I grew up in a Spanish-only household so it was effortless to learn Spanish in a very immersive environment. I think growing up in that household, my survival skills kicked in forcing me to absorb the language making it easier to learn the language. I learned English in kindergarten but had to repeat it since I did not know the language. I was able to become fluent in about a year and a half which I attributed to my young age but after reading one of the required articles, I realized it has more to do with the immersive environment and the lack of an "escape route". I learned a bit of Chinese in the fifth grade but it was at a new elementary school where the students had commenced learning in kindergarten, I could not catch up and was thus, demotivated. However, I started learning French in the sixth grade and have stuck through with it since it flowed so easily and I received constant praise from classmates and teachers. I started Russian at the university because I really enjoyed the history and wanted to understand their films/literature in its original language. Informally though, I have learned a bit of Turkish, Italian, Norweigian, and Korean as I really like consuming foreign entertainment without dubs. For the informal languages, it has been significantly harder to retain and persist since I have no accountability layer to it. I have liked being able to pick up on conversations and seeing how the history/culture of a country influences its language. However, I hate how slow the process is since I am not the most patient person.
According to the surveys, I am a visual learner and should try to visualize my learning for it to actually stick by creating a mnemonic, color coding stuff, or creating flash cards. I will attempt to insert more images into the online flashcards I create, and physically write out my notes using colored pens to make it more aesthetic and for myself to remember the content better. Trying to connect the pieces using the root of the words with their meaning using diagram also seems to be like a good idea. I think the most helpful part of learning a language through this class, though it is self-motivated, is that I will still have more of an accountability factor and someone with whom I can practice what I've learned and help correct any misconceptions I have.
I am also an auditory learner so repeating words out loud is how I usually engrave new vocab into my brain so I will continue to do so but will also be speaking in the target language with my language partner. i recognize that making mistakes, however embarrassing or big of a setback it feels like, is essential to learning. Whenever my pronounciation or sentences are corrected, I am more likely to remember it and less likely to commit the same mistakes. I know at least for me, it is always easier to remember the negatives. I think that's why I prefer to do textbook activities like matching or filling in blanks because it's both visual and auditory when I am sounding out the words or reading out the instructions. I like straightforward activities since I am so impatient hence why I'd rather do grammar practice, written activities, and quizzes. I think I want to incorporate weekly quizzes into my study plan to make sure I am still on track and to narrow down the concepts that I am struggling with and adjust accordingly. That being said, I also agree with what the article said about needing to be intentional about our goals when attempting to learn a language. I think it was much easier to learn languages formally taught in school because my goals were always to do well on the assignments, assessments, and to communicate in class. Yet, with the languages I tried pursuing on my own, my mentality going in was always "i'm going to learn this language" and that proved to be unsuccessful. That is why I want to carefully consider my schedule and the amount of time/effort I can realistically spend on learning Korean without burning out or quitting midway. Though I also know that I am overly ambitious in the beginning so I will also have to heavily reflect throughout the first few weeks so I can adapt my schedule as needed to fit the speed I actually end up going at. I know it will be trial and error so I want to only plan out my first few weeks and then go from there once I've examined what worked and what didn't.
Comments
It's really interesting how much experience you have with language learning both from just absorbing the language as a kid and also from taking classes in school! I wonder if you have the characteristics of bilingual thinkers that we learned in class like thinking and dreaming in different languages and having a different brain structure. This post also makes me wonder if language acquisition just comes naturally to some people, and if so, what factors cause this? Personally, I'm not great at learning new languages so it's always interesting to meet people who know a lot!