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This is a picture of a text conversation I had with Lena about our language session.  

Translation: 

Lena - Hello, are you doing well? Our class today will be held in the library, see you then!

Me - Yes, I'm doing well.  How about you, Lena? Where is the library?

Lena - I'm also doing well.  The library is in front of the Thomas building. 

Me - Ah, really? Thank you.  Then I'll see you in the library!

• Reflect on your experiences as a language teacher and learning in this latest speed-dating workshop. What difficulties did you encounter? How did you successfully relay concepts that were foreign to your classmates as your students? If you were eventually granted the opportunity to teach a full semester-long course on the target language, what strategies would you adopt?

In preparation for this workshop, I tried to pick something to teach that was short and easy to understand for someone who has never been exposed to Korean before, yet also interesting enough that people who have started learning Korean would want to listen.  It is difficult to teach something about a language that doesn't start with the basics to someone who is at the beginner level.  In order to make my concepts more understandable, I wrote the words in both Hangul and in a romanized form so everyone could read it.  I also opted to use a whiteboard to write out the concepts as I said them because I feel that helps people to better follow what I'm saying.  

If I were teaching a foreign language class, there are several strategies I would use.  First of all, I would have everyone take the learning test to see how each individual best learns a language and then split them into groups based off of that result.  I think textbook learning is important but conversational is very helpful as well, so I would go around and have conversations with the groups, but without a lot of pressure to practice that branch of the language. 

I also feel that games are a fun and effective method of teaching that includes having the students repeat what you're saying instead of just listening to an hour of instruction.  In my language learning experience, I have also found that songs are very helpful in remembering vocabulary words and grammar usage.  Not just practice but frequent practice is definitely key, so I would probably assign a lot of homework that includes more than just reading and writing to make sure the students are exposed to all aspects of the language.  

• First Artifact:  Record and post a conversation that reviews what you learned in SDLC 110 and adds something you have learned in weeks 1 - 3.
• In your learning journal, post an evaluation of your First Artifact conversation.  Evaluate your artifact for accent, cultural appropriateness, and linguistic accuracy.

Here is the introduction that I recorded for this artifact:

Recording%20SDLC%20.mp3

This piece is a recording of my personal introduction. In Portuguese I say:

Me chamo Taiyaba, sou de LA e tenho vinte um anos de idade. Sou uma estudante na Universidade de Richmond. Estou estudando contabilidade. Eu vou trabalhar em Philadelphia ano que vem, em uma empresa chamada Vanguard.

In english, I say "My name is Taiyaba, I am from LA and I am 21 years old. I am a students at University of Richmond. I am studying Accounting. I am going to work in Philadelphia next year, in a business named Vanguard. 

Evaluation:

After recording my first artifact, I realize how important my Spanish comes into understanding, comprehending, and reading Portuguese. However, I see how that it also puts me at a disadvantage when it comes to pronunciation. I was so tempted to pronounce the introduction like it was Spanish and not in Portuguese. I am so used to hearing that Spanish-style of talking and pronunciation of words, that even when i wrote down the Portuguese pronunciations, and practiced them over and over again, I was tempted to revert back to the Spanish way of saying the words because it was more comfortable to me.

I need to work on becoming more comfortable with Portuguese words and pronunciations, and I need to separate the two languages in my head, so I become less confused. I think that this will be a point of contention throughout the semester, and in order to prepare myself, I want to work on creating a list of similar Spanish versus Portuguese words so I can start to see patterns in the two, and be better at differentiation.

• Fifth Cultural Post:  Reflect upon what you have learned about the culture(s) you have been studying.

I have learned so much about Brazilian culture during this semester, that I feel as though I have opened my eyes to a new way of life. First, I want to start off by saying I was not that interested in Brazilian culture to begin with. Like I have said in my earlier posts, I was more interested in learning Portuguese from Portugal as well learning about its customs, food, and music. This was primarily because I always saw Brazil as a huge country that seemed complicated to travel in, unsafe, and very expensive to get to. I saw Portugal as a cheaper flight destination, easier to travel in, more safe, and more English speakers which makes it more comfortable for me. I thought that realistically I would visit Portugal more than I would Brazil. However, having a language partner from Brazil changed my viewpoint. I now see Brazil not as complicated, but as unique and vibrant.It might be unsafe, but that just calls for more precautions and safety measures to be taken in advanced. Brazil is a wonderful and beautiful country sprawling with diversity and funk, and has a laid-back, relaxed lifestyle that it is known for around the world. Brazil is so huge that if you live in the Northern part of the country, it would be faster to take a plane from that area to Miami, then it would be to take a plane from the North to the South of Brazil. It is facts like this that constantly fascinate me about Brazil.

