I come from a Spanish-speaking family and began learning Spanish in school in 6th grade. I have really enjoyed being able to communicate with my family in Spanish and practice my pronunciation with them. One of my favorite ways to learn Spanish has been to trick myself into learning it. Instead of always working on grammar or pronounciation I will listen to Spanish podcasts or read Spanish versions of books or news articles. While doing this I passively absorb idiomatic expressions, nuanced pronunciations of words from different regions, and a better understanding of grammar and sentence structure. I have also focused on written excercises to help my grammar. These become tedious after a while but I know they help me learn actively.
In order to learn Farsi I am going to try to imerse myself in the written and spoken elements of the language. I can do this through podcasts, and news articles. While I do not expect to understand things right away, I do hope that I will develop an ear for certain words and pronunciations and also begin to identify written words on sight (outside of a visual context that Rosetta Stone provides). Understanding sentence formation in new languages is one of my biggest goals. Knowing vocabulary doesn't help me very much if I don't know how to use it correctly in a sentence. I hope to be able to work with my language partner on this.
In the FIRE Model I am an F2, I2, R3 and E5.
F2- I think I value practical knowledge because I view it as applicable. While learning things I want know that I have some use for it.
I2- I like to have a clear idea of what I will be learning and how each element fits into the next section or topic. In planning I am able to see the need to focus on seemingly insignificant details that will help me later.
R3- I really like hypothetical situations where I get to take what I have learned and apply it to another situation or question. An example of this is in the Rosetta Stone program where it gave me four pictures. All but one of them had a description written in Farsi above the picture. I had to look at the fourth picture, which incorporated elements of the other three, formulate a sentence in Farsi and then say it into the microphone. It was actually kind of fun to be able to do that 30 minutes into learning a new language.
E5- I like smaller groups or classes because it allows us as a group to communicate with each other. Especially while learning a language, having someone else to bounce ideas or questions off of is crucial.
One thing I hope to do going forward is find some source of gramatical exercises. It may be too early for those exercises to really be effective but I would like to understand how grammar works in Farsi, especially because Rosetta Stone presents information within the context of full sentences.
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