Halfway There!

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Dekonte Pajibo

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Dekonte Pajibo

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> Bonjour! <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> University of Texas at Austin <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2022 <i>Destination city & country:</i> Paris, France <i>Program provider:</i> University of Texas at Austin <i>Major/minor:</i> Nutrition <i>Demographics:</i> First-Generation, African-American <i>Future career aspirations:</i> I hope to join the United States Peace Corps and pursue a career in public policy. <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> 1) Greatly improve my French, 2) Grow in my knowledge of French culture, 3) Embrace a new academic environment

Hello!

It is the end of week 4 of my Arabic program which means I am halfway done since I will be ending the program early to move into school.

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This week was definitely extremely difficult for me. During my most recent class, I was tasked with reading and translating a decent amount of text (see photo above) from Modern Standard Arabic to the Jordanian dialect. The rigor of this course has absolutely been mentally exhausting and physically draining but I am proud of being able to persevere. This week I struggled with a lot of self-doubts that I would be able to make it to the end considering how overwhelmed I’ve been feeling as of late. I found that being the only student in my course has made me miss interacting with classmates and group collaboration.

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However, one thing I succeeded at this week was communicating my struggles clearly and initiating a plan of action to overcome the difficulties in this class. I have learned to be kinder to myself in this process and to continue to develop more efficient study strategies like making digital flashcards in conjunction with my notes and keeping a separate notebook for my Modern Standard Arabic grammar and Jordanian dialect grammar to avoid confusion.

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As always, thank you for reading! I apologize that I cannot exclude anything more exciting than this learning journey, as I mentioned in a previous blog I was looking forward to studying in person and being able to explore more cultural activities. Still, there’s much to look forward to and be thankful for as usual! See you next week!