1/14/10 my experiences as a language learner

[Andrew Lyell]

My experience as a language learner started in middle school.  I was home schooled and my mother forced all of us to take two years of Latin.  I didn’t see much point in learning this language (as it was a dead language), and now the only word I can remember is “amus”.  Then in 8^th grade my mother who minored in French decided to try to teach me French.  That lasted all of six months.  Next, I started learning Spanish in high school from a real Spanish teacher.

My original excitement for this class, however, petered out within the next few months.  Although my teacher was good and forced me to learn a lot of Spanish, I still didn’t see the point.  Also the class was more boring than I had anticipated.  In the next four years with her, I learned just enough to get by and still get decent grades, but I never learned to speak.

Then I went to Japan.  This experience completely changed the way I approached languages.  I went there to volunteer at an international school, and suddenly my eyes were opened to a new way of looking at languages: a tool to be able to interact with others and survive.  I also learned that it was better to try and mess up than to try to say something perfectly and not say anything.  For the next 11 months in Japan, I studied hard and by the end was able to have 45-minute conversations with people on basic topics.

Then I returned to the US and came to the University of Richmond.  I decided that I wanted to take Spanish again because of its usefulness in America.  Because my head was still full of Japanese and I hadn't learned that much in 4 years of high school, I placed into the advanced 100 level Spanish.  Luckily I had an amazing teacher who taught the class by forcing us to speak through little plays and answering questions.  Three semesters later I am now in my second 300 level course and planning on being a Spanish minor.

This last summer I went to Bangladesh through the Critical Language Scholarship.  I had gone there previously for a week actually from Japan, and am interested in going back in the future.  This was that first time I had ever devoted so much time to learning a language, and I really enjoyed it.

I have learned that for me to learn a language I have to be motivated by its usefulness.  I have also learned that I enjoy the process of learning a language.  My strong points tend to be grammar and pronunciation, and my weak points are vocabulary and speaking.  In the FIRE model, I think I most closely identify with the insightful person.  I enjoy doing roleplays and being able to speak in class.  If I am not forced to speak, I do not learn.