I have also learned that Portuguese is not only in Brazil and Portugal, but spread out in many other countries due to colonization. It is fascinating to know that there are pockets of Portuguese speakers in India, Indonesia, China, and even Malaysia!

Lastly, I learned how similar Portuguese is to Spanish, and I believe that I could get around Brazil and Portugal just because of the knowledge that I have acquired through this course, and my previous knowledge of Spanish. As this was my main reason for taking this course, I am glad that I have accomplished my ultimate goal!

I want to continue on this journey of discovering Portuguese culture, and I want to start by learning some recipes that I can make at home this summer. Using the cooking website my partner and I found earlier this semester, I will work on making simple recipes to experience a taste of Brazil. I hope in the near future I can experience Portuguese up-close with a trip to Brazil or Portugal!

Brazilian%20Geography-2.pptx

• Fourth Artifact:  Document a learning task that you have completed.

One of the learning tasks I wanted to work on was to learn about animals so that I could talk about them, as I love animals! My partner and I worked on creating a list of common animals, which I put down below. First we had me guess how to pronounce a word based on what I have learned so far from Portuguese and from my experience with Spanish. Then my partner corrected me if I was wrong, and had me write down the word she said, so I able to work with listening and then writing what I heard. Here is the list of animals that we came up with:

Cachorro (cajoho) - dog

Gato - cat

Elefante - elephant

Girafa  -giraffe

Jacaré - alligator

Cavalo - horse

Cabra- female goat

Bode- male goat

Rato - rat (sounds like hato)

Um rato come queijo

Cobra- snake

Lagarto- lizard

dinossauro - dinosaur

Passáro- bird

Passarinho → birdy

Arara → from Rio (Disney movie)

Aranha → spider

Formiga → ant

Coelho → rabbit

Golfinho → dolphin

Tubarão → shark

Arraia → stingray

• Post your sixth bi-weekly report on your language-learning activities.  

Now that we are at the end of the semester, we have begun to look back at the remaining things left on my learning plan, and figuring out what I want to learn before we end our sessions. We have also begun reviewing everything we have learned this semester, and talking about what I should focus on for the exam. I’m glad that we are reviewing everything now, because I am realizing the vast amount of material that I learned in such a short time, and I’m really proud of myself for being able to begin this journey of learning Portuguese. I am certain that I will continue learning Portuguese after graduation through using the skill sets and knowledge I have gained through this class.

I am also glad that we have the opportunity to still talk about what I want to learn for our remaining sessions. I really love traveling and food, one of the things I would love to do in my life is start a traveling vlog eating and traveling my way across the world. I think that Brazil is one of those places I would love to do that in, and so for our next sessions I want to focus on what culture and customs are like in Brazil, and how to get around(transportation), what foods to try, how to be safe, etc. I think this would be real knowledge that I could use in the near future, and that could also help me understand more about Brazil’s unique culture and people.

• Fourth Cultural Post

For this post I wanted to focus on all the Portuguese speaking countries in the world. I am still fascinated by how many different countries throughout the world speak Portuguese, and I would love to be able to share my thoughts on it through this post.

The countries that speak Portuguese are: Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe. However, Portuguese is not a primary language in all of these countries: it is actually a secondary language for every country but Brazil, Portugal and, São Tomé and Príncipe. The reason for the existence of Portuguese in these countries is due to colonization. There are other countries throughout the world that have pockets of Portuguese descendants and speakers, but they were not listed because the population is very small and Portuguese is not the primary or secondary language in that country. Some examples include Chaul and Goa in India, and Flores Island in Indonesia.

More than 250 million people worldwide use Portuguese daily. Portuguese is the fastest growing European language after English, and more and more countries are making Portuguese as part of their learning curriculum. For example, Portuguese is already a mandatory language in the schooling systems of Uruguay and Argentina.

It comes to no surprise then, that Portuguese is a high demand language that more and more college students are aiming to learn to increase their career opportunities. Much of this is due to the increasing importance of Brazil’s developing economy and impact on international policy trade. There is huge potential of new market opportunities and expansion in Brazil, and Brazil’s further influence on surrounding countries such as Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina, makes learning Portuguese even more important.

