Week Nine: A Stable (But Challenging) Schedule

This week, my Kinyarwanda study didn’t really witness any thrilling initiatives on my part, but this may be due to the fact that I have fallen into a comfortable pattern of study. I would argue that this is ultimately a good thing and perhaps, whether explicitly stated or not, it has been my goal since the beginning of the semester, but I still feel the need to be cautious about it. Indeed, I do not want to fall into too stable of a schedule and become complacent in my learning. Instead, I hope to continue to challenge myself and push my learning to greater/higher levels.

In order to do this, I have begun to think of new initiatives to try. One is rather small, but I think it might be helpful to me. You see, I often listen to music while completing mundane and otherwise passive tasks, such as chores, getting ready, and/or walking, and I find myself looking forward to being able to do so, as I cannot have music on while completing homework. In addition, and I think this is significant, I do not block the music out. I am listening to it, singing along, and sometimes even dancing. Accordingly, I think it might be beneficial to replace some of my music time with listening to news pieces/songs/etc in Kinyarwanda, and as I believe I would also not block it out, I might listen and be able to reproduce what is said to some degree.

I believe this technique will force me to practice listening, which, with the exception of meetings with my language partner, is a language skill that has largely been neglected in my studies thus far. In addition, it will assist me in the more cohesive incorporation of my language studies into my everyday life.

I continue to meet with my language partner, A, and I find that when we are communicating (either via text message or email), we often try to negotiate meaning in Kinyarwanda, which is helpful to me, because it is a reminder that the language is to be used, not strictly learned about in an abstract manner.

Finally, last week, my classmates in African 670: Theory and Methods of Learning a Less Commonly Taught Language all took a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, and we all reflected on our results in class. Obviously, I entered the test without attempting to bias the results, and I would like to think that I completed the appropriate amount of self-reflection to ensure the most accurate readings, and, accordingly, I received the results of INFJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judgement). The INFJ personality, in addition to a wide variety of other traits and abilities, is noted for his/her ability to learn new languages. Of course, this is my personality, according to the results of the questionnaire, but I can’t help but think that having the knowledge that my personality may be inclined toward language-learning might serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy. And that can’t be harmful to my own sense of efficacy, right?

Murakoze, kandi murabeho!