- In your learning journal, reflect upon your progress to date, consider the effectiveness of your learning plan and activities, and discuss what changes--if any--you will make to finish the semester.
I think I have been making great progress overall. In individualized courses like this, it is often difficult to evaluate yourself and realize whether you are doing well on progress or not, especially when there is no metric to compare yourself to. However, when analyzing what I have learned since the start of the semester, I see how this course has changed my cultural views and enhanced my speaking abilities. Before starting this course I was really focused on going to Portugal and learning more about Portugal, not really Brazil. I wasn’t really interested in Brazil because I believed that I couldn’t go there due to safety issues and transportation difficulties. I was more interested in Portuguese because I knew it was safe, and I knew I would be able to travel there more easily. However, throughout this course, Barbara has been teaching me more and more about Brazilian culture, music, holidays, and the lifestyle. I began to realize how beautiful Brazilian culture is, and how diverse and interesting the people are. I really want to go there now, and because of that, we have been setting aside time during our learning session to work on Brazilian culture, customs, food, etc.
Furthermore, as this language is similar to Spanish, I have been able to realize patterns between the two, and even the patterns between Portuguese and English. It makes me realize how grammar and sentences structures work in latin based languages, and I have become more comfortable with saying a sentence I think makes sense based on the patterns I have learned so far.
I am not sure I will make any changes on my plan. So far we have been using my plan as a basis of what to learn, but if there is something we realize we want to do too, we do that as well, so my plan is really flexible and I don’t think there is any need to change it.
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