One year is very short length of time when considering how much one needs to accomplish day-to-day. As someone who has never lived outside of the U.S. (California at that), I imagine that this will be a very important opportunity for developing my non-native language skills, cultural awareness, and sense of self. With this in mind, I have a number of goals that I will accomplish while I am abroad that I will outline here for your viewing pleasure.
Goals 1. Reaching Fluency (if not close): - Simply put, my major of study in college is the Japanese language, and as such, it will be imperative for me to take every single opportunity to develop a well rounded reading, speaking, writing, and listening ability. By well rounded, I mean the ability to behave appropriately within a given language context. For example, buying groceries at a local market, speaking with teachers with deference, asking for directions and readings maps, and of course, carrying on conversations ranging from a number of subjects with a reasonable level of fluency. Fluency does not mean perfection. I can imagine that I won't be able to actively participate in discussions of highly specialized subjects (science, government), but the end goal is to reach a level of speaking in which I am confident, fairly accurate, adaptable, and in possession of a nice solid foundation to work from. - There is only one way to achieve this: use Japanese as often as possible, as much as possible. Every single opportunity I have for a conversation I will need to approach with a heightened sense of awareness. Listening for the words I don't know, and for the words I do know. Keeping tabs of words that are used frequently in speech. What kinds of speakers frequently use these words? Men, women, children, youth, elderly, middle class, upper class. Where are these words being used? In a classroom, at a store, in a home, conference, business meeting, in a fixed media context (animated films or live action). How are these words being used? Is the meaning clear from a shallow glance, or are there implications that only native speakers or cultural insiders would know? What's appropriate to say in English that isn't appropriate in Japanese and vice versa. All of these things have to be considered quick enough without loosing the rest of the conversation's content. It will take practice and heightened awareness. A lot of it. 2. Passive --> Active: - I do not consider myself to be the most graceful person in social situations, nor do I consider myself to be very sociable for that matter. But language at its core is a social tool, and in order to perfect my fluency with this tool it is imperative of me to go out of my way to use it. As stated earlier, every social setting provides an opportunity for a novel conversation. But the opportunity will be wasted if I don't go out of my way to seize it. - With this in mind, I will need to go out of my way to initiate conversations, while also being aware of where I stand in relation to my interlocutor. I will try to make friends, but not smother anyone with my eagerness. I will speak as much as possible, without domineering the conversation. And of course, I will listen for the words, while also listening for the meaning. 3. Keeping Complacency at Bay: - I have found that there are times in my studies when I seem to be making great progress, and that upon personal reflection I develop a sense of self satisfaction that is detrimental to my own drive for further self development. In other words, being cocky can lead to complacency. It is often my wish to communicate my ideas that lead me to study different grammatical patterns and to learn new words. -So with that being said, in order to develop my own linguistics skills, I need to develop my own interests and reasons for wanting to speak. I may be able to communicate effectively what I want at the moment: "I want Coffee"/ 「コーヒーが欲しいんです。」Simple right? But that's not a well developed, satisfying conversation. Expressing aspirations, talking about past events, one's emotional state in depth, learning how to describe the qualities of something and ask questions about words that one doesn't know without breaking out of Japanese. How do will I learn these things and keep complacency at an arms length? Simple: spontaneity. In terms of speaking Japanese, I already do this on a daily basis while reviewing my flash cards. If I am prompted with a specific grammar point, then I must make at least 1 novel sentence, or I can't consider that card completed. I can practice previous ways of using that card, because practice makes perfect, but novelty and spontaneity are key. This goes with words as well. If I am prompted a word, I must produce a completely novel sentence. If I don't strive for novelty, I become bored. There is no simpler way of expressing it. While in Japan, I will apply this same principal to my daily life by simply trying new things. Today I will go to the public park, and maybe later I will go to a museum. The next day I will go to a cafe, and later go shopping for groceries. My friend plans on serving as a guide for me during my winter break of studying in Japan, so I expect there to be a plethora of new things I can enjoy and learn how to express. If I haven't driven this point home yet, I will sum it up: try new things, its good for your development.
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May 2019
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