“B-I-S-E-S-E, Bisese” I say as I try to articulate my last name. It has never been an easy one for people to pronounce. I remember as I was growing up as a figure skater I would be standing on the side of the ice in my little sparkly outfit, shivering because of the cold and shaking because of the nerves. Then as if on cue, they would mispronounce my name and I would skate out with a plastered smile.
My last name is Italian, and although I could correct people on the mispronunciation of my last name, there was so little that I knew about Italian culture and the language itself. I never knew my grandmother, and my grandfather passed away when I was six. My father never picked up the Italian that was sometimes thrown around the household, he was self-proclaimed “unable to speak a language, not even English sometimes”. I never felt this though. I always dreamed of travel and excitement, to see people and places but experience them closely without the barrier of my comfortable, but limiting native English. Growing up I took Spanish and I excelled on the quizzes and tests, but it lost its beauty for me. The classes that were offered never offered a look into Spanish culture beyond the occasional worksheet on “Día de los Muertos”. It became boring and the dreams I had to travel to spanish speaking countries dwindled down to dreaming that the class period would finish.
Then I came to college and everything changed for me. I felt like I had an actual choice. One that went beyond “French or Spanish” and one that said, “where do you want language to take you?”. I remember distinctively thinking, “home”. I wanted to connect with my dad’s family, see the roots of my family tree where I get my thick dark brown brows and curly dark hair. So I enrolled in Italian and it became a part of me. I loved the grammar exercises being intertwined with the culture. I loved the discussions I had one on one with my professors, where they would recommend me news articles to read and tv shows to watch. I loved that throughout getting my COM2 requirement, I was planning an entire year abroad that would entirely change my life path and direction. The quiz I took reaffirmed that I am both an auditory and tactile learner. I have never been one to be able to memorize charts or models. Living in Italy I believe ultimately is what helped me become C1 level. Living in and being surrounded by the language really changed what the language was in my head. As time went on there was less translation and more simple action, I could use the language without thinking about using the language so much.
Moving forward, I hope to continue this sort of learning where I focus on immersing myself in the language. I think that looking at media, be it news, movies, tv, podcast, etc, is most helpful in helping me obtain the spoken language. Listening to pronunciation is important to me because one thing I know I have trouble with is gaining the confidence to speak. I believe that taking the time to listen and practice, it will make me less averse to speaking. Being creative is also very important to me, I love writing and journaling. I think that it is important for me to incorporate this into my future language-learning endeavors. Especially keeping some sort of daily journal in the language, I think that it is important to know the everyday vocabulary and being able to recount my day would help to acquire words and grammar structures. I hope to apply the knowledge I have acquired for how I best learn languages to French, using cultural media at the forefront, especially as someone who is hoping to use a diverse array of languages throughout a career based in global media and communication.
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