Reflections

In class, we have done a lot of listening and speaking exercises for the introduction part. These activities helped me a lot in learning German and I continued doing these outside class. Honestly, I need to listen to the audio clips over and over just to understand a few words. I continued doing these at home. It really helped that the audio clips were posted in uvle so I can listen to it more. I also tried reading articles written in German. I've tried visiting the links posted in our uvle and the articles written were quite hard to understand. But I still recognized a lot of words and parts of certain articles, especially biographies because it contains general information that we already studied in the introduction part, so I'm familiar to a lot of words. During class, I list words that I just encountered, and try memorizing it at home or to use it in a sentence.

As I said, I tried to read a lot of German articles. It really helped me because it's a kind of practice for me so I can remember what I learned from the class. Trying to find familiar words helped me to understand or at least get what the text means. Though a lot of words were still unfamiliar, the words I know served as context clues for the rest of the article.

I still don't understand German when it is already spoken. Our listening exercises were quite hard for me. If it is written, I easily understand certain words but when it is already spoken, I find it hard to recognize them. I learned that reading and writing were not enough, listening is still the most important. I need to talk to people to practice my German and also to understand it when it is already spoken. I don't know any German, so the audio clips served as my partner. I listen to these clips a lot of times, and it's fun that I'm slowly recognizing words and understanding what is being said.

I think practice is still the best thing to do. To build on my reading and writing skills, I need to practice. I need to read articles written in German without the help of dictionaries or translators, so that I may know how many words were retained on my mind. To be able to be a better listener, I must also practice my listening skills. I won't limit myself in simple audio clips. I'll also try listening to a German song and watching a German movie without a subtitle. In that way, I will also know how many words am I really familiar with and I'll focus to those I don't know.

The German class served as a challenge for me. It's very hard to learn a language that I had a very little idea of, but it's very interesting. It's like an accomplishment for me to be able to learn another foreign language. It may help me in my employment, because it's a unique thing. Not all people know German and it may be my edge when I'm looking for a job. It also gave me a lot of confidence, especially in class because all of us were "virgins" to the German language. I'm not afraid to commit mistakes and I learned that it is necessary to commit mistakes so I can correct it. I also learn not to rush things. Learning German is a step by step process, so is learning other things.