SDLC 110: Reflection #5

[Casey Murano]

This week began a bit stressful because Farida informed us that we had a big midterm exam two days before the test (it was on the syllabus that I should have been paying more attention to). I was a bit worried about this assessment because she did not give us specific guidelines of what to focus on studying. I decided the best method was to go back through all of my vocabulary, neaten up my dictionary, and then go through the past powerpoint presentations. I made sure I knew how to introduce myself, talk about my family, describe objects using colors, and use a wide range of verbs. The exam itself was not terrible. I felt comfortable with the listening section because the speaker spoke very slowly and said predictable words. The reading section was a bit harder, though, because the vocabulary in the matching section included words about daily routines that I was not as familiar with. I did my best, though, and gave an educated guess. The writing section felt like it went well, though it turned out that I had misread the instructions. Rather than answering the questions individually, we were supposed to write an invitation for a birthday party. We went over the correct format for our responses in class the next day. The speaking section also went quite smoothly. We could choose from a couple of different topics, so I decided to speak about my family because I am quite comfortable with that vocabulary. I described my younger brother and sister and their hobbies quite easily. Having this midterm exam helped me to reflect on how much I’ve learned so far and consider the places where I can improve, such as reading directions carefully and trying to use context clues when I don’t understand something. I will say as an aside that the physical conditions of the exam were challenging. I usually zoom into class outside because I need to be near the gym because my next class starts at the same time Bahasa Indonesia class ends, but it was very, very, cold that morning. My hands were freezing and I had a lot of trouble concentrating on the exam. From this experience, I know that physical conditions affect my ability to use language effectively and will seek in the future to find lebih hangat, or warmer places to work on my assignments.  Content wise, during these two weeks we have been learning about the habits of Indonesian teenagers, and foods in Indonesia. There are fortunately a lot of cognates, but I’m happy we were able to go over the list of foods so that I can talk about more than bananas, or pisang-pisang, which is one of my favorite go-to words. I often use it when we make up sentences and I need a noun.  In the following weeks, I will continue to practice reading, and studying the vocabulary I was less comfortable with. I will make sure that I am reading directions carefully but also be open to making and learning from my mistakes.