As an immigrant at a young age, I came to the United States with no experience in any other language than Korean. In addition, my Korean skill wasn’t much developed as I immigrated at a young age. My verbal skills grew as I continuously communicated with my family. However, as I became more integrated with my new friends, I slowly gained my English skill. The results of both skills were exponential and having someone as a speaking partner always helped the most. Speaking Korean at home truly helped to retain my previous-learned knowledge. But without proper study of the language, my writing skill and vocabulary did not improve as much. As a result, I became more comfortable with English than Korean.
Continuing on with my education life, I had to learn Spanish in middle school and high school as a language requirement. I took Spanish for six years and stopped once I enrolled in University of Richmond. Spanish was the second and most recent formal teaching of a language and I enjoyed it so much. I was most excited to put the skill in practice. At my summer part time job, I communicated with my Hispanic coworkers and was able to grow a stronger friendship with them. In addition, I would talk to my friend’s parents in Spanish and was pleased to see that I was able to hold a normal conversation with them. For me, putting the acquired language skill in to practice is the most enjoyable thing about learning a language. One thing that I disliked as a language learner is that without these outside-of-class interactions, it is very hard to improve beyond a certain point. I learned that putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation is hard, but it is necessary to reach out and try to practice your learned-language.
After analyzing my learning skills, I have learned that I am a visual and a tactile learner. I learn by reading and seeing pictures and remember things by sight. I picture things that I learn and primarily use visual methods to learn. On top of that, I am also a tactile learner which means I learn the best by touching and doing things. I remember things by physical movements and physical activities. Some language learning activities that suit my learning style include making flashcards to learn new vocabulary, visualizing new words, and repetition of spelling practice. Furthermore, I am a logical and a mathematical thinker which means I enjoy exploring how things are related, how things work, and critically thinking. Looking for patterns in words and sorting, categorizing, and characterizing word lists will improve my language learning.
In order to expand my learning activities, I should focus on involving visual and hands-on activities. Integrating pictures and games in to the learning exercises would exponentially help with the learning. In addition, auditory learning is something I lack the most and getting comfortable with auditory learning would help expand the range of activities that I can utilize. Finally, I find self-reflection as a great tool for any type of learning. Setting aside time to reflect on new ideas and information would further improve my language learning process.
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