SDLC 105 Learning Journal #2

[Berhaun Fesshaye]

I’ve organized my learning plan to include the basics of what I need to know in order to communicate effectively in Amharic. So far, I have learned greetings, how to introduce myself, numbers, days of the week, simple weather phrases, colors, and simple questions. My studies will allow me to investigate Amharic and Ethiopian/Eritrean culture more deeply by giving me more insight into the specific ways that everything is described. I know that is not the best way to put it but there are certain things in other languages that are hard to translate so by knowing the language, one can get a better understanding of cultural aspects. I have had an interest to learn Amharic my whole life because I have grown up hearing it spoken. There were always times where I would be surrounded by my family speaking Amharic while I sat and listened with no idea about what was being said. My interest to learn has grown as I’ve gotten older because I really want to be able to speak to my grandma, who knows about 3 words in English. I haven’t had enough time to devote to learning, however, because of my load of school work. Now that I can actually learn Amharic and have it count as a unit, it has really motivated me to start learning and learn as much as I can while I have the time to devote to it. As for my learning plan, I want to make it more specific and include more sub-tasks in each task. I also want to find better artifacts like conversations that I translate or letters that I try to read. I also want to find more ways to test my knowledge than just having conversations with my language partner.