Through SDLC 105, I realized that language learning is not something that you need to have a knack for or that requires overwhelmingly long-term hard work and dedication. I liked that we talked about breaking down language learning. It was nice to realize that it is similar across languages. It made me feel like I could use my previous language learning experience to advance my Portuguese learning. I also enjoyed that we talked about tips and tricks of language learning. For example, cognates mean that you already know some of the words of a language. It is these little bits of familiarity and encouragement that really buoyed me when I was struggling with beginning to learn Portuguese.
This class also confirmed that I am someone who learns best conversationally and through immersion. I like learning small concepts that I can grab onto and then being plunged into a native speaker conversation where I can pick out that concept and see how it is applied. I have realized that is one of the best ways I can remember something.
I have learned that I love the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. That is one of the most fascinating concepts that I have learned through this course and in general. It definitely has made me see culture and language in a completely different way. I also really enjoyed learning about the points of articulation for sounds and the phones of a language. However, I did struggle with other technical linguistic concepts such as lexical morphemes, lexical categories, and secondary manner.
I think that I will continue my learning through SDLC 110. I plan to take it next semester. My goal is to recognize how these concepts apply to my further language learning next semester. I have no background in Portuguese, so I am truly creating the foundation of my language learning. Through the concepts of this course, I will likely be able to detect patterns of the language and know the terminology that applies to it. This will be helpful to better remember and conceptualize these rules in my mind, accelerating my learning of Portuguese.
I found it very helpful when activities had us use our target language to explain the linguistic concepts we were learning. For example, when we had to find affixes in our target language and what they mean. It was interesting to see how these concepts are shared across languages and also definitely helped me with new words in Portuguese to see how they can be modified with certain affixes.
I also liked when we did word trees of various words. These were super fun and interesting, particularly to debate. I also enjoyed the presentations at the end of the course. These were a great way to see people’s different interests in the scope of their target language. I also thought it was fun to learn about words and cultural concepts in other people’s languages. After those presentations, I could talk about the history of Farsi, the divisions of Catalan, and the development of Korean music genres.
Comments
I'm glad that this class was helpful and you feel strong enough to continue studying independently. I feel that many adults once outside of the academic space often lament their lack of focus and know-how to conduct themselves in steady language acquisition.
I feel I learn best through repetition and auditory cues. I guess it's the lingering spirit of the theater kid in me. If you ever lack the ability to immerse yourself in the language to study I recommend checking out the website Lingopie. It's essentially foreign language tv with interactive subtitles for people looking to study that language. I find that it is more efficient than just listening to music or watching a show with English subtitles. I have also recorded myself speaking before on my phone and listened to the files while riding the bus or walking around campus. It feels silly, but hopefully one of these tools will be beneficial to you next semester.