Working on this post has made me realize the spread and growth of the Portuguese language. I am glad that I am getting this exposure to Portuguese now, because I would love to be part of the ever-growing Portuguese community, that will be so important for business in the future.

• Third Artifact:  Document a learning task that you have completed.

One of the tasks in my learning plan was to listen to a Portuguese song and translate what it was saying. We did that for a Portuguese song, but then decided to flip the concept on itself, and translate a English song to Portuguese and try to understand how different it was afterwards. We decided to translate the English song. “Bad at Love,” by Halsey to Portuguese. I have listed the translation below. Through this task I learned about what words fit what situations in Portuguese, I learned a lot of new words, I learned how to pronounce these words, and most importantly, I learned how to translate English words to Portuguese words on the spot. I think this exercise really helped me focus on what words to use in Portuguese, and develop my comprehension ability.

Bad at love:

Got a boy back home in Michigan

Tenho um cara lá em MIchigan

And it tastes like Jack when I'm kissing him

E o gosto é de Jack quando eu estou beijando ele

So I told him that I never really liked his friends

Então eu falei que eu nunca realmente (sounds like he-all-menche) gostei dos amigos dele  

Now he's gone and he's calling me a bitch again   | (the -ing from EN becomes -ando in PT)

Agora ele se foi e ele está me chamando de vadia

There's a guy that lives in a garden state

Tem um cara que mora no “Garden State” (Garden ⇒ jardim; State ⇒ estado)

And he told me that we make it 'til we graduate

E ele me disse (sounds like djisse) que nós vamos durar até que nos formemos

(to last ⇒ durar) and (graduation ⇒ formatura)

So I told him the music would be worth the wait

Então eu falei que a música valeria a pena a espera

(to be worth it ⇒ valer a pena)

But he wants me in the kitchen with a dinner plate

Mas ele me quer na cozinha com um prato de jantar (dinner ⇒ janta)

I believe that we're meant to be

Eu acredito que nós fomos feitos um para o outro

(fazer ⇒ to make, feito ⇒ made) (um- one, para- for, o- the, outro other)

But jealousy gets the best of me

Mas o ciumes me vence (beats me)

Look, I don't mean to frustrate, but always make the same mistakes

Olha, eu não quero te frustrar, mas sempre cometo (to make [mistakes]) os mesmos erros (ehos)

I'm bad at love but you can't blame me for tryin' You know I'd be lyin' sayin'

Eu sou ruim com amor, mas você não pode (poge) me culpar (to blame) por tentar, você sabe que eu estaria (I would) mentindo (menchindo) (lying), dizendo que

You were the one That could finally fix me
Você era o único (only one) que poderia finalmente (finalmenche) me consertar (to fix)

(could ⇒ -ia at the end of words)

Got a girl with California eyes

Tenho uma garota com olhos de California

And I thought that she could really be the one this time

E eu pensei que ela poderia realmente ser "a pessoa certa" (the right person) dessa vez

But I never got the chance to make her mine

Mas eu nunca tive (tchive) a chance de fazer ela minha (mine ⇒ meu/minha)

Because she fell in love with little thin white lines

Porque ela se apaixonou com pequenas e finas linhas brancas

(paixão ⇒ passion, then apaixonar ⇒ fall in love)

London girl with an attitude We never told no one but we look so cute

Garota de Londres com uma atitude (atchi-tu-de), nós nunca contamos para ninguém, mas ficamos bem juntas (to look good together)

Both got way better things to do But I always think about it when I'm riding through

Nós duas temos coisas (things) muito (way) melhores (better) para fazer (to do), mas eu sempre penso em nós (think about us) quando estou passando por lá

• Post your fifth bi-weekly report on your language-learning activities.

These past weeks we have been focused on food words and their alternative sounds, and the difference between: É and E. Food wise, we talked about common foods in Brazil and then looked up recipes online. We used this website: http://www.tudogostoso.com.br to look at recipes and talk about how to make some of them. We also read some recipes and I learned some cooking terms, measurement terms, and also learned what Brazilian foods are popular! Everything looked so delicious! Afterwards we came up with alternative spellings of words, what I mean by this is that we came up with a list of  words that sounded differently to me than they were written. I have written the list that we came up with below. Doing this made me realize the difference between hearing “ge” and “che” “je”. Finally, we looked at the difference between É and E. Though subtle, the accent makes the difference between the two vast. É means ‘is’, and E is ‘and’. This concept took me a long time to comprehend because I was so confused by the subtle difference. At first, they sounded like the exact same word to me, and I kept mixing up which word had the accent. However, I finally remembered that É means is by focusing on the fact that it has the accent because it is trying to define something while E is trying to put two words together, making it more subtle. This might not make any sense, but it is the way I got myself to remember the two.

