{"id":2273,"date":"2018-07-09T23:26:20","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T03:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/?p=2273"},"modified":"2018-07-16T20:13:45","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T00:13:45","slug":"post-program-reflections-siena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/2018\/07\/09\/post-program-reflections-siena\/","title":{"rendered":"Post Program Reflections: Siena"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: left\">My time in Siena was an incredible experience I will never forget. I learned so much about Italian culture, Italian language, and myself. The most important thing I learned about the language learning process was how important it is to continue to challenge yourself. \u201cLearning\u201d a new language isn\u2019t hard, in fact, a lot of people take language classes in college to help boost their Resume or get an easy A. By this definition of \u201clearning\u201d I mean passing a language class and memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules. However, \u201clearning\u201d a language and actually speaking a language are two entirely different worlds. It\u2019s easy to remember rules and identify grammar when you see it but to have to use those rules in practice is a lot harder. So this summer I sought to challenge myself. I spoke every chance I got in class, I read Italian books, and now I am currently seeking to continue to challenge myself so that I may maintain my language skills.<\/li>\n<li>I completely and wholly recommend anyone interested in learning a new language to pursue the SLA grant. SLA is such a unique study abroad experience because (more often than not) you are traveling completely alone and experiencing a new country all by yourself. This pushes you to get out of your comfort zone and make new friends, have conversations with new people in a new language. I encountered a lot of American students in Siena who were studying abroad with a large group from their university and they were always together. In 6 months they still didn\u2019t know a word of Italian, and this really broke my heart. Yes, it\u2019s fun to travel with friends! But traveling with friends makes you comfortable with speaking English in a country in which you have an opportunity to learn something new!<\/li>\n<li>The challenging part comes after my SLA experience. I now have to find ways in which I can continue to use the skills I learned abroad so that I don\u2019t forget everything I learned. I plan on reading books in Italian, watching Italian movies, listening to Italian music and podcasts, and speak to whomever I can when I get the chance! I look forward to finding ways in which I can pursue Italian in my career and future. It is a beautiful country, culture and language and I look forward to returning in the near future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; My time in Siena was an incredible experience I will never forget. I learned so much about Italian culture, Italian language, and myself. The most important thing I learned about the language learning process was how important it is to continue to challenge yourself. \u201cLearning\u201d a new language isn\u2019t hard, in fact, a lot &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/2018\/07\/09\/post-program-reflections-siena\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Post Program Reflections: Siena<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63995,290963],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-italy","category-sla-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2274,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}