Midterm PE Reflection and Goals

I believe that throughout the semester, I have become better at translating things in my head more quickly so that I can respond to questions in Japanese more quickly and with fluency. My goals for this semester were: 

1. Shadow anime in order to understand not only prosody of words and phrases, but also how to convey emotions.
2. Go to office hours (especially with Shibata sensei) at least once every two weeks in order to get a better grasp of pitch. 
3. Speak conversationally with other Japanese students and native speakers in order to become more comfortable with the language and better at quickly forming coherent responses. 

I have successfully completed one anime shadowing PE and plan to do many more. They are fun and they help me to improve upon my speed when I have the time to shadow them. 

I have not been sticking to my second goal of meeting with Shibata sensei once every two weeks, mostly because her office hours mostly conflict with other classes and obligations. I plan to go to see her more to improve upon my pitch, fluency, and ability to quickly respond to questions posed in Japanese. 

For my third goal, I have been exchanging a few sentences and with native speakers, but it is often very difficult because their accents are very different and they speak so quickly! I would like to add upon my third goal by going to more Japanese tables and speaking with fellow JPN 102 classmates outside of class. 

I hope that I will be able to become more natural-sounding and fluent by paying attention to these goals.