Cycle 3 Reflection Statement

After classes let out in December the time that I was able to devote to pronunciation exercises was dramatically reduced mostly due to having to produce about 75 pages of work for my seminar papers. I had developed a pretty effective routine in which I was practicing some sort of pronunciation exercise (whether it be the shadowing material on blackboard or youtube videos made by learners/teachers of Japanese) about every other day. I definitely notice the progress I've made, but I certainly have a lot of room of improvement. For example, I feel much more comfortable with my ability to pronounce as well as hear special moras. Towards the beginning of the semester I was very worried about this aspect of the Japanese language as nothing similar exists in any of the other languages I know. The PE have really helped me in that regard.

In general, I feel that the PE are enormously helpful. However, it took me a bit of time to realize how to properly engage with them. I initially set very intangible goals that were unrealizable in many ways. As the semester has progressed I am finding that the more tangible I make the goals the better the results. It's perhaps better to set more modest goals if they are completely tangible and realizable than a more ambitious goal that is easily circumvented whether intentionally or unintentionally. For next semester I plan to be more creative with my PE and to keep them very tangible.