Final Reflection
This past semester, I took Italian Language and Culture at the Intermediate level. Overall, it was the most challenging class I took this semester and overall during my time at Georgetown. I knew it was going to be challenging given that it is an intensive class and I felt like the work assigned for the class was manageable. I did find myself studying on average for about 30-60 minutes every day outside of class and assignments to keep up with my classmates. I think if I did not actively study I would not be able to maintain conversations with classmates in class.
I treated the quizzes as exams and would study for them like I would an exam in another class. It was frustrating at times because I felt like I put so much effort into studying and preparing for quizzes and it did not translate into how I performed/did on the quizzes. I do think my scores improved throughout the semester as I found the most effective ways to prepare for them.
Taking this class has definitely helped me in becoming more comfortable with participating. Many of the classes I have taken have been in large lecture groups and I have not been able to or I did not feel comfortable participating in. This class, however, I became very comfortable with reading out loud and asking questions. I was able to work on my pronunciation from reading out loud in almost every class. I also practiced this at home when reading “In Altre Parole” which I read out loud to my roommate every day. I think my pronunciation has improved a lot from the beginning of the semester. One of my goals was to improve my pronunciation, which although I still have a lot of work to do, I believe I have achieved this goal to the best of my ability so far.
One of my other goals was to improve my conversational skills and be able to maintain a conversation with another person. I believe that I have made great progress in achieving this goal and I find myself having fluid conversations with my classmates. I still have a lot of work to do but I have definitely improved from last semester.
I read through some of my “il mio portfolio” assignments from last semester and the first part of this semester. I have improved a lot in both my writing and speaking skills. The recording of my voice threads from earlier assignments feel rough and are hard to listen to. My newer voice threads are more fluid and stronger in my pronunciation of words. My sentences in the writing section and blog posts have become a lot longer and more in-depth.
So far, I am most proud of my performance on Quiz 3. I studied and prepared a lot for that quiz as well as going to the Italian tutor at Georgetown. That was the highest I had scored on a quiz this semester and it felt like my hard work finally paid off.
I really enjoyed learning about il calcio or soccer. Soccer is a sport I knew very little about before taking this class and now I feel like I have a much better understanding of how important soccer is to Italy and other European countries. It was interesting to learn about how invested fans are in the movie “è stata la mano di Dio”. I have never been that invested into a sport but I am not interested in it.
In the future of my Italian studies, I plan to continue to practice my pronunciation and my conversation skills. I would like to reach some level of fluency someday where I can maintain strong conversations with native Italian speakers. I would like to study abroad in Italy hopefully during my junior year. I hope when I do so I will be able to do well in meeting new people and going to school there. I would like to be able to work in Italy someday if I achieve the required fluency to do so.
I plan on continuing to take Italian classes at Georgetown as well as taking lessons from a tutor when I am unable to do so at Georgetown. I plan on continuing to be vulnerable in these classes by putting myself out there and participating a lot in class.
Learning Objectives – 01/20
This semester I would like to further improve my conjugation skills. Right now I am struggling with knowing when to use essere versus avere. I hope to have this mastered by the end of the semester. I worked on my pronunciation a great deal the last two months of the semester and I plan to continue this. At home I have been reading passages in Italian out loud but I still have a long way to go. I would like to be able to hold a conversation with a native italian as well. Overall I really just want to further my abilities in understanding and pronunciation this semester so I can have a strong foundation moving forward with the language. It is all still very new to me so I have a lot of work to do
I have always loved learning about different cultures and I think learning a new language is the best way to immerse myself in another culture. My dad studied Italian in college and always talked about how much he enjoyed being able to speak Italian to native Italian speakers when he studied abroad. I would like to study abroad as well as possibly living and working in a foriegn country. I am interested in living in a European country, post-college, and working a real job where I can communicate fluently with native speakers. I have always been fascinated by European history and would like to learn as much as I can about Italy’s history as well as the culture.
Goals and Objectives for the class:
- develop a solid foundation for learning Italian
- learn about Italian art and elements of Italian history
- be able to hold and communicate naturally in a conversation with another person
- understand native Italian speakers while they talk/be able to understand what it would be like communicating with someone in Italy
Le Mie Riflessioni 2:
Looking back at my first reflection paper I am happy to say that I have accomplished many of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year. I definitely learned a lot considering I knew no Italian going into college. I have learned a lot about the culture which I look forward to expanding on next semester in Italian. I found learning about the cultural differences between Northern and Southern Italy particularly interesting and did not know anything about the differences between them. I enjoyed the food unit a lot as I have always been a fan of Italian cuisine and will continue to learn more about that.
On top of that I believe taking Italian has pushed me out of my comfort zone in many ways. I have always had issues with word pronunciation; it became more difficult when I started learning Spanish in high school. Sometimes it makes me unmotivated to try because it can feel hopeless at times. Going into Italian I had the goal of becoming proficient in the language. With this goal in mind I was willing to work hard to make this happen.
At the beginning of the year I became pretty unmotivated in the class because I felt like my classmates had much more experience in Italian than I had. I went into the class believing that everyone was in the same place as me with having no experience with the language but this was naive. Pushing through this was difficult but I realized that I wouldn’t become proficient if I was unmotivated. Throughout most of the class I did feel that I was probably the least knowledgeable with the language which was challenging but it also made me feel very accomplished after pushing through this. I knew from the beginning that I would have to put in extra effort compared to my classmates to feel caught up. However, I was willing to do this because I really do love learning and learning a new language. There were definitely points where I felt very helpless but I do believe it made me a stronger student in the end.
I also feel prepared for my next chapter of Italian. I know where my weaker points are and I plan on continuing to address and practice. For example, I try to read 2 new Italian textbook passages every week then practice those passages every day for the week. It has helped me a lot so far. I also believe that meeting with Professor Hipwell weekly during office hours helped significantly. Prior to those meetings I would try to pronounce the words and not give much afterthought even though I knew that I was not pronouncing the words correctly. Part of me believed some day I would just be able to and the other part of me was hopeless.
Overall, I am impressed with how much I learned in such a short time and I plan on continuing my journey with Italian and hopefully someday I will be able to speak with native speakers proficiently and hold conversations well.
