How confused can an international student be? What is a journal?

My first weeks of classes, I spent taking the time to understand not only certain English vocabulary, but also to know certain cultural details that I was not accustomed to. For example, if a teacher asks you to do a journal. What do think that is? First thing came up to my mind was "The Edmonton Journal" and "The Wall Street Journal". Did the teacher want me to create a Journal? Wow! That was a hard assignment for my first week of classes, I thought.

I was taking a Mass Media class, and Linda Camus, my teacher, asked me to do a journal. First, before starting that "famous journal", I had to find out what exactly that was. To my surprise, the assignment was even easier than I thought because I did not need to write a real (Edmonton) Journal. According to Dictionary.com , "a journal is a daily record, as of occurrences, experiences, or observations: She kept a journal during her European trip." So, when a teacher asks you to do a journal: don't panic! All he or she wants you to do is to write your observations, experiences or daily records about a topic.