I think the most important and motivating aspect of learning a new language is realizing how many doors open up to you. English may be one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, which makes it easier on native speakers like me, but there’s so much rich history and culture embedded within other languages that just doesn’t translate. I understand this now, but it took me awhile to get there. I took Spanish all throughout elementary, middle, and high school, and I honestly hated every second. What was missing was a personal motivation to learn the language, and I treated Spanish as more of a forced obligation than a privilege. I was a decent student, but I had no true connection with the language.
My mindset changed when I was a junior in high school, but not in my spanish class. I was in history learning about Saudi Arabia and my teacher showed us the Saudi Arabian flag, which has the Muslim Statement of Faith written on it (in Arabic, of course). There, I realized language is more than just a means of communication. Sure, that’s its primary function, but for some people, language is part of their culture, religion, and their lives in general. Combined with my interest in Middle Eastern history, I realized I needed to take language learning more seriously, especially because I didn’t want to solely read sources about the Middle East written by Western scholars (not to discredit them, but reading sources and texts in the widely-spoken or language native to the region you study just seems imperative as you get different viewpoints).
Building upon this interest, I enrolled in Arabic at UR. Whenever I told someone I was taking Arabic, the first response I would get was, “Oh, that’s a really hard language to learn. Are you sure you’re ready?” I always thought this was a kind of funny question, because I knew Arabic was hard, but my interest and drive to learn was much stronger than my fear of “failure.” I wanted to learn, and for me that was enough. And sure, I struggle (and still do) with Arabic, but having the desire to learn is the biggest difference between now and high school.
This year, I’ve decided to pursue Turkish. I have a personal connection with the country and I’ve always been interested in its history, so I can’t wait to get started!
The Multiple Intelligences survey suggests I am the strongest learner in the Social, Self, and Nature categories. Although I’m not entirely sure how the naturalist intelligence will play the biggest role in language acquisition, I guess we’ll just have to see. All jokes aside, I think the social and self intelligences are extremely accurate. I truly do enjoy talking, and as I’ve learned in my Arabic class, asking questions, requesting for repetition, and having conversations (even if just a few sentences) helps me learn and retain the language better. Although I could read a book to teach myself, I think interaction is important for my progress, at least in the beginning. I think, after reading this, I may take advantage of the multiple language tutors at the library (unfortunately there aren’t any for Turkish, but my instructor said she could schedule one-on-one appointments that I could probably use for this same purpose). In terms of the Self intelligence, I think this part comes out more when I study. This is when I prefer to be alone and able to digest information on my own time and of my own accord. I think a quote from the Self intelligence blurb really sums up what I’m trying to say: “You will often take in information from another person, mull it over by yourself, and come back to that person later to discuss it.”
The Learning Style quiz identified me as an auditory learner, which doesn’t surprise me at all. One of the learning activities suggested was to record myself spelling words and then listen to the recording, which I have never thought to do before. I think I could also do this with notes I take, where I record them and listen to them later, because I often find I get bored reading and re-reading notes that I’ve taken in class, and sometimes I don’t even retain the information, even if I’ve looked over it several times.
As for the FIRE model, I think I most closely identify with the Rational category, especially the part that states I prefer to start with the big picture and work my way in. Asking questions, as I’ve stated before, help me to get a deeper understanding of content, so I think I will continue to do that.
Since I work best when interacting, asking questions, and hearing things, I might try to get my fellow Turkish students together to see if they’d like to go over content together. I hope this would be beneficial to them as well, but I know it would probably help me. As I move through this semester and my Turkish acquisition, I hope to be able to not only learn how to speak, read, write, and truly understand the language, but also learn a but about Turkish culture!
Replies
Thanks for this thoughtful post, Emmie. What is your personal connection to Turkey?
Maybe "personal" isn't the right word, but my dad's best friend is Turkish, so I've kind of grown up with Turkey/Turkish around me!