When I was young, about 5 years old, I went to Korean school because my parents wanted me to learn how to speak, read, and write the Korean language. Nowadays, many Korean Americans don’t know how to read or write Korean at all, let alone speak it. I guess my parents had the fear that my sister and I would grow to not know the Korean language. Going to Korean school was fun and I enjoyed the couple years I was there for. I was surprised to see that learning the Korean language wasn’t the only thing that I would learn. I also learned the history and culture of Korea, and one of my favorite memories from Korean school was learning to cook Korean food. Korean cuisine might be one of the most delicious foods I eat, but I may be a little biased. I also learned how to speak Korean by actually going to Korea for months at a time when I was younger to visit my relatives. Since my relatives don’t speak English, I would have to only speak Korean and we know practice makes perfect. Lastly, watching Korean tv shows helped me understand Korean trends such as clothing, music, and slang. I’d say watching Korean shows was probably my favorite way of learning Korean.
I also learned Spanish for 3 years in high school. I think that learning a language in a standardized school is pretty boring because you only learn the linguistics of Spanish. Most of that was also through verbal and auditory learning, which aren’t my preferred ways of learning. However, I was able to learn more about Spanish and culture of Hispanic countries by actually traveling. My close friend group and I decided to travel together once a year after graduating high school and so far, we’ve gone to Cancun, Mexico and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. My friends and I enjoyed Mexico so much that we decided to go back this year, but to Cabos San Lucas, Mexico instead this time to switch up the setting a bit. Traveling to Hispanic countries allowed me to once again try to speak Spanish to native speakers which helps me practice as well as learn the culture of these countries. I got to say, I love Hispanic food especially when it’s authentic. From my experiences, there is a difference in taste of Korean and Hispanic food when it’s actually made in the country. The authenticity makes the food way more delicious somehow someway.
Looking back at how I learned Korean, I think that it is telltale sign of the type of learner I am. I am mostly a visual and kinesthetic learner that prefers to literally see and manipulate what I am learning about. For instance, cooking Korean food, watching Korean shows, and traveling to Korea are ways I can literally see what I am trying to learn and manipulate material that is related to it. I do fine with verbal and auditory learning as some of the teachers in Korean school primarily used those styles of learning, but I think that visual and kinesthetic learning suit me best. Learning Spanish also showed me that these two styles of learning are best for me because I feel that I learned way much more about Spanish by actually traveling than learning in school like I did with Korean. Being able to visit significant landmarks and eats different kinds of food allowed to understand the Spanish language much more. At the end of the day, I think visual and kinesthetic learning are great, but having a mix of all four learning styles is probably best.
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