From my perspective, learning languages is not only just about learning their grammars and vocabularies but also about their unique cultures such as music, traditions, food, etc. According to my own experience, if the lecture is the only way to study a language, the study life would be boring and pale soon.
I have been a language learner for more than twelve years and I have never stopped. When I was in my primary school, I had my first foreign language class, which is English. Learning a language sounds like no fun for a little child. Thus, our teachers used music and cartoons to help us accept English easily. I can still remember that the first English song I learnt was the ABC alphabet song (not sure if the name is right). This song helped me memorize the 26 English characters faster and created a lot of fun time for all the students because at every beginning of the English course, our teacher would ask the whole class to sing it together and she also complimented the one who sang the best. This inspired my enthusiasm to learn English because I really want to be praised! Later, when we had learnt all the characters and some vocabs, our teacher started to prepare new songs for us to sing. The most memorable one for me must be Edelweiss. Our teacher let the whole class saw the film, Sound of Music first and then let us listen to the original soundtrack recording. We learnt Do-Re-Mi and Edelweiss at the class. I, as the representative of the whole class, sang Edelweiss at School’s New Year Party. I felt so honored and pride for myself. I guess that was one of the reasons that English became my favorite subject later. I really appreciate the teacher although she only taught me at my fourth grade. Her wise and amusing teaching method helped me have a really good start at my language learning life.
Because English was one of the main subjects in China, just like math and Chinese literature, all the schools attached a lot of importance to it. This led to students were given a bunch of assignments every single day and were asked to go to cram schools. They did help me master the grammar system easier but I felt I could not just did this type of boring and repetitive practice. In order to maintain my enthusiasm toward English learning, I started to find something entertaining by my own. Therefore, I began to watch various American TV series, such as horrors, romantics, detectives etc. I still remember The Vampire Diaries used to be favorite. I tried to mimic their tones and pronunciations and I discovered my speaking English was improved in a short time.
Knowing what kind of leaning method is the best for me, when I study other languages, they work the same. As for Japanese, I started to learn it last year in U of R from zero. While learning the grammar and vocabs systematically with Prof. Suzuki, I watched Japanese films and cartoons that I thought interesting and tried to listen to some Japanese music as well. Moreover, I caught the chance to take part in the summer study abroad program in order to experience the culture and learn Japanese easily. I’ve been there for about two months, living in a local family’s home. Every day I ate with them, watched the World Cup with them and shared our own experiences. I thought this is a valuable experience for me. Knowing the Japanese well and how the local people live seems like have nothing to do with my own Japanese learning, but I know it matters a lot. Thus, I decided to continue my Japanese learning this year, trying to challenge a higher level of courses.
According to the Fire Model, from my first language learning experience at primary school I am a typical Evaluative learner. I prefer to learn in a personally pleasing environment and I enjoy recognition is given by teachers. I am also a visual learner which is surprised to me because I thought I am an auditory learner, but it is true that I like write something down during the lecturing time and always be distracted easily. And my strength in studying language is musical and social. It is true. I enjoy working on my tones and intonation compared to study grammar. I like singing along with music and I think I will try to incorporate sounds into my lesson. For example, I think I will listen to some K-pop music and maybe also watch some Korean TV series to help study easier.
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