Wow. The year is almost over and I am really happy about presenting all my hard work on this project to the world. In my original-and very unrealistic- plan, I wanted to learn THREE languages and write 100 page books in each language. Now, I realize, that in the time allotted, that was super impossible. I will be very happy if I at least finish my one book that I decided to work on. Anyway, my original plan slowly turned into a challenging, but plausible project. I have learned Italian and can understand it very well. My speaking could use some work, but everything else is proficient. This project helped me learn a lot of things. For one, I am a really diligent worker when it is something I enjoy. Also, I learned more in depth about the Holocaust and Mussolini's reign. These topics really interested me even though they did not impact society in a positive way. I have also learned that I need to stop procrastinating. If I hadn't procrastinated this year, I probably would be on about page 40 or 50 of my book at this point. Although, I WILL still finish my book even if it is only 35 pages long. Some skills I have acquired from the project are organization. I always planned my weekly homework and I even planned my homework for a whole month once! I am also really hoping to learn more languages on Duolingo including Turkish and French. The hardest part of my project was learning on Duolingo. I often got discouraged when a skill had 10 different sections within it. But, I worked hard and now my hard work will pay off by allowing me to create a great book to tell the story of a fictional family in Italy. I am most proud of my diligence in completing my homework. I didn't have any real incentives because no one was going to really check until I wrote my blog, but I always tried my best at home and, on average, spent 2 hours doing Duolingo and homework for this class. I didn't collaborate with many others because no one I knew really well could help me. Although, my mom and my sister would help me practice my knowledge by asking me to translate words into Italian. My final product did not come out as I had expected, but it is super good. Even if I only have ten pages of a book by the end of this, it will still be a huge accomplishment that I learned a language in just under a year. I learned that I am a very passionate about language learning. When I was learning Spanish in elementary school, I was fine with it, but not passionate about it. When learning Italian, I tried super hard and wanted to know everything for future travels. I also learned that I am a good planner and thinker, but I need to improve as an independent worker. When something is too hard, I just give up or say, "I'll do it tomorrow." I was surprised about the facts that everything was so much more challenging than I perceived. It was a lot more work than what I apparently thought it would be. For some reason, I believed it would be easier. I thought I could learn a language in 2 months. I've come a long way and I will continue to reach the heights of my abilities.
|