Looking back at the past semester, I'm quite happy with my progress - I entered the course with only the most basic knowledge of Japanese, and now my classmates and I are reaching the point where we can really start to communicate in Japanese.
That said, I realize that there are a couple of areas that I need to work more on, the most obvious of which is pitch and intonation. I recognized early on that these would represent quite a challenge for me, however I feel that there is more that I can do to overcome that challenge. I developed some good habits trying to learn pitches while I learned new vocabulary, and that is something I need to reinforce this semester as it's better that I spend the small amount of extra time while learning new vocabulary rather than try to correct these things later on when bad habits may have already been created. I will try to attend Shibata-sensei's office hours for practice, and I will make an effort to attend the Japanese language table as well, hopefully at least once a week - the language table will serve as an invaluable tool in providing plenty of opportunities to speak and practice, and as I am interested in participating in Princeton In Ishikawa, speaking and listening with relative ease are crucial skills.
