Pronunciation Exercises: Final Reflection

As my first semester at Princeton draws to a close, it's time to reflect on one of the most challenging and invigorating experiences I've faced so far in college: my pronunciation exercises in Japanese. Below is a quick recap of the revised goals I set for myself for PE back in November:

• Recognize changes in pitch
• Speak and comprehend speech up to speed
• Remember words and phrases correctly

I think I've really started to get a good grip on the first and last of my three goals, especially after I spent a good amount of time during my winter break reviewing vocab and the pitches of words. I still seem to struggle a bit with speaking and comprehending speech up to speed, although I feel as if I have made significant improvement in this area as well over the past few weeks--during our last dialogue practice on Tuesday, I was actually able to follow nearly the entire dialogue for what may have been the very first time! 

As for the methods I said I'd follow to achieve my goals, I've adhered to them a lot more closely than I had up to the reflection I posted back in November; I still watch an episode of anime every day (and I've been paying extra close attention to the dialogue to understand as much as I can, rather than merely reading the subtitles), I've created and reviewed flashcards for every chapter's vocabulary and their pitches, and I've attended office hours nearly every week since midterms. In short, I've done everything that I said I would in my revision to some extent, and I can certainly tell the difference; I seem to be improving at least somewhat in just about every facet of my Japanese-learning!

Although Japanese 101 has been extremely challenging for me and I often struggle, I can't help but look back and feel proud of all that I've learned. I can't wait to start next semester, and, ultimately, to someday reach fluency in Japanese!