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I was born in America but went to Korea to live with my grandparents at a very early age. I faintly remembered learning very basic Korean at a daycare center, but I moved back to America for pre-school and basically forgot all I learned. However, as a Korean American I grew up with my parents speaking mostly Korean to me, went to a Korean Church, and basically lived in Korea town. I never received any formal teachings for Korean as my parents’ focus were for me and my brothers to learn English as quickly as possible to help them out. A lot of the Korean I learned was just from mimicking and observing my parents.

Moving onto middle school I decided to take Spanish class as this was the norm. I was told taking Spanish would help me get into a good college, good job, and more. I questioned this concept so many times but went along anyways. My intro class was quite enjoyable as the teacher was very interactive and enthusiastic. She made the class environment just so comfortable and easy going. Things took a turn during my next year of learning Spanish as I was put with a teacher who just didn’t seem to enjoy teaching. We were drilled daily with textbook readings and quizzes. I dreaded going to that class every time. The teacher, who was fired the year after, made me hate learning Spanish and I would finally quit trying after another year in high school. I realized learning language through formal education was not for me. I learned and retained more through my Bolivian best friend, whose house I went to frequently, and friends from my soccer team.

My survey results showed that I am a tactile learner and I completely agree. I learn by being hands-on and doing or being emersed into the subject. My surveys also revealed me as a very factual/logical person. I also agree with this as a lot of my motivation for learning comes with a thought of why this is going to be useful, how can I use this in my life, and how does this even work? The two traits seem a bit different, but I think being a tactical learner really helps unravel the reasoning and logic behind things.

My focus is mostly on writing (typing) and speaking Korean, along with learning the culture, especially in order to achieve fluency. A language learning activity that would suit my style would be to go to the country, but I’ve already done that. Staying in Korea really helped, and my parents were even surprised at how I was a lot more comfortable with my Korean than before. Some activities that might help is just having a conversation. Especially when trying to achieve fluency I think learning how to have a conversation is a lot more important. This would also help a lot with my pronunciation. I think it would also help to be immersed in the Korean culture by doing Korean things like eating kbbq, listening to kpop, watching kdramas, and more.

Learning a new language or language in general has always been challenging for me. It’s never been something that’s just clicked like other subjects, and I’ve always had to work hard at. In high school, I took Spanish for 4 years all the way up until my last year of AP Spanish. Although it was challenging, I actually really enjoyed it because of the learning process. That class was super interactive, we watched movies, sang songs, discussed interesting reading materials, and practiced conversational speaking a lot. I loved that aspect and the constant reinforcement of the material through different mediums and communication really helped me learn. From our surveys, I’m said to be a visual learner and from the fire model I’m tabbed as more factual and rational, which is why this probably appeals to me. When I can see the practical side of what I’m learning, I do much better. In addition, my results showed auditory learning as second highest of my learning styles. This makes sense because I really benefited from conversation, media, and other things where I could hear the language and try to imitate what I heard.  What was challenging about my language learning in high school was the pace and some harder material. Like I’ve stated, I move a little slower than most with language for some reason, and in high school the pace of learning Spanish was so fast to get us prepared to take the AP exam. There were times I felt left behind, which is why I’m excited to move at my own pace in this class. As for the material, I learned a lot worse with dense readings. Not only was it challenging, but it just was not engaging to me in the slightest sometimes. This really detracted from me trying to learn the material and understand the language. Which is why the more applied learning from the class was much more suited for my learning. I found, especially with being in college not continuing to speak the language, that repetition and practice really are the best ways for me to learn. Even if it were small things, the more I just incorporated Spanish into my daily life, the better I remembered it. 

With that being said, I think there really are some effective ways I could learn Portuguese if I approach it the right way. I think to start, I really need to spend time thinking about how to approach learning a language. This would be an expansion on my normal process of learning as I’ve never taken the time to think about it foundationally. A personal schedule and way to keep my own pace would also be something I’ve never had before. This would help me stay organized and allow for me to move at my own productive pace After that, I think that incorporating what learning activities have worked well in the past for me would be the best to pursue. Definitely a mix of visual, interactive, rational, and somewhat basic activities. I think videos, songs, movies, and other things I can just incorporate naturally into my life will work great for me. As well as simply writing and studying important Portuguese words. Another thing I really liked from our readings was the prospect of critical self-reflection and assessment. I think this is a must for my learning process because I need a way to keep myself guided and progressing. Whenever doing something that’s self-guided, it is easy to justify not trying or really no progress because you’re totally in control of the process. So, I’ll need to develop a measuring stick or milestones to keep myself on track. My aspirations aren’t too lofty because language learning is something that takes me a long time and a semester is only so long, but I am excited to hopefully acquire a basic and solid foundation of the language. 

In high school, I took Spanish courses up to IB Spanish SL. I enjoyed my Spanish classes because my teachers were really great and tried to make the learning process as interactive and fun as possible. We played games to practice forming sentences, watched Spanish movies, and even acted out scenes of a Spanish play. This was different from my other classes which usually just entailed a lecture, PowerPoint slides, and class discussions. I learned a lot of Spanish in high school due to the practice I had with reading, writing, and speaking in the classroom. However, as with all standardized learning, I was unable to learn at my own pace and had to follow the schedule/syllabus set by my teachers. A big reason why I am really excited about this course is because of the independence I’ll have to accomplish my own learning goals at my own pace. 

Based on the FIRE model and the surveys I completed, I am an insightful thinker, a visual learner, and self-intelligent. I believe these results are accurate as I do find it easier to understand and remember things by sight and I learn better by reading and seeing pictures. I tend to sit at the front of classrooms because I can see the board more clearly and it prevents me from getting distracted by movement in my surroundings. When taking notes, I use highlighters and colored pens to color code and keep my notes organized. I also find that visual models and figures help me understand concepts better. Based on this learning style, I think it would be helpful for me to continue writing notes using colors and even drawing pictures. I also plan to use the Anki app to make flashcards for Korean words. I want to try to expand my learning activities by finding new ways to visually learn Korean. For example, reading Korean picture books or watching Korean movies may be a fun and effective way for me to visually learn the language.