reflective journal

Shams Beirut

Beirut,Lebanon

Friday 1^st December 2017

Dr. Zane Sinno

Department of English

AmericanUniversity of Beirut

Beirut, Lebanon

Dear Dr.Sinno,

As a sophomore in AUB, this is my first English course, I am (usually) a hard worker but sometimes during the semester there was too much pressure and I had to study for too many exams at the same time. I am a French educated student, and in total I speak 4 languages, which are French, Arabic, Russian and English. Therefore sometimes I think in another language and I have to translate my thoughts to English when I write my essays.

What I mostly learned during this semester is that I should organize my time more. Before starting to write an essay I like to search all over the web to really understand what I am going to write about. If I had to do it again I would take more time so that I can reduce the stress it causes. This course demands a lot of energy and interest and a lot of work.

The topics we talked about in class and wrote about were very interesting and I don’t think I would’ve thought about them in any other course. From language loss to domestic violence, everything was interesting and made me want to act and stand up more to myself.

This course helped me expand as a person because it opened new doors to my mind when some students in class would express their feelings for a topic.

I learned how to write in academic English, which is quite different to how I used to write in school. I had a little bit of trouble at the beginning understanding the concept of it but I did get it. I also learned how to properly cite any kind of information and the importance of citing it .

I can say that English 203 made my college life easier , it introduced me to many new tools I could use to make it easier and more interesting.

I would like to thank you for this amazing semester full of new experiences and knowledge.

Sincerely yours,

Nadine Abdallah.