving the goals I set for myself this semester. As a very general goal, I wanted to establish a strong foundation for myself in Urdu. I wanted to do this in order to feel comfortable as I continue to learn Urdu informally (for the time being it seems doubtful that I can take more Urdu classes in college) because I will be able to apply the rules of the language to things that I hear (and infer the meaning of things that are different to the basic rules I have learned). Though I find that I still make mistakes quite often when speaking, I find that I can quite quickly realize the mistakes and correct myself - to me this indicates and good understanding of basic sentence structure, grammar etc., even though I definitely need to practice these basics more.
In regard to the specific goals I set for myself:
I can give basic information about myself and family - yes.
Use vocabulary for eating at a restaurant - yes.
Talk about my hobbies and studies/ask about others' - yes, but not in great detail.
Talk about where I grew up - pretty much none (I sort of left this when I started pursuing other goals that I did not initially set for myself)
Understand Bollywood movies better (i.e. rely on subtitles less) - I cannot say, I have not had time to re-assess myself yet. However, I have found that I can understand my friends' conversations better.
Goals I did not initially set, but ended up doing:
Tell time
learn to recognize (and occasionally use) future tense
distinguish between the variety of pronouns for each way of addressing people and myself (i.e. me, mine, to me, from me. etc.)
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