As a language learner, I am really enjoying the opportunity to chart my own course in
this journey. Language learning has always been really interesting to me but I always felt so
discouraged because I could not keep up with the pace, but it was not the language learning that
turned me off. Even just learning about the families that language belongs to is amazing to me
because it makes me feel connected to other people that I would think I have no history with.
Our ancestors were closer than I could ever imagine and just thinking about those language
families gives me hope for the future. I now have a basis for exploring the empires and
civilizations that existed before the modern world as we know it. What I dislike about language
learning will always be that there is a learning curve, and a time where you are not sure whether
you are learning or your short-term memory is just working well. Trying to adjust to another
language also comes with different phases where you try to translate everything directly from the
language that you already speak. During this process the exchanges are slow and you feel very
silly. You try to memorize key phrases like how to use the bathroom and how to say hello and
see how far you can get with it. Then you need to ask a question, so you learn the grammar
structure of a question, then past and future tenses and vocabulary to help you express yourself.
It has taken me my entire life to understand in what order that I need to learn a language for it to
make sense to me and so even though that process doesn’t seem complex, it has helped me quite a bit. With this course, I am excited to learn an even better process that is backed up with
pedagogy and practice.
The language learning activities that best suit me are the ones where I watch a video with
subtitles and try to answer questions based on context and the knowledge I have acquired from
that language. I think activities that allow me to get thrown into the fire really help me because I
know that naturally, I will want to keep myself safe and in my comfort zone to avoid losing
confidence. Studying abroad helped show me that being thrown in the fire is really the only way
to develop proficiency once you have passed the elementary level. I also really enjoy activities
that allow me to engage with people that are at my proficiency level so I can get an
understanding of what I should be able to understand after having practiced and asking my peers
what strategies have worked for them. I still have to develop learning strategies that will help me
with a language I have no working knowledge of because there are no cognates to help me out
this time in the context of Malay. I am really looking for this 110 course to break down for me
the building blocks of language and compare it with the way I have studied languages in the past
to theorize what would work best for me.
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