Reflect on your experiences as a language learner. What did you enjoy? What did you dislike? Think about the FIRE model and the surveys you have just completed. What kind of learner are you? What kinds of language learning activities suit your learning style? How do you think you should expand your learning activities?
I was born and raised in France to a Korean mother and an American father. From a young age my parents taught me the importance of learning multiple languages. Both of my parents travelled the world extensively and shared with me their experiences with foreign languages and cultures. As such, being multilingual has been one of my earliest goals.
Growing up in France, I attended an international school, where knowledge of multiple languages was not only encouraged, but a requirement. At my school, all students were fluent in French and another native language. Students all took classes together from the general French curriculum, as well as classes from their respective ‘section.’ Students were divided into thirteen national sections, with countries like the United States, Italy, Sweden, Japan, and Russia being represented. We also each took two foreign language classes. From 6th to 12th grade, I learned Spanish, and from 8th to 12th grade I learned Mandarin Chinese.
My international background has always been a point of pride for me that I love to share with others. I enjoy having experience with multiple languages and having befriended friends from various cultures. I believe that my understanding of the world is much more complete than if I had only learned English or French growing up.
However, being part of such a rigorous curriculum had its challenges. I often felt like I was being forced to learn, especially during my Mandarin class. I found the language extremely difficult, and never felt like I had a firm grasp of it. As such, I didn’t always put my full effort into it and have since given up on the language.
I found that learning Spanish with a French and English background was a huge advantage. Many words are similar, if not identical. I often found myself being able to decipher entire sentences just from common language roots and sentence structure. On the other hand, I do not have the same intuition with Mandarin or Korean. I have found that both languages are completely different and share close to no similarities with the previously mentioned Western languages. Chinese and Korean do share certain similarities, but I do not believe my knowledge in either language is good enough to take advantage of this.
I learn best with a combination of visual, sound, and practical learning. The best way for me has always been learning by seeing and hearing examples, and then practicing based on these examples. For example, in class, hearing a professor speak the language helps me pickup the various intonations, which I will then master by mimicking and practicing on my own. When learning by myself, watching movies or listening to music can help me pickup common phrases spoken in everyday life. I also like to learn my reading texts or articles in the target language and researching words or phrases that I do not know. I find that this is one of the most effective ways to improve my understanding of the language.
I believe one area of my learning that I can expand upon is vocabulary. I think that memorizing common words is one of the best ways to gain an advanced understanding of a language.
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