This semester has been insightful to me on several fronts. Most of all, I understand the importance of having both a strong foundation in elementary linguistics, grammar, etc. (from the 105 class) as well as previous language learning experience prior to going the Self-Directed route. This offers the dual benefit of on one hand knowing the abstract rules of languages and contributing to learning that way, as well as knowing my own personal style, tendencies, etc. and tweaking (or even compensating) accordingly. I have noticed that, in my study of language, I constantly have a desire to relate this to something larger and to aid a larger understanding of culture as a whole, which I believe can be attributed to my previous experience studying abroad and learning Mandarin Chinese. In addition, I noticed that the very way that I am learning Malay is drastically different than how I learned Malay, not in the obvious self-directed and less classroom-oriented regard, but rather in how I came to internalize and familiarize myself with the two languages. In Chinese, so much of my foundational study depended on rote memorization and, frankly, regurgitation, which in retrospect I realize was completely necessary because of the difference in orthography and the fact that the language is tonal. Malay, on the other hand, does not have these two components, and the sentence structure was already quite familiar to me as an interesting mix of Chinese and English styles. I am learning Malay through far more numerous mediums and outlets than in Chinese, and have gained different insights because of it.
As straightforward as it may seem, I found it difficult to not get too caught up or grounded in my learning styles. Some of the questions consistently posed in the bi-weekly language learning journal prompt are how I have revised my task list, built upon what I learned, and evaluated the effectiveness of my strategy. These are difficult questions to answer, and some weeks felt like I was not sure whether making these adjustments would effectively hasten or hamper my language learning. That said, this is one of the aspects I have enjoyed the most in my SDLAP experience thus far, as well as the cultural exposure to my language partner and the innumerable insights that has yielded for me. I recognize that I will not always have Melisa to guide me as I continue my Malay journey, however I am confident that I have amassed a strong enough foundation to carry me through over the break and into next semester quite fluidly.
Among my favorite learning activities from this semester were the small-group presentations because I was able to both convey my interests, insights, and developments to classmates as well as hear their own respective ones. I particularly enjoyed reading about the Hinga tribe and delving into the intersections between language and culture more broadly. I was also really interested in the New York Times article on the tribe that revived the previously "dead" or extinct language. The discussions in class that we had on hegemonic languages versus smaller ones, the necessity of preservation, and some different approaches or methodologies to preserving was one of my favorite ones of the semester. Looking back, I would have liked to learn more about some of the more neuro-science related linguistic topics (e.g. psycholinguistics), as well as exploring somewhat less Euro-centric figures and models that have contributed to our understanding of languages writ large. Overall, my first semester in the SDLAP program learning Malay was not exactly what I had expected going in (to this point refer back to my earlier posts and reflection), though I have learned a lot about myself and about languages writ large in the interim, even with the previous language learning experience and linguistics coursework in my college career. I am excited to continue learning over the winter break in a (hopefully) less jam-packed and stress-induced environment, as well as to continue with this pursuit next semester and beyond.
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