I am a Spanish and English speaker. Having attended a bilingual elementary school, I began to develop my English and Spanish. My family comes from the Dominican Republic, which is a Spanish speaking island. Transitioning to middle school, I began to learn a third language, French because I thought it was very similar to Spanish and English. From grade 6 to 12 (middle and high school), I was enrolled in French classes. I spoke Spanish and some English at home to family members, predominately English at school to my friends, and French in French class. If I had to rank the language from most proficient to least, then English would be first followed by Spanish and French. Currently in college, I speak English to most of my friends and a little bit of Spanish to those friends who understand it or taking a Spanish class. I am currently taking French with Professor Julie Baker. A three and half year gap (college) with no practice in French has made me rusty in French, but I expect after this semester to regain some of my confidence and knowledge in French. Despite Korean being entirely different from Spanish and English, I decided on this language for two reasons: the challenge and to be able to speak to some of my friends in their native language.
As a language learner for Spanish, English and French, I definitely enjoyed learning the culture tied with the language. By culture, I am referring to the history, customs, and traditions of those countries. I dislike the technicality of grammar and syntax; however, I do understand the importance of it in speaking, writing and communicating properly. In middle school, I was learning French. The methods or techniques the teachers would implement to teach us French consisted of learning the alphabet, numbers and basic vocabulary. Then, we would learn basic verbs and conjugations, followed by children songs and movies. Throughout the years of French, we learned about France and Francophone countries, particularly the cultures. This helped make connections and learn rather than memorize the language.
The surveys suggest I am a mix of Kinesthetic and Reading/Writing Learner. I need to have structure and organization in notes and practice activities. The survey mentions rereading and rewriting notes, words, and phrases for conditioning along with outside field trips for a hands-on approach as well as conversations and dialogues to facilitate comprehension. A trial and error method of learning would help my understanding and constant pictures and examples. Personally, from my past experience and based on the Fire model, I am a combination of Factual and Insightful thinking to initially learn a language. The more experience and understanding would lead to Evaluative and Rationale thinking. For this course, I thinking sticking to Factual and Insightful thinking would be more fitting. To expand my learning activities, I need a combination of online exercises and dialogue to practice. The use of Internet, textbook and videos would facilitate my learning of Korean. I can also practice with my Korean-American friends.
Comments
Awesome!