English is a mandatory course in Chinese School since elementary school and even now in Kindergarten. I remember taking three extra-curriculum English courses on my weekends to become top achievers in class and to gain extra credits in my application for Middle School. The Chinese school textbooks placed the majority of their emphasis on grammar. I hated memorizing tenses and different grammatical structures through text-completion exams. Throughout my journey in learning English, I disliked learning new vocabularies through mechanically memorizing the meaning of the words. I would rather learn new words by using them in conversations and utilizing them in real-world situations. For a period of time, I found myself only able to read and understand the language, but unable to converse with others. When I transferred to a British School during Fifth Grade, I felt 'muted.' It wasn't until forcing myself to only speak English with my classmates and teachers, that I gradually became more fluent. My interest in Japanese and Korean culture pushed me to began learning these two languages, and I have already learned the Korean and Japanese alphabets on my own through video courses. However, realizing the importance of physically using the language and talking to native speakers, I decided to apply for this Self-Directed Learning Language Course.
One of the surveys I have taken states that I lean more towards a visual learner, and I believe that through visualizing the application of the new language will help me understand and remember. Another thing that I have noticed is that I am good at copying pronunciations of different languages, even of languages that I don't speak, including Spanish, French, Korean and Japanese. I hope this characteristic would encourage me to become more vocal when learning Korean and other languages. Moreover, I believe that through immersing yourself in a foreign language can help you dramatically in improving in both listening and speaking. Since the steps of becoming fluent in a language go from Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, we must force ourselves into the environment. When I first began learning English, my teacher told me to watch American TV series in order to get used to the "sense of the language:" the flow, pronunciation, and even grammatical structure. During this semester, I need to spend a lot of time learning new vocabularies and the grammatical structure of the Korean language, but I will also watch Korean TV series and films, in order to improve my listening skills. On the other hand, through watching these shows, I will also gain a better understanding of Korean society and their cultural values. Furthermore, as History Major, I hope to study more about Korean History during the 19th - 20th Century and their relationships with China and Japan.
Comments
I think it interesting that English is a mandatory course because in the U.S other languages are seen as extra and you in my personal experience you don't have to take them. It was not until I got to college that language was a part of the curriculum. In high-school I took Spanish but to be quite frank my education was a joke and no where near as detailed as the COMM 2 requirement is here.