Knowing my learning will allow me to set goals, monitor my goals and at the end the semester, see if I accomplished it or not. Setting goals week by week will keep me on track. This is especially helpful because learning a language in this class is mainly self directed there is more responsibility on our shoulders than taking a class with a professor teaching and guiding the language. Knowing how our brain processes language is helpful since we are able to utilize to our understanding and learning of languages. Even though most children have a natural language window around three, and most of us here at SDLAP are either in our late teens or early twenties, it is not too late to imitate how little children learn languages. The video of toddlers able to differentiate sounds in India helped me realized that I need to be careful on pronouncing the sounds. It is usually subtle. It also made me realize that it is okay if I do not sound like a native. Having an accent as long as others can understand me is fine because I already speak three other languages fluently.
Another thing I found interesting and helpful was the article what we mean. How the synaptax and phrase our langauge tells us alot about a language culture. For instance, many Asian countries I find tend to be more collective and so if reflects that in their communication and language. Another example is that many english speaking countries value individulism more than the collective communities so the language and our structure display that.
Another example can be that some langauges have more words to describe something that cannot be describe in another language. For example, japanese has mutiple specific situations for describing anger where that can not be translated in english. This is another example how langauge affects what we mean.
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