I think I’ve made good progress in my language learning but I still have a long way to go. I thought I would know more by now but thinking about it, I took Spanish for 4 years consecutively just to be at an intermediate level. When putting that into context with my Amharic studies, I think I am doing fine but I know I will have to continue after this semester for a while more. It’s been rewarding to be able to talk to my dad in his native language and I really hope to get to the point where I can talk to my other family members and grandma. At times, my learning gets overwhelming because there are so many words to learn and they change in different contexts. Also having to learn how to pronounce sounds that don’t exist in English has been a huge hurdle for me in this process. I would say I’m almost over that hurdle but I, of course, have more to improve on.
I think the relationship between understanding culture and language in undeniable. Each culture has different values and beliefs and those are usually reflected in the language. If one does not understand the culture, then the way the people speak and the way they construct sentences probably won’t make sense. I have somewhat of an advantage in the aspect of understanding the target culture because it is what I’ve been around my whole life. I think learning the language that goes with the culture helps me understand more.
To improve communicative competence, I need to learn how to ask and answer questions and how to express my thoughts and feelings. I think in order to have communicative competence, I need to really learn how to speak and listen to Amharic so that I can make the necessary comments to get my point across. To do this I need to practice Amharic and try my best to speak with native speakers so I can immerse myself and learn the most effective ways to communicate. For example, in English, there are ways to communicate that are not the most efficient for getting your point across. I need to make sure that I am learning the most useful language first so that I can say what I am aiming to say. I think the other forms of competence that is most important for me in my studies are sociolinguistic and strategic competence. In order to speak a language and sound somewhat like a native, it is important to know the sociocultural rules that go with the language. Knowing what words and phrases are appropriate versus inappropriate is necessary in order to communicate the language effectively. Nonverbal communication is another essential aspect of being competent in a language. Body language and hand signs that relate to the culture and language can have lots of different meanings. I think this goes back to the relationship between language and culture because the culture shapes the nonverbal communication of the language.
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