Rafy Luqa
Being Multilingual
I always think of myself as an overachiever. That is probably the reason I think being a trilingual is not enough and I need to learn more languages. I can speak and write English and Arabic fluently and I can speak Assyrian fluently. I learned to read and write Assyrian twice but I fail to remember it because of lack of everyday experience. I believe that reading and speaking a language is the most effective way of learning. English was relatively easy for me to learn because I learned the grammar and speech simultaneously. French, on the other hand, was hard for me to learn because we did not speak it in class. I was good in French grammar, but I could not put together a long sentence even after four years of learning in school.
While attending the United World College in Bosnia and Herzegovina, I was subjected to several languages drastically different from each other. The two languages I was interested in learning were Russian and German. I picked up these languages quickly and I was able to make simple sentences short after. I learned the alphabet and pronunciation from my friends and I was able to practice every day. I also spent one Christmas and one summer break in Germany which allowed me to practice German. By the end of my summer break I could ask for directions in German and understand what people said in response. I like speaking to a native speaker of the language I am learning. I find it to be the easiest way to learn the modern pronunciation and the everyday language. I disliked not learning grammar because I believe it is just as important as speech. Unfortunately, I was unable to study either one of those languages in college because of my focus on science and mathematics courses.
I learn best by understanding the big picture and then apply the little details into it. I cannot simply learn small things if I do not understand how they fit into the puzzle. I am good at memorizing facts, which helps me with learning random words or grammar. I can memorize things by listening or visualizing them. While I enjoy talking a lot to the people close to me, I like to be concise and direct academically. As a rational thinker, I tie several causes and effects and I believe that everything occurs for a reason. I do not learn well in study groups, perhaps because I like to be the center of attention. My preferred way of learning a language is memorizing things that I hear or read and repeating them to myself or to another person. I also like making lists of words with their pronunciations and meanings. I cannot learn by using flashcards for some reason.
I am now interested in learning a new language and Hebrew seems like a good choice because it is closely related to Arabic and Assyrian. As of now, I do not have a language partner for Hebrew. Therefore, I will approach the language on my own using internet sources and Rosetta Stone to learn the alphabet and basic sentence structure. The new approach I will take to learning Hebrew is recording myself and listening to the recordings at least once a day. I will record words and their meanings and sentences that I learn along the way. I found several other resources in the Global Studio that I can use such as alphabet blocks, quizzes, word recognition and speech recognition that will make learning fun. As a big music lover, I might start listening to Hebrew songs and try to recognize words in them towards the end of the semester.
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