Monday, July 30, 2012

Day 30 saya bisa berbicara bahasa indonesian

Well, its the last day of the 30-day language challenge, and I've spend most of the day thinking over what I had learned and consider whether or not I had learned anything at all. The answer I came to when I was thinking about what I had learned, how much I could have learned, and how much I could now say, I came to the decision that I did, in fact, learn Indonesian. Thinking about whether or not I could survive in Indonesia, I came to feel like I could. In 30 days, I went from being a person who knew nothing about Indonesia and didn't know a word, to a guy who could meet an Indonesian exchange student at PSU and get to know them. And all this done while working 40+ hours a week, spending 5 days in DC, and juggling my personal life.

Here's what I determined the rules for Day 30:
1.       Review your notebook and flashcards. 
2.       Review Chapters 1-28 of your course book.
3.       OPTIONAL: Complete missing lessons of your language audio.
4.       Utilize hidden time to study flashcards
So, now that I reviewed everything I had studied, realized that I was still behind on vocabulary, and deciding that I did learn Indonesian, I have come to the unequivocal decision that a person, even as busy as I, could learn a foreign in 30 days. I amend this comment to clarify that by that I mean that a person can go from knowing nothing to being an Intermediate learning 30 days. Thus, a person can go from being a non-speaker, to a person who has completed the basic levels, can have conversations, survive market places, search for objects, take mass transit, order from a restaurant, and even beginning dating.

So any person who wishes to travel to another country, following the right study guide, should and would be able to blend into the society and not get caught up in "tourist traps," or be immediately pegged as a lost person with only 30 days of preparation. I hold this to be true and I challenge anyone to prove to me that they can't learn a language in 30 days while committing themselves to real and honest effort and work.

Good luck with your studying people. I wish upon all the skills and blessing of understanding.

No comments:

Post a Comment