As a language learner, I have, accumulated from in and out-of-class, learned a total of four languages. As a child, I learned how to speak English, Mandarin, and Taiwanese dialect. Because I am an American-born Asian, it is difficult for me to maintain skill in Mandarin or Taiwanese, so it is unfortunate that I was not able to learn how to write. English, thankfully, was taught to me as my first language. I am thankful because English tends to be a difficult language to teach to foreigners and it is also a difficult language to learn for foreigners. Nevertheless, it is wonderful to be able to communicate with parents of my Chinese friends as well as my own relatives.
Entering middle school, I took on my first attempt at learning a secondary language in school. I learned Spanish from the time of seventh to eleventh grade. When I was a twelfth grader in high school, I took on the role as a teacher's aide and learned many more things, specifically the Spanish culture. Not only had I developed an ability to speak Spanish, but I could read Spanish articles and finally gain a stronger understanding of everything.
As a language learner, it was awesome learning about the culture after gaining a grasp of the language. I was fortunate enough to be fully immersed in Chinese and Taiwanese culture as a child. My understanding from one of my friends, who is a student of the Japanese language, is that there is a huge difference between being a tourist of Japan and being a full Japanese-speaking resident of Japan. With Spanish, I never had the opportunity to visit Spain; however, my Spanish teacher in high school was a native Spanish speaker and I believe gave me a good grasp on its culture. Overall, I enjoyed almost everything about being a language learner.
Insofar, I have only had a few minor things that I dislike about being a language learner. For two years in college, I took Mandarin Chinese as a language. I had the ability to speak because I grew up with the language, but I was no where close to fluent and I did not know how to write. I had the will to learn; unfortunately, some classmates around me clearly had much less motivation, and as a result, made learning the language with other peers more difficult.
According to the FIRE model, I am a Factual learner. I learn best by starting with the concrete and then moving towards the abstract in a step-by-step progression. I prefer everything to be objective with worksheets and drills that teach me how to specifically use certain words and grammar. I am uncomfortable with open-ended questions, but this may be only the case when I am new to the language. As I grow as a learner and speaker of Korean, I become more evaluative. If I am to grow, I seek personal attention and evaluation of my progression. I cannot work in a competitive environment as I feel too much anxiety. I prefer concrete teachings, but I also like to make sure I can eventually apply what I learn to a practical scenario in real life.
According to my personal experience, the Learning Styles, and Multiple Intelligences Survey, I am a visual learner. I prefer things to be laid out in nice tables, charts, or diagrams. Fill-in-the-blank and repetition exercises are my preference as it tends to be more visual. I believe I can expand my learning activities by being more verbal and talk with my tutor once I meet him/her. Most people I know are able to read and write their language of choice; however, when it comes to speaking, it is easy to tell that they do not speak often and are weaker in this area.
Comments
I used the wrong word, I believe. What I meant by "concrete teachings" is that I believe that I need to start slow: I need simple, laid out tables and lists to learn languages at the start. As I progress, I like to read example dialogues and study visual diagrams. I like having everything in front of me to study something physical.
What do you mean by "concrete teachings"? could you please provide some examples?