I have learned so much these past weeks, and I’m excited for the finale! I understand so much about Brazil and Portuguese now, that I am bursting out to talk to someone about what I have learned! I have accomplished most of the things I wanted to do in my learning plan, and I think in the next few weeks we will be looking at culture again and reviewing everything learned so far.

Some words and their “alternative spelling” for pronunciation purposes

pode (poge) → can

mentindo (menchindo) → lying

finalmente (finalmenche) → finally

realmente (he-all-menche) → really

De (dje) → from

atitude (atchi-tu-de) → attitude

disse (djisse) → said

tive (tchive) → had

• Teach someone using the activity you created in Week 9; reflect upon the effectiveness of the activity.

This week I did the activity that I came up in Week 9, I taught someone the common mistakes between Spanish and Portuguese words to help them understand what are the prevalent patterns found between the words of the two languages. I have posted the list I used below.  I then said Portuguese and Spanish words to my boyfriend, who learned five years of Spanish, and asked him what he thought was the Spanish word or Portuguese word. Even though he knew all of the Spanish words, he was confused by the subtle differences in the two, for example, “tiempo” v “tempo”, or “pior” v “peor.” After I asked him about all the words on the list, I then showed him the list and then taught him the commonly made mistakes. I taught him how Portuguese uses more “is” sounds and shorter versions of spanish words, and how “mas” may mean ‘more’ in Spanish, but it means ‘but’ in Portuguese. I helped him learn more about the trickiness that occurs when you know both languages, and in the end he really understood what the differences were. This activity also made me realize deeper insights as I was teaching it, and I memorized the differences in my head as I was talking about them, without even realizing. This was a really cool assignment, and I am happy I got the opportunity to do it!

1. But:
   1. Mas
   2. Pero
2. Time:
   1. Tiempo
   2. Tempo
3. Many/much:
   1. Muito(s) ou muita(s)
   2. Mucho ou muchas
4. I had:
   1. Eu tinha
   2. Eu tenía
5. More:
   1. Más
   2. Mais
6. I am
   1. Eu sou/estou
   2. Eu soy/estoy
7. We
   1. Nosotros
   2. Nós
8. `Siblings:
   1. Hermanos y hermanas
   2. Irmãos e irmãs
9. Better:
   1. Mejor
   2. Melhor
10. Worse:
    1. Pior
    2. Peor

For my 4th artifact, I documented a cultural exercise that I completed with my language partner. This was aimed to get to know more of the Turkish culture, as coffee is an essential aspect of it. We explored the Turkish coffee culture(we made Turkish coffee) and used the cup to "predict the future." We had a conversation over a cup of coffee about Turkey and Turkish politics as well as how the Turkish coffee culture works. We did use a special "coffee app" to help understand the pictures in the coffee cup.

• Third Cultural Post

Something I have always been curious about is the diversity of Brazil. As one of the most diverse countries in the world, Brazil has an interesting mix of food, culture, music, and religions all in one country. I wanted to explore the regional differences and races within Brazil, as I don’t know particular much about this subject and would love to educate myself on it.

I learned that Brazilians trace their origins from five sources: Europeans, Amerindians, Africans, Levantines, and East Asia. Brazil also has a population of about 208,862,818 people, and is the fifth most populated country in the world. The distribution of the population is very uneven however, as most Brazilians live along the coast line, and the interior surrounding the Amazon Basin is almost bare. Most of Brazilians came from three main places: 1)Europe: these are mostly ethnic Portuguese who were forced to convert to Christianity 2)Sub-Saharan Africans 3)Indigenous People (Tupi and Guarani).  The population of Brazil based on ethnicity is as followed: White 47.7%, Mulatto 43.1%, Black 7.6%, Asian 1.1%, Indigenous 0.4%. Most European immigrants live in the southern states such as Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, and São Paulo. São Paulo alone has 30 million white people. In the northeast, the majority of people are of African or mixed-race decent, mostly on the coastline. Brazil also has the highest number of Japanese descendants outside of Japan, with about 1.8 million Japanese-Brazilians, most of whom take up residence in São Paulo.

