{"id":490,"date":"2026-04-20T16:14:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.odu.edu\/spring2017-fr102-template\/?page_id=490"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:19:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:19:57","slug":"journal","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/ayden-griffin-eportfolio\/journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve found that my ability to piece together the &#8220;gist&#8221; of a text has improved significantly. Even if I don&#8217;t know every word, I can use context clues and cognates to understand the narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Moving beyond basic greetings into more specific topics\u2014like technology, the environment, and daily routines\u2014has made my expression feel more authentic.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Weaknesses<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Native speakers or fast-paced audio exercises still pose a challenge. It takes a moment for my brain to &#8220;translate&#8221; the sounds into meaning, often causing me to miss the next sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remembering whether a new noun is masculine or feminine remains a constant hurdle, which then affects my adjective agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Successes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the biggest wins this semester was finally understanding the nuance between a completed action and a descriptive state in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I felt much more confident during my recent oral exam compared to French 101. My pronunciation of the &#8220;r&#8221; sound and nasal vowels has become more natural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Struggles <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Introducing the subjunctive was a turning point in difficulty. Learning when to express doubt, necessity, or emotion through this specific conjugation requires a lot of mental gymnastics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While I can write a structured paragraph, thinking on my feet during a live conversation remains difficult. I often find myself reaching for words that aren&#8217;t there yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Looking Forward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As I continue, my goal is to immerse myself in more French media (podcasts and music) to bridge the gap between my reading skills and my listening comprehension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve found that my ability to piece together the &#8220;gist&#8221; of a text has improved significantly. Even if I don&#8217;t know every word, I can use context clues and cognates to understand the narrative. Weaknesses Native speakers or fast-paced audio&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/ayden-griffin-eportfolio\/journal\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32356,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/ayden-griffin-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/ayden-griffin-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/ayden-griffin-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/ayden-griffin-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/ayden-griffin-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/ayden-griffin-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":638,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/ayden-griffin-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/490\/revisions\/638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/ayden-griffin-eportfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}