I think the biggest insight I gained as a language learner was what kind of learner I am. I now understood why I did so poorly in Japanese during my sophomore year; I simply cannot memorize a list of vocabulary. I tried to approach Vietnamese the same way I did in Japanese – by memorizing a list of words – and I failed at both despite one being my native language. This is because I simply was not the type of learner that could learn through memorization, I have to connect the words I learn with a topic that is interesting to me in order to truly learn it. Logan helped me find a way to engage me in learning vocabulary by introducing me to cultural artifacts such as television show and news and then question me about them while providing or correcting me words or expressions that I have trouble with. By stirring my interest in a variety of things, Logan was able to show me that learning a language does not have to be simply memorizing a list of words.
The thing I found most difficult about this was how distracted I can be. While I learned best through exposure to a variety of cultural contents – especially the cultural readings, it is difficult for me to focus on the big picture. I often find myself distracted from my original purpose or the overall topic and instead fixating on the small things that catches my attention; for example, while watching a Vietnamese TV show about regional culture, I would find myself more focused on a specific thing – often food (lol) – rather than the overall picture and/or aspect of that culture. Then afterward, the only thing I can recall is that one item I fixated on because after watching I would look up stuff about it. I think that in order for me to properly utilize my interest as a proper learning tool, I will have to learn to focus on the big picture and not just the small individual pieces.
The most enjoyable thing for me during this course was the interaction between me and Logan. I do not really use Vietnamese to interact with people around my age. I primarily use it with my parents and rarely with my cousins. This leaves me unable to really know how much Vietnamese I truly understand and so, as Logan pointed out, the way I speak is really stiff and formal; I was also really self-conscious about the way I talk in Vietnamese too so that did not help. This course allowed me to feel more comfortable with speaking by exposing me to a less formal environment where I can actually utilize my Vietnamese knowledge to the best of my ability. For the first time I was actually talking to someone that shares similar interests with me and that really helped bring me out of my shell.
I am looking forward to continuing my learning through reading and watching Vietnamese news. Additionally, with my newfound interest in things like Vietnamese music and history, I think I can further explore the language through the culture in ways I never did before. Speaking and listening wise I believe I should be set as long as I continue to communicate with my family more in Vietnamese; I think eventually I’ll get used to using only Vietnamese to communicate with them if I do it enough. Writing will be difficult because I used to do it because I had to translate Japanese articles while in class anyway, so I tried to throw in some practices while I was at it. However, I think I can easily fix this by keeping some kind of journals that will be kept mostly if not entirely in Vietnamese as a way to continue my writing practice.
As stated above, the activities that I believed helped me the most was simply reading various articles about topics that interests me and then discussing it with another person that is around my age or share similar interests. I was so happy to be able to have a conversation in Vietnamese, despite its difficulty, since it was about things I was passionate about. Going forward, I would like to learn more about the history of Vietnam through the lens of Vietnam rather than the lens of the West. Since history can be quite difficult to decipher, I will probably struggle a lot but it’s a challenge that I’m willing to take.
Replies
Hi Han!
After reading this post, I can really tell that you put a lot of effort into learning Vietnamese and the SDLC program. Great work! I think it's awesome that you've discovered that memorization is not the way you learn a language most effectively, especially since so many classes make students memorize vocabulary lists. I agree that a connection with the topic makes it much easier to learn. It is also awesome to see that you've learned more about yourself and that you want to focus more on the big picture. I also find myself getting caught up on the smaller stuff too sometimes. I'm glad you and your language partner, Logan, got along so well. My language partner Jannette was fantastic and I really do think the language partners are one of the best parts of this program. You seem to have a really solid plan moving forward with Vietnamese and I wish you the best of luck! Thank you for sharing and it was great to have our 105 class together, Han! :)