Midterm Reflection, and Revising My Goal/Activity Statement

二学きは六週間おわった？？？早そうだね！

It seems like it passed by very quickly, but it has been a good semester so far for Japanese. What has helped me a lot: 日本語のテーブル！A couple times I even went three times in one week! For weeks I had seen no progress, but now I can see how my speaking and listening are both much stronger.

Speaking:
++ It is becoming more natural for Japanese to roll out of my mouth. Some phrases and phrase-endings, come out automatically, such as "～かった", or "～ですね". It's fun!

++ I memorized half of 雨ニモマケズ when I shadowed it for PE, and I often quote it to myself throughout the day.

-- FLUENCY: I still have a long way to go in fluency. I often pause, stumble, stutter, and grope for words when I am in conversation. This is a big problem, still.

-- PITCH: The professors have told me that my pitch is unstable a lot when I talk--I change the way I pronounce the same word when I am talking. This is something I don't recognize in myself when I talk, so I need more practice with OJAD or with careful listening to native pitch patterns.


 
Listening:
++ At the dinner tables, I am able to understand much more of what people say, maybe about 50% of what I hear. The repeated patterns I recognize more now, and I am able to sort out some of the inflections from the stems much more automatically now.

-- I have not practiced listening to Japanese materials at all, such as audiobooks or TV shows.

+- I still do not understand many things at what people at language table say when they speak quickly or use words I do not know, but this is giving me practice with trying to understand the general meaning of what they are talking about.

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Revisions on the Goal/Activity Statement
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• Area 1: Fluency in Speech 

I will focus my speaking practice efforts on 日本語のテーブル 

(2 to 3 times per week)

I will plan out when I can fit office hours into my schedule 

(Especially ask about pitch pattern-practice)

• Area 2: Listening and Understanding 

  Go to 日本語のテーブル

Look for poems to memorize