One of my goals this semester was to get comfortable enough with speaking Mandarin to use it in a short conversation outside of this class, because in the summer, I worked at Wesbrook Community Centre, and there were sometimes community members there who preferred to speak in Mandarin. Since I am not working there anymore, there hasn't really been a time this semester when the opportunity came up to have a conversation in Mandarin, however, I do feel like if I had to now I could have a short conversation. I have noticed that I gradually started to feel like the conversations I had in oral practices were flowing better - the first week I was definitely really nervous, but in the more recent weeks I don't feel like I have to spend as much time processing what my practice partner said or planning what I will say before responding, I can just start talking. Another goal was to feel more confident speaking out loud - I did follow through with reading out loud to myself a lot when doing homework exercises and I think it did help.
I thought that filming the midterm project was really fun! It was a little embarrassing at first, because we had to speak very loudly in public (like outside the Nest, in the Life building, etc.) but it was also very funny and an enjoyable experience!
As for future goals, I would definitely like to continue learning Mandarin because I want to be able to use it occasionally for work - I still hope to work in municipal government or something related to urban planning. I am not sure if CHIN 333 will fit into my schedule next semester, but if it is ever available as a summer course I would take it!
祝你们放假快乐！谢谢！
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