a tricky week
This past week was a tricky one in terms of making sure my Luganda study got the attention it deserved. In the end, it did, but I really had to force it, rework my schedule, be disciplined, and prioritize. In the long run this may lead me to not getting enough sleep... but I guess we'll just see about that when we get there.
However, my determination this week, to be better about making sure I got some significant time in with my language study, paid off. My studying was a bit uneven (some days I only did some vocabulary work using Quizlet's long-term learning feature, other days I spent hours on multiple activities), but at least it got the job done.
Since I fell a little behind on the long-term learning work over the break I have a backlog of words to get to, and so I have been trying to catch back up with that. I spent time on this on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
On Thursday I spent several hours working on a couple of things. First, I finally started to watch the Jesus movie that Regina introduced us to. I watched about 20 minutes of it. I really enjoyed watching because, like Regina, it is a bit easier for me to pick up words and understand meaning since I know the outline of the story. While I certainly don't understand entire sentences or paragraphs or anything (especially at the SPEED that they talk!), I definitely can understand phrases and glean meaning out of parts throughout. And, as I watched I noticed the words that they were repeating - words that I haven't yet learned - and came up with some hypotheses about them, and then looked them up. It was a great experience and I'm looking forward to my next 20 minutes of time with the Jesus Film! (Thanks again, Regina, for the tip!)
Also on Thursday, and again on Sunday, I spent some time on the activities that Lindsay prepared for our Luganda website. I did the first worksheet, as indicated on my ISP. I also spent another hour or so working on some writing prompts that Simon gave me on Sunday.
One challenge this week, in addition to the general strain on my time, is that I have had a really hard time pinning down my language mentor. I'm not sure what exactly is going on, but he didn't show up for our meeting on Wednesday, and then today he also missed our meeting. We Whatsapped a bit later in the day and he apologized and said he could meet me tomorrow - but it's at a time that doesn't work for me. I am a bit worried that either our schedules aren't going to match up in the end, or that this reflects a pattern that I won't be in a position to do much about. Cross your fingers for me - hopefully we can iron this out soon!
This coming week, I hope to try the flashcard prompt idea that Professor Thompson shared on the Facebook group. Especially since my conversation practice has been slow to start, it'll be good to do this. Additionally, I'm really excited about the role play prompts that she pointed us to. These are a great help for this purpose, but additionally, they help me get a better sense of what the ACTFL standards might look like in practice.
Overall, I think that the week ahead is going to be just as tough as this past week, but there's not much I can do about it but put my head down and try my best.
However, my determination this week, to be better about making sure I got some significant time in with my language study, paid off. My studying was a bit uneven (some days I only did some vocabulary work using Quizlet's long-term learning feature, other days I spent hours on multiple activities), but at least it got the job done.
Since I fell a little behind on the long-term learning work over the break I have a backlog of words to get to, and so I have been trying to catch back up with that. I spent time on this on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
On Thursday I spent several hours working on a couple of things. First, I finally started to watch the Jesus movie that Regina introduced us to. I watched about 20 minutes of it. I really enjoyed watching because, like Regina, it is a bit easier for me to pick up words and understand meaning since I know the outline of the story. While I certainly don't understand entire sentences or paragraphs or anything (especially at the SPEED that they talk!), I definitely can understand phrases and glean meaning out of parts throughout. And, as I watched I noticed the words that they were repeating - words that I haven't yet learned - and came up with some hypotheses about them, and then looked them up. It was a great experience and I'm looking forward to my next 20 minutes of time with the Jesus Film! (Thanks again, Regina, for the tip!)
Also on Thursday, and again on Sunday, I spent some time on the activities that Lindsay prepared for our Luganda website. I did the first worksheet, as indicated on my ISP. I also spent another hour or so working on some writing prompts that Simon gave me on Sunday.
One challenge this week, in addition to the general strain on my time, is that I have had a really hard time pinning down my language mentor. I'm not sure what exactly is going on, but he didn't show up for our meeting on Wednesday, and then today he also missed our meeting. We Whatsapped a bit later in the day and he apologized and said he could meet me tomorrow - but it's at a time that doesn't work for me. I am a bit worried that either our schedules aren't going to match up in the end, or that this reflects a pattern that I won't be in a position to do much about. Cross your fingers for me - hopefully we can iron this out soon!
This coming week, I hope to try the flashcard prompt idea that Professor Thompson shared on the Facebook group. Especially since my conversation practice has been slow to start, it'll be good to do this. Additionally, I'm really excited about the role play prompts that she pointed us to. These are a great help for this purpose, but additionally, they help me get a better sense of what the ACTFL standards might look like in practice.
Overall, I think that the week ahead is going to be just as tough as this past week, but there's not much I can do about it but put my head down and try my best.
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