I feel compelled to open this blog entry by stating that I haven't felt as if I were in a linguistic slump, as if my language-learning had hit a brick wall, as if I were falling behind in my expectations for myself. I have not felt dismayed, disappointed, or dejected- this semester, at least. All the same, however, recently, I feel as though my language-learning has been accelerated, rejuvenated, been exposed to a "new wind."
This week, I've continued working with Quizlet, trying to minimize my flashcard construction to twenty minutes per day and maximize my study time to forty minutes per day. If I slip, however, and construct past the twenty minute mark, I make myself study double the amount I spend constructing. This is *not* a punishment, but instead a commitment. Indeed, if there are so many words to study, and I wish to spend time making flashcards to study, then I should be studying them. I mentioned last week that I would try to study in front of my family, during my visit home. First, I tested the waters by describing my flashcards to my grandma. I told her that a lot of my photos for "People" or "Family and Friends" came from my cousin's wedding, and I showed her how I marked-up the images to show relationships. She seemed to appreciate that I could incorporate both of my "worlds"- family and school/research- into one.
Also, I took it as an opportunity to tell her a little about the language. Both my grandpa and grandma were interested to know that there are different words for a family member based on who is speaking (Mawe- my mother, Mama- the mother or maternal aunt of the person speaking, Nyoko- the mother of the person being spoken to, and Nyina- the mother of another person). Grandpa thinks it would be hard to keep it straight, and admittedly, I've had to get very creative in my flashcard use. Later, however, when we got together for the baby shower that I visited home to attend, I was pointing to people and saying what their relationship would be to me or who they are in Kinyarwanda (only loud enough for those around me to hear), and grandpa was chiming in and saying what he thought I was saying in English. Although I don't think he'd say it in so many words, I think he's interested in what I do, even if he doesn't understand it all the time, and I think he's proud of me, which makes me want to be better. All that is to say practicing my language in front of family was a successful activity, and I'd like to do it more, so it is not so abstract to them.
Before I visited home for the weekend, I worked on my language-learning website. Inspired by one of my classmates, L, who is making a sincere effort to make her website for Luganda learners more interactive, I poked around mine to see what I could do to improve upon mine. Although my professor, Dr. T, has made suggestions in the past, I've often felt too intimidated by advanced software, because I am no computer whiz. This week, however, I learned how to embed my Quizlet flashcards into my language-learning website, so next week, I'd like to work on ways to incorporate them. Many of my flashcards are specific to me, insofar as they contain photos of my family and friends, so I have made them private; however, I'm thinking of creating additional ones for public consumption. Last week, I worked on my language-learning website for about thirty minutes on Monday through Thursday, but I was unable to make time over the weekend. Similarly, I made eight to ten contributions to Google Translate Monday through Thursday, because I knew I wouldn't be able to over the weekend. As I've noted previously, I enjoy contributing to these online Kinyarwanda resources, not only because teaching another is a helpful way to cement my own language knowledge, but also because it is a material way to measure my own progress.
In addition, I continued working with genocide testimony, this time, Monday through Friday, approximately twenty minutes per day.
With that said, however, I didn't produce much language myself this week, either in print or for recorded monologues. I'll try to improve upon this for next week. One of my classmates, K, asked me if I intended to publish my audio(visual) monologues. I explained to her that I did, at one point, include monologues with my blog posts, but after a while, I found it to be an anxiety-producing activity. Now, I believe it might hold me accountable to committing to them. No promises yet, but Kinyarwanda-videos forthcoming (maybe)!
Finally, my Kinyarwanda presentation proposal was accepted for World Languages Day, and I was told, by the organizer, W, that it will be the first time Kinyarwanda is on the program. So, that's exciting, but more importantly, it will give me something to prepare for, as well as provide me an opportunity to measure my own progress/knowledge by teaching others (again)!
No comments:
Post a Comment