Reflections and Revised Goal Statement

Reflection: The past 7 weeks have been busier than I've expected, and it was hard for me to keep with the activities and goals I had planned. The PE exercises have been very helpful in getting me to pay better attention to the intonation and rhythm of words. I've made progress towards my goals of improving my intonation, something the shadowing exercises have been very helpful in accomplishing. Not all of my planned activities have gone so well, however.

• I managed to attend the Tuesday Japanese language table only twice. 
• I had hoped to be able to watch some anime occasionally for listening practice, but it turned out that I didn't get much time to watch at all. In the next few weeks, I'll try to save some time on the weekend to watch.
• I started to set up an Anki flashcard deck with all cumulative vocab words, and any other words encountered in class. I'll try to go through the deck more regularly to refresh my vocabulary. 
• I met once with my Language Fellows Program mentor, but have not been able to find a good time between that meeting and midterms. 
• I do occasionally get a chance to practice reading and recognizing hiragana from encountering words on websites and food labels. 

For the next few weeks, I'll focus on getting more regular practice with Japanese by adding specific review times into my routine and schedule. 

• I will try to attend the language table at least 3+ times.  
• I will find a time each weekend to watch at least 1 episode of anime for shadowing.
• Each morning after waking up and evening before bed, I'll spend up to 10 minutes going through Anki flashcards which are due for review.

New Goal Statement: To gain a firmer knowledge of vocabulary in order to be able to speak at a natural pace and with greater confidence. I have found that learning and remembering all the vocabulary has been the hardest part for me, and is keeping me from being able to speak naturally.