Week 7

 

    Spanish went super well this week! I managed to do just one lesson every day like I had planned and I managed to finish unit 2. I think I will keep going at this pace, but I'll have to rework the math to see when exactly I'll finish the entire Duolingo Spanish tree. I'm really looking forward to getting into the past tense lessons that are coming up in this unit and I'd like to start looking for new ways to take in more Spanish media.

    Considering my new occupation in terms of identity formation, I think that the goal setting section in the reading described my situation perfectly. Our identities are built from our actions and choices. Goal setting is a type of intentional identity construction. We purposely imagine a future self in our minds that we aspire to be. In a few more months, weather I have succeeded or failed though, this attempt at learning Spanish will be assimilated into my life story. It will either be the time I knuckled down and attained a third language for the benefit of my patients, or the time my passion puttered away.

    I would have to admit that one factor guiding my choice in occupation was societal. Individuals who can speak Spanish in the job market definitely have a leg up when compared to others. . But another factor that assisted my decision was the way that learning Spanish appealed to my sense of efficacy. The occupation of language learning allows me to say in myself that I can do something incredibly difficult and use it to help those around me. This affirmation of efficacy makes the learning of Spanish very meaningful to me. 

I mentioned that learning Spanish gives me a sense of Efficacy. It also gives me a sense of self worth. Society celebrates people who are able to speak multiple languages. I would say that I reflect the archetype of the linguist in the societal mirror. I want to be known as someone who learns languages for the aid of the people around me. I want to be seen as capable, intelligent, and virtuous.

    The way that my "I" perceives my "me" has not shifted much. I already knew at the beginning that I could learn Spanish. I have been learning it. And as sure as I will see the sun tomorrow, I will master Spanish. However I have not mastered it yet. When I have become a fluent Spanish speaker, then I would say that my "me" perception has shifted. But, at present, I am not a Spanish speaker and so it has not shifted.


Comments

  1. Frayed EndsOctober 19, 2021 at 8:22 PM

    Hi Allen,
    I have really enjoyed reading about your journey on learning Spanish. It is something that I really want to learn due to the fact like you said the job market is great for a person that can speak it. Do you feel like if you would have chose a different occupation, whether it be cooking or something more artsy, your perception of "I" and "me" would still change like you expect it to with learning Spanish?
    Karlee Rinehart

    ReplyDelete
  2. datuputiOctober 20, 2021 at 7:24 PM

    Hey! Thanks for the Comment. Yeah it will be so nice not having to worry about getting a reliable interpreter. Yeah I think if I had picked something else it would have been hard to change my I and Me. Mostly because I had my heart set on Spanish and so I wouldn't care about keeping it up after this semester ends.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 4

Image
       This week was much better than last week. I got a total of eight lessons despite the huge anatomy exam that's been looming over my head. The technique I used for keeping Duolingo in the corner of my eye worked very well. Having a tab open of the occupation you need to work on makes it so much easier. It reduces the will power needed to open it every time you need to work on your new hobby. I expect that next week I will do even better on my lesson goals because I will be past the exam.      In the Hasselkus reading, the concept of places being containers of experiences was explored. I think the best example of that happening to me in my life was the new apartment I moved into when I moved to Pocatello. At first it was just a concrete box for me to sleep in, but then I got married! After that, my new bride moved in and gradually she started to cover the walls with art. The shelves became overflowing with all of our books. The fridge was filled wi...
Read more

Week 11

Image
 This week was pretty good concerning my Spanish occupation. I managed to get in five lessons, and I read a few comic books in Spanish. I am getting pretty burnt out again with Duolingo though. Every time I look at the Duolingo app I just get feelings of boredom and I instantly want to go do something else. I'll keep trying to get my one lesson per day goal, but I think I'll try to put more emphasis on other learning resources such as Spanish Youtube channels and comics. In the Ennevor reading we did this week, there was a section on how ordinary activities of daily living can be experienced as triumphs, adventures, and even heroic. That's definitely how I feel about learning Spanish. Each story in fiction has a conflict, and a protagonist who rises to meet the problems. I often see myself as the hero of my story when I finally figure out verb conjugations, or tricky word order. There are loads of struggles for each new facet of the language that I have to learn, and each o...
Read more

Week 10

Image
I have been learning a lot with my Spanish occupation, but there are some hiccups here and there. For one thing, when stating preference in Spanish is a little confusing. In English you would say, I like to play the piano. But in Spanish you would say "A mi me gusta tocar el piano." Which is a little bit like saying, "to me I like to play the piano." That sentence isn't too bad, but then when you're talking about someone else, it gets more complicated. Anyway, I need to search up a video that goes over those rules instead of banging my head on the wall, trying to read the language tips. Other than that, Spanish has been really fun and I've managed to get five out of seven days practice in. In the article by Deci and Ryan, they go over the distinction between autonomous and controlled motivation. As in all things, this occupation is on a spectrum between the two opposites. Even if my grades didn't depend on it, I would still have the autonomous motiva...
Read more