1. Upon reflecting on journal 1 (our very first blog post in this course), I can see a noticeable improvement in my level of writing in Chinese between then vs. now. Not only because of the amount of new vocabulary we learned, but also because of the new grammar structures that make our sentences seem more advanced. I think the intercultural posts made each lesson more interesting because on top of the set vocabulary and grammar that we had to learn for each lesson, this was an opportunity for us to have a "free write" and express our thoughts on the topics more freely without having a certain vocabulary/grammar requirement to meet. I actually learned many new words this way! Although in my first journal I wrote about how I hoped to learn more Chinese slang because I thought it would be fun and interesting, I've realized now that the stuff we learned in class is much more useful! It's important for us to have the proper foundation of all the basics in a language before learning things like slang or else it can get confusing. The reason why I wanted this initially was because learning language in a classroom setting is obviously much more formal than if for example someone were to learn it on their own by travelling to China, and since I mainly wanted to learn Chinese to be able to communicate with other Chinese speakers in a more conversational setting, I thought learning slang would help me with that. However, throughout this semester I did do something else that helped me with sounding more like a fluent speaker! I would basically take note of any extra vocabulary words that were mentioned in class (not included in the lessons) that I thought were interesting, and I would search them up after class to see how they were typically used in everyday conversation, or even just ask 李老师 about it! I think this really helped extend my learning beyond the classroom and ultimately allowed me to advance my conversational Chinese speaking skills.
2. I can't pinpoint a single meaningful/joyful experience I had during my time learning Chinese, but only because I enjoyed much of my time in this class!! 李老师 made every class enjoyable, and she made learning very interesting and easy to understand. I felt that not only was she good at teaching, but she also had a good understanding of how we were as a class. What I mean by this is that I felt she could sense when something didn't make sense to us/if we needed further explanation about something/if we required more examples & practice for a specific grammar structure for example. Often times when people are learning a new language, they are afraid/embarrassed to ask for help or clarification on something, but I feel like 李老师 could kind of just sense when we didn't understand something, and that's part of what makes her an awesome teacher!!! <3
3. I feel like my goal for learning Mandarin is sort of the same as the one I had going into this class. Although I feel that I have improved a lot, I think I haven't fully reached the speaking level that I had hoped for. Despite learning many new vocabulary words and grammar structures, I don't feel exactly confident in my speech, but this can only come if I continue to practice! so I am excited to see what the future brings and where my Chinese learning journey will take me!!
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