When I went home for winter break I attempted to impress my mother with my grasp of Japanese. After mumbling out a few short, incoherent sentences that required all of my available brain cells, she looked at me and said, "That sounds horrible. You aren't pronouncing ANYTHING correctly." I stopped speaking to her in Japanese after that. Instead, I practiced on my 90 year old Grandma. She had more time on her hands (she's 90, what does she really have to do?), so she was more patient with the barrage of questions that I threw at her after I would complete a response in Japanese.
Upon completion of this blog project I hope to become more adept at fluctuating the intonation of my words when speaking in Japanese (Thanks, mom). Having these sounds ingrained quickly will surely help me in the future as a Japanese student. Along with this, I hope that I learn a few new phrases that I haven't been taught in class. Being an autonomous learner is the only way I will carry the language skills I learn in college into my future life.
Finally.....What does communication mean to me? It is more then just having someone watch or listen to you. Communication is about conveying an idea, concept, or emotions (not just words) with the intent of accomplishing a specific task. In our blog project, communication will be based upon effectively sharing our podcast's theme with our viewers through words, emotions, and images.
