Coming into this class this past January, I wasn’t sure what to expect. As a wanna-be polyglot, I have been searching for the skills to independently explore language in a way that is both fun, effective, and efficient. As I wrote about in my initial letter in the beginning of the semester, I became fascinated with language learning from a desire to know and understand myself better. Coming from an Italian-American family, I often wondered what it would be like to be able to understand and see the world through the lens of my grandparents, and their parents, and so on and so forth. There is so much deep history that comes with having roots in another culture. Once I learned Italian, I soon realized that the desire to understand myself turned into a passion from wanting to connect and understand others. Building a plan and starting to learn French on my own using the information shared in this course has helped me see and approach language from a different and personal direction. While I have studied Spanish and Italian in a classroom setting, it has become abundantly clear to me that language is also something that can only ever be more rewarding the more the process is tailored to the individual. Creating and sharing resources for independent use has given me so many different ideas for how to enhance the experience for myself.
I have really appreciated the process of learning all of the different aspects of language beyond the basic romance language setting. I always wanted to take a linguistics class during my time in undergrad, but I have always been a little bit hesitant and intimidated by the intricacies of grammar and semantics. I really appreciated learning the IPA, that is something that is so essential, but I had never taken the time to truly understand. Also being able to dissect grammar variations and decipher the parts of speech of completely foreign language structures was so interesting. I really enjoyed the class that centered around language families as well, I believe that it is so important but often forgotten about in the western world where English dominates intercultural exchange and had only ever learned about english and the romance language roots.
Throughout the course of the semester, as my career path has become more clear, it became very obvious that these skills from the class will be utilized well after graduation. I hope to go into a field where language is such an asset and having not only lingual, but also cultural competency is essential. I think that the cultural presentations were so interesting and a great way to end the class. I learned so much information about different cultures that I have not encountered, and might have otherwise not encountered. This class opened my eyes in so many different ways and fostered a curiosity within myself to learn more! I hope to continue my French Language acquisition, re-encounter spanish independently, and possibly explore some completely new languages post-grad. I hope to continue to utilize language in a career in global communications and foster curiosity and community both in the US and abroad, so I deeply appreciate the skill set that I am leaving this class with!
Comments
This was such a relatable reflection Caro. Especially the "wanna-be polyglot" part; I too am a wanna-be polyglot and this is the first time that I believed I could be one. I speak two languages fluently but the fact that I learned both when I was quite young, which is when it is said learning a language is easiest, makes me not as confident that I can learn another one now. Also, your comment about learning the language to see life through the eyes of those who speak it is so beautiful and true!