Summarize your assessment and goals in a blog post in your learning journal and on the first page of your learning plan.
I have little to no experience in speaking this language. I did not have much exposure to what the language sounded like before starting this class. Over the past couple of days, I have watched a few videos on YouTube and listened to a podcast that taught a few basic introductions, such as “hello”, “my name is…”, and “nice to meet you”. By the end of the semester, I hope to establish a very strong foundation in the language in terms of pronunciation and grammar so that I would only have to learn new vocabulary and idioms continuing on.
Reflect on the readings. How does this knowledge help you shape your language learning process?
I thoroughly enjoyed the readings because they gave me another perspective of language learning that I have not considered before. For years, I have wondered about the specific role that the brain plays in the processing of information and I believe that the first reading effectively addressed my questions. I find the topics that the author discuss incredibly fascinating, especially when he or she references the importance of cooperation or lateralization of the two hemispheres in order to communicate. It is outstanding how our brains are able to execute so many processes simultaneously! I previously did not consider all of the small-scale elements such as syllables and phonemes and its role in speech production.
Furthermore, I love how the author contextualizes the meaning of words and simultaneously references languages other than English that have more specific words for certain situations. For example, the reading mentions how the Australian language Pitjanjatijara have different words for a mother's sister and a father's sister while English does not. This made me reflect on my studies of Mandarin Chinese because Chinese has different words for relatives on the dad and mom side as well. Learning this through the reading has made me realize that there are going to be a lot of linguistic components in my target language that are not going to make sense to me or that will be different from what I am used to. I am excited to explore these differences.
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