These were some of the many facts I have learned about Brazilian ethnicities, and I can’t wait to ask my partner more about her personal experience surrounding diversity in Brazil.

• Post your fourth bi-weekly report on your language-learning activities.
  Create a learning activity to teach someone else something you have learned in your language; outline this activity in your learning journal.

This week we have been focusing on watching Portuguese Youtube videos, and trying to explain to each other what they said in English. We have also looked at a Portuguese Fashion magazine and looked at a video about living in Brazil. First we watched a Youtube vlog and then an interview a famous Brazilian blogger posted on Youtube. We quickly learned that we needed to put on subtitles so that I could translate what was being said, otherwise the way the vlogger spoke was way too fast for me to understand. Once we put on subtitles, I was able to understand 30% of what was being said. It was actually really good for me to be able to hear the natural conversations one has in Portuguese. I was able to hear that the vlogger said a lot of sounds that sounded like “che” or “dje” but that didn’t have those letters at all. Being able to hear these sounds helped me work on my pronunciation better. We then looked at a Portuguese fashion magazine, Cosmo Brazil, we read the headlines together and I tried to discern what the articles were about. We then read the horoscopes section together, and talked about what was being said. Finally, we looked at a video about daily life in Sao Paulo. It was really cool seeing my partner’s hometown and seeing how different life was in Brazil.

Learning activity to teach someone:

I want to teach someone the differences between Spanish and Portuguese words. Coming up with a list of commonly mistaken words really helped me understand why I was so confused between the two, and I think I could help someone with a Spanish background discern the differences as well. I will ask someone what they think are the differences in a list of words between Spanish and Portuguese. Then I will show them the list of differences I have, and teach them how to be aware of the two by looking at the patterns between Spanish v. Portuguese words.

• In your learning journal, reflect upon your progress to date, consider the effectiveness of your learning plan and activities, and discuss what changes--if any--you will make to finish the semester.

I think I have been making great progress overall. In individualized courses like this, it is often difficult to evaluate yourself and realize whether you are doing well on progress or not, especially when there is no metric to compare yourself to. However, when analyzing what I have learned since the start of the semester, I see how this course has changed my cultural views and enhanced my speaking abilities. Before starting this course I was really focused on going to Portugal and learning more about Portugal, not really Brazil. I wasn’t really interested in Brazil because I believed that I couldn’t go there due to safety issues and transportation difficulties. I was more interested in Portuguese because I knew it was safe, and I knew I would be able to travel there more easily. However, throughout this course, Barbara has been teaching me more and more about Brazilian culture, music, holidays, and the lifestyle. I began to realize how beautiful Brazilian culture is, and how diverse and interesting the people are. I really want to go there now, and because of that, we have been setting aside time during our learning session to work on Brazilian culture, customs, food, etc.

Furthermore, as this language is similar to Spanish, I have been able to realize patterns between the two, and even the patterns between Portuguese and English. It makes me realize how grammar and sentences structures work in latin based languages, and I have become more comfortable with saying a sentence I think makes sense based on the patterns I have learned so far.

I am not sure I will make any changes on my plan. So far we have been using my plan as a basis of what to learn, but if there is something we realize we want to do too, we do that as well, so my plan is really flexible and I don’t think there is any need to change it.

• Post your third bi-weekly report on your language-learning activities.  

These past weeks we have been focused on talking about the days of the week, months, and numbers. It hasn’t been stressful learning these words, as they are fun to say and not very difficult to remember. They are also pretty similar to Spanish, with the exception of pronunciation and the days of the week, as the day of the week is written as a number out of 7. I have written an example of what I mean by this below. I find the best way to memorize a big quantity of information that I have learned during these past two weeks, is to “chant” words to myself so I am used to saying them, and to record myself saying the words and listen to them so I remember the way I was taught to say those words. This activity really helps me remember went we learned in class and hone in my language skills. I think I have been doing well so far, and I am excited where the next few weeks take me!

Sunday → Domingo

Monday → Segunda-feira (2)

Tuesday → Terça-feiraca (3)

Wednesday → Quarta-feira (4)

Thursday → Quinta-feira (5)

Friday → Sexta-feira (6)

Saturday → Sábado (7)

• Second Artifact:  Document a learning task that you have completed.

