It all began my first year of school in pre-k, where I was formally introduced to English because my family only spoke Spanish at home. I don’t remember much but my mom said I was frustrated the first days because I did not understand my classmates. She said I quickly grasped English in School meanwhile learning spoken Spanish at home. In school. I continued learning English grammar, vocabulary, and structure. Although I was fluent in speaking Spanish from a young age I was not formally taught how to write or read in Spanish. I remember my early beginnings of reading and writing in Spanish were from reading the Bible. I guess you could say I taught myself how to read in Spanish because I never had a parent teach me how to read my mothers’s first language is not Spanish it is a Mayan dialect of Guatemala. My mother did not receive much education in Guatemala and she has lower skills of reading and writing in Spanish.
Therefore I learned how to read Spanish by hearing how it was pronounced and practicing my pronunciation. By the time I got to middle school I was able to enroll in a Spanish course and excel in the class because of the knowledge I had from reading and of course, speaking it at home. I got a Spanish credit that transferred to my high school and enrolled in Spanish I, II, and III, and finally, AP Spanish where I was able to fulfill my language requirement. Learning Spanish was low-effort and undemanding through all the courses I took during school. Because I had prior knowledge of Spanish and was ahead of other students I had to complete extra challenging assignments compared to everyone else which was something I did not enjoy. What I found the most challenging is the sentence format in Spanish which is: subject+ verb + object. On the contrary in English, the pattern that is usually used is the: subject +verb + object. Grasping this concept was something that made me critically think about each sentence and how I was going to order each word because when I’m speaking in Spanish my brain automatically thinks in English and when I’m speaking in Spanish I translate word-for-word leaving out the true meaning. Learning verb conjunctions, Irregular verbs, past and present tenses, and adjectives was not something that I struggled with because it came naturally to me.
Finally, after taking the surveys I found out that I am a visual learner however, I also think from my evaluation that I am an auditory learner. I can remember information more clearly when I hear it and I am less likely to forget the information. When studying I also find it very helpful to either write everything I know on a piece of paper or a whiteboard. Considering that I have ADHD I can work best in quiet areas with no distractions, but it depends on how complex the work is. Although I am a visual learner I usually do not draw pictures but it is something I am considering to improve my studying habits. I also learn a language the best when I speak it daily. I have found that writing down new rules and words that I know are also really helpful to me when learning a new language. Overall I have a great experience in learning Spanish and will use similar improved techniques to learn Korean or any other language in the future.
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