When I first came into this course I was extremely ambitious in what I thought I was going to learn. Even when I revised my semester goals I was probably too ambitious. Each week I decided that I was going to push myself to learn as much as I could, particularly in the way of vocabulary. However, the problem that I realized towards the end of the semester is some of the information that I did not study as much or use on a regular basis was not really retained. Examples of this include, weather, directions and even some locations. I also did not realize that I would struggle as much with the grammar as I did, but finally at the end of the semester I feel like I have a basic grasp of sentence structure and how to express my thoughts in simplistic ways. There are still areas that are difficult for me including the present tense and the use of the word ra, which I think is used when something that could be a subject is used as an object. Below are the semester objectives that I set out for myself and I think that because these are topics that I used on a consistent basis I learned them much better than other things.My semester/long term goals are as follows:To be able to identify letters of the alphabet when written, and simple commonly used wordsTo be able to greet others and say goodbyeTo be able to introduce myself, express basic information about myself (name, age, where I am from, how I am doing, details about my family, occupation) and ask others the sameBe able to describe objects using their position, color and the number of itemsRead and order from a menuBe able to describe my daily routine in simple termsBe able to communicate basic information to a customs officerI definitely can identify letters of the alphabet when written as well as simple commonly used words. Most words I can sound out even if I don't know its meaning and the only part I get tripped up by is not knowing where the vowels go since they aren't written out. Still, I feel confident that I have succeeded in this goal. I also feel that I am able to greet and say good bye to others in a variety of ways and at a variety of levels (formal vs. informal). These expressions are probably some of my favorite and I use them quite frequently. Being able to introduce myself is something I am confident in my ability to do. The only thing I would worry about is sometimes I get confused by family members (aunts, uncles and cousins) when I am speaking and listening. I also feel confident in my ability to describe objects in terms of its color, position and how many. For example I could say there are 3 red shirts next to 4 green apples. In terms of ordering from a menu, I could most likely identify the basic ingredients in a dish, rice, meat, yogurt, bread etc, but I would not be able to know what a dish consisted of based off of its authentic name. While I did learn some food, I would say that I did not learn and exhaustive list of fruits, vegetables etc, but that I know the basics and enough to ensure that I can eat and survive. I also feel confident that I could describe my routine in simple terms because I did an artifact doing essentially that. I do not know if I could necessarily describe it in terms of what I would be doing in the future, but I am extremely confident in my ability to describe my routine in the past tense. I also feel like I would be able to communicate basic information to a customs officer including, age, name, nationality, home address and gender.Overall, I feel like I achieved all of my semester learning goals and feel confident about my progress with them. As always there are areas where I am more comfortable than others, but with more time I feel like I could completely master them all. I think that each week I felt that I needed to add new things to my Farsi arsenal, which did not allow me to learn some things as thoroughly as others, and if I could do it again I would certainly spend more time on certain aspects and limit the amount of vocabulary I was trying to learn. But still, I feel confident about what I know and what I learned.
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