Learning Journal #10 (105)

[Zachary Stewart]

            Overall, I think reading and writing were comparatively the easier tasks in Turkish. With listening, you have to be able to understand what someone says and that person could be using a very advanced vocabulary. With speaking, you have to be able to communicate in the pressure of time. I was perfectly happy taking my time as I read and write. I believe that I learn much better visualizing material as well so reading was definitely an informative process for me. Outside of class and homework, I believe that the only time that I wrote in Turkish was when I wrote to my pen pal. I thought that that was a very interesting task because I don’t think that I knew enough Turkish when I started so I was struggling to form sentences and understand what my pen pal was saying. At the same time, I thought that it was very helpful because it forced me to use my critical thinking skills to find out what I wanted to say. Also, Gökhan was present to help me structure sentences that I had issues with.