Week Eleven: Anticipation and Metacognition

            This week, my language study experienced some peaks and valleys. On the one hand, I was able to make room for some quality time with my Kinyarwanda notebook and virtual flashcards, in particular because I anticipated having a meeting with my former Kinyarwanda professor and present language partner, B. But then on the other hand… B was forced to cancel our meeting, due to a prior engagement he had forgotten about. And though the implication was that we would reschedule shortly, he has never responded to my email to do so.

            I understand that life makes other unanticipated plans for us sometimes, so I am going to select not to read into this as him not wanting to be my language partner anymore, and I will email him again shortly, trying to reschedule (Even if the African Literature Association is meeting this week, and a language conference might interfere with that a little, I am prioritizing my language study this time). Regardless of the reality that we did not meet this week, anticipating meeting with him encouraged me to do better, or short of that, at least try harder to maintain a consistent study schedule, because I knew I was going to meet with him. And I knew that I had an impressive reputation to live up to and even out-do, if possible. Accordingly, even if it is never workable in our schedule to meet, I would like him to keep up the façade that we are going to, in order to encourage me.

With that said, however, I would prefer that we still meet as scheduled. Ha.

            Also, this week, I revised my individualized study plan (ISP). As mentioned earlier in the semester, I knew that what I had planned for myself was probably over-shooting what I was capable of. Well, I was right. Reviewing my ISP, I was completely unrealistic with myself, and, of course, I knew that, but I defended this decision by saying that I would prefer to set lofty goals and not achieve them than set moderate goals and grow complacent. This is an admirable method certainly, but I think, next time, I should be a little more realistic.

            Indeed, I am a tad bit disappointed in myself, looking at what I could have accomplished (but knowing that I probably could not have accomplished it at the same time). Next time, I would like to put my metacognitive skills to better use and improve my ability to balance what I would like to accomplish with what I can accomplish, with extra attention to the methods and resources I intend to use. Because, sure, I saw this coming, but I didn’t do anything to correct it, and metacognition can only be so useful without some real-life application.