This week we are working on common food items and what are the correct pronunciations of breakfast related words. First, Barbara and I worked on listing common food items that we ate and then I guessed how I thought it would be said based on my knowledge of Portuguese and Spanish. I actually got a lot correct! The words that I had trouble with we wrote notes on, and then Barbara told me she would be occasionally asking me about these words in the next few weeks to ensure that I knew what they were and how to pronounce them. I have written some of the words from the list we worked on today below for reference. We also worked on common responses to questions that I have written down below as well.

Cereal com leite

Banana

Manteiga de amendoim → peanut butter

Linhaça → flax seeds

Ovos → eggs

Pão  (poah) →  bread

Abacate → avocado

Tudo bem? How are you/All good?

Tudo. All good

Na verdade, não. Not good.  

E você? And you?

Não == no and Sim == yes.

• Post your second bi-weekly report on your language-learning activities.

These past few weeks we have been focusing on common food items, answering basic questions like “How are you?” “Where are you from?”, differences between Spanish and Portuguese, and finally pronunciations. I really feel as though I am getting a hold of Portuguese, and I am finally getting more comfortable with the language. As they say, practice makes perfect, and I think that looking at youtube videos of how Americans learned Portuguese, and hearing their tips on how to learn faster has helped me a lot as well. I am starting to see literal patterns in the language -- for example, no words end in n in Portuguese, instead the end in m. Pra. is short for para, but only in Brazil, not Portugal.

I am also learning an interesting side of Portuguese because I am learning Brazilian Portuguese. I have been spending more time looking at how Portuguese is different in the two countries, and I find it interesting reading about the cultural differences I never knew existed. I feel as though it is actually more interesting learning Brazilian Portuguese because it has more slang and casualness to it. I hope to explore Brazilian Culture and slang this semester because I believe it would truly be eye-opening. The next few weeks we are going to work on reading magazines, listening to more Portuguese music, common phrases, pronunciations, and casual conversations. I can’t wait for what’s in store!

I learned that Bangladesh also has a different calendar than the one we use in the US, like Ethiopia does. I learned a lot about Korean culture and how stressful both school and work life seem to be. Also respect for elders is a big deal and overall it seems that Korean culture puts a lot of pressure on students and employees because they are more collectivist than the US. The Korean wedding process seemed extremely detailed and meticulous which is interesting. What was really interesting to learn about was the contract weddings that occur in the LGTBQ community. I also thought it was interesting how Hebrew has similar gender distinctions in most words like Amharic does. Learning about the importance of the market and being able to bargain was interesting because it is similar in Ethiopia since most people do not buy things from stores like we do.

I’ve learned that being a self-directed language learner is much harder than being in a traditional class setting and being told what to learn and when to learn. As for a cultural explorer, I’ve always been someone that has been interested in other cultures so learning more about Ethiopia and Eritrean culture was definitely something that I enjoyed doing. In some ways, I liked this better because I got to learn exactly what I wanted to learn. However, sometimes staying on top of my own learning was difficult. I also found keeping my notes organized difficult. I try to learn words and phrases that are related at the same time, but if I forget one then I have to go back and add to notes if I have space. I have enjoyed learning the language that my dad speaks and it is exciting to be able to understand some of what he says when talks to his family. I also enjoyed the satisfaction of improving in the language. Since the only language I’ve ever learned is Spanish, and I always took that in school for a requirement,it was much more rewarding to improve in a language that I chose to learn myself. I plan to continue learning for a long time until I am as close to fluent as I can get. I was lucky enough to have my dad as my language partner, so I will still have someone to practice with once the semester is over. I am also going to be living at home next year so I can pick up a lot more conversational Amharic speaking with my dad and other family members. It will be more intensive than my studies now when I am living in the same house as a native speak. I will also probably go back to Eritrea and maybe Ethiopia at some point so I will be immersed in the language and see how much I have learned. On top of that, my family in America always speaks Amharic when they visit each other so I can work on trying to understand and join in the conversation.  

The readings that were most useful for me personally were the ones from the beginning of the semester that talked about tips for language learning. I have never embarked on the journey of language learning on my own, so reading those helped me figure out what I wanted to put on my learning plan and how I wanted to go about my studies. One of the activities that helped me the most was looking at the phonetic sounds because when I first began learning, I was overwhelmed by all the sounds that don’t exist in English but it was comforting in a way to see those sounds in the phonetic alphabet. I would also like to learn more about the similarities between Amharic and other languages. I know it is similar to Tigrinya, which I would like to learn as well in the future, but I want to know if there are any major similarities to languages like Arabic.