Born in Korea and brought to America at the age of five, my first experience as a foreign language learner began young. I had just finished the basic skills of the Korean language at the age of five, but I was forced into an environment where I had no background of its language nor its culture. I can’t recall too much of how I learned Korean as a child, so my first memories of learning a language would have to be of learning English.
As a five year old, being forced into a country where I lacked basic skills to communicate, I remember not enjoying many things. I disliked being unable to understand what other kids were saying; I disliked being unable to do anything because I was afraid to explore and hated being outside my comfort zone. The biggest thing I disliked was just the feeling of being helpless. But once I did start getting some understanding of the English language, I loved practicing. I enjoyed the idea of being able to communicate without hesitation. I enjoyed having the ability to communicate with both my parents, who only speak Korean, and inhabitants of the foreign country I now call home.
In terms of learning a language, I am insightful in that I learn best when provided with rules and given questions where I am challenged to reason through. I value practical knowledge and desire my work to be as accurate and precise as possible. I also value time to plan and think things through before working. I excel at memorizing facts, and prefer objective tests. I expect detailed and precise course descriptions, expectations, and grading policies. I like worksheets, drills, task-oriented activities that build skill competency and mastery of facts. I dislike open-ended questions which require opinion or have no clear-cut answers or which have complex directions. I appreciate being acknowledge for work that is prompt, complete, detailed, and thorough. Overall, I learned through the FIRE model for integrative thinking, I am a factual learner. I think I could definitely spread my learning activities by being more evaluative and rational. I think reaching out to different styles of learning and understanding languages and culture could definitely improve the way I learn and bring new insights.
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