Being a native Spanish speaker has always been extremely useful in my life and has helped me greatly to connect with other people. I often feel as though my personality changes when I speak a different language. I have never had to worry about my accent or pronunciation and could articulate my thoughts with academic vocabulary. I lived in Colombia until I was four and then l moved to America, so I was only surrounded by Spanish for the beginning of my life. Compared to other children I was never exposed to English at my house and neither of my parents spoke it until much later. Because I was so young I don't exactly remember learning English just waking up one day and holding full conversations with my teachers. I do remember how basic the classes were when I first moved and feeling bored since we were only taught phonics. However, phonics is the foundation of language and it helped me learn the alphabet, as well as how consonants and vowels work. I think that's how I learned English, from listening to the sounds and mimicking how other people spoke English. As a child, I had lied to my parents that I didn't know English, and would switch from speaking only Spanish at home and English in class. In less than three months from attending school, I was tutoring other recently moved immigrant children. Looking back I think that's why I can pick up on language easier especially the sounds and learn it at a much faster pace.
However, as I was learning more advanced English my Spanish writing and reading drastically deteriorated. I took Spanish in high school to improve my reading and writing, but it felt very boring and tedious having a teacher go over the most basic Spanish aspects I had already known. I did like the skit aspects we did in high school and the idea of implementing the vocabulary and grammar to create a script. But it did feel like a massive waste of time having to complete elementary level worksheets for days on end.
Now with Korean, I had self-taught myself for 3 years before going on an immersive trip for 3 months. I have learned more from exposure and surrounding myself with the language than from a classic classroom setting. I have found many similarities with Spanish no only culturally but the sounds and alphabet are identical making it easier for me to pick up than a regular English speaker.
I prefer to learn the language from expose myself to television or music, and listening to more complex vocabulary and sentence structure. It would be helpful if someone explained the cultural and the figurative language that a non-native speaker would not pick up on.
I also dislike how there is more of a focus on the "book" version of the language which makes it sound very formal and irregular to how it is spoken.Since usually the video clips the professors show during language class feel so elementary and slowed down, which isn't how the language would be spoken regularly. They completely ignoring the slang and dialect aspect and as well as the cultural influences and history which make language learning so fun. Because I self-taught myself for years and focused on the hearing aspect I don't need subtitles to watch most Korean movies or tv-shows. I still use subtitles as a crunch but it distracts me from learn. Strangely, if I use Spanish subtitles on a Korean show it forces me to focus more on the language and simulatinously practice my Spanish.
However, my writing is non-existent and I don't know certain language aspects you would learn at a Korean 101 class. For example, I don't remember the two number systems or certain vocabulary as well and have certain questions on how hangul works in practice. But I can read more complex text just at a slower pace, I also often get confused from Spanish and Korean sounds when I read. I want to work on unlearning these mistakes since I never had anyone to correct me or guide me on how it is properly taught. I also want to get over my fear of talking and hold more complex conversations since I easily get intimated and don't want to make mistakes.
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