First Blog post about Background

[Logan Motyka]

My past has been rocky with language learning. I have a hard time in large groups when learning language, and I am definitely a 1 on 1 learner, which is great for the current class I am embarking on. I enjoy being immersed in the language, not only learning the words but also the culture I think it is one thing to be able to speak the language you are learning, but it's another to be able to speak it like you were native. That is a hard task, but I slowly approached it during my study of German; I also took Spanish when I was growing up in middle school, but it did not stick as well. I honestly loved taking German at UR. It was very interactive, and I felt as if it went at a pace that made sense to me. Class sizes here are also smaller than my high school, which made it less daunting of a task. I am a hands-on visual type of learner, and that was justified in my results from both surveys. In the past, I have very much enjoyed learning in a sense of immersion, doing projects, decoding songs, and embracing the culture of that said language. For instance, I live in an Italian household where both my grandparents speak it to each other; over the years, I have never been formally taught it, but I picked up on things and asked questions in order to build a background of knowledge. This was outside the classroom, and I did not have the pressure of grading or making mistakes, so the process was much clearer and enjoyable for me. Taking this into consideration, I aim to discuss with my teacher Isaac about my background and explain the idea behind my madness, I learn the best when there is little pressure and I am just having fun and immersing myself. This may mean doing projects where I learn about a Korean YouTuber or maybe learning a song etc, something that I am passionate about and engaged in. Not being lectured at and forced to read things that I have little interest in which can be a pain for no only me but many others I have talked to. Another note that has to do with my learning style is using visual cues in order to learn; I found this style helpful as I excel at spatial memory. One thing I would like to carry over from my German class at UR is the focus on projects; I enjoy being able to present my work and build towards larger goals. One point I also would like to gear to is the idea of immersion into culture, being able to practice with native speakers other than my TA. I also want to watch esports that are popular in places like Korea, for instance League of Legends, etc. I feel as if taking this approach and keeping in mind my strengths, I can gear my learning to be successful and proactive.