Reflection paper 1

[Rosa M. Colon]

In the past, I have studied Spanish and I have always found that I am very critical of myself when I make little mistakes and insecure when speaking the language in front of others.  By learning to teach myself a new language, Turkish, I hope to let go of the insecurities and to build more confidence not only in my ability to speak another language, but in my ability to independently teach myself new knowledge.  I am working on becoming more independent and solving problems on my own without immediately having to ask for help when I am confused about something and by participating in this self-directed language course I hope that I will be able to work towards my goal of independence. While working together in groups has always been my comfort zone, I realize that in life we will not always be working with others and there will be situations when we are left to figure out a problem on our own.  In order to accomplish these goals I plan to utilize skills that best suit my learning style.  I am a visual learner, so I believe that repeatedly looking at vocabulary words and watching youtube videos will be a successful learning strategy for me.  Additionally, I find it very helpful to make associations between a words meaning and the way that it might be spelled or pronounced.  This technique allows me to better remember what a word means simply by looking at it or listening to the way it sounds.  With these techniques, I will be able to immerse myself in the Turkish language and culture in the hopes of learning and growing more as a person.