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110 Bi-weekly post 1

To make a learning plan, I would like to start with where I am in the learning process. I haven’t officially learned much Korean, although I did have immersions in Korean in terms of K-pop and gaming. I would still consider myself a novice in learning Korean. 

Next up is my goal for learning Korean. I follow a few K-pop groups. In addition, I’m watching professional Overwatch League games. Overwatch is a first-person game that is contested in 6 v 6. A lot of professional game players are from Korea, so are some of my favorite overwatch players. So when I watch their interview videos or their stream on Twitch, it’s hard for me to understand them. Even though during the interviews sometimes there are translators, but I think they don’t fully translate what the player means. 

By the end of this semester, my intention is to understand basic daily conversations and what the players talk about when they stream. Since I also follow k-pop groups, I want to be able to understand the lyrics of the songs. 

I do want to start learning the basics of Korean. And I want to focus on speaking and listening than reading and writing because I think the first two skills are more useful to me right now. Some basic tasks include: greetings / farewells, self-introduction(my name, where I am from, the major I am studying, a fun fact about myself), asking about basic information from other people, numbers, ask/tell time and date.

Jargon related to games and k-pop definitely is also a part of what I want to learn. But I think it’s more of a later thing to do. So in the next two weeks, I want to learn some basic vocabulary and daily conversation, also the Korean alphabet.

Some activities I can do later in the semester could be singing a Korean song or translate a short interview video of a korean overwatch player. I’m also planning to set the language in my overwatch gaming menu to be Korean so that I can learn the gaming Jargon sooner.

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discussion post #1

I found the section about how a basic interaction such as hi, how are you becomes so second nature that we almost forget that it is in reality a complicated neural interaction that allows it to happen in the first place. It reminded me of many experiences I had living in China - near the end of the semester, speaking Chinese with strangers and saying excuse me in Chinese when bumping into someone was burned into my (neural?) memory so resolutely that I had trouble switching back to English. In airports, big tourist attractions, European and Indian tourists would ask me for directions or for help finding something in English and it would take me a couple minutes to remember how to respond in my own native language. Tripping over a foreigner I would always say the (considerably longer) Chinese version of excuse me and would get a really confused look in return. I am curious to see if this phenomenon gets more or less frequent as I learn a third language. On one hand, it would seem that the addition of another complete vocab list would make it much easier to make inter-languages mistakes in other languages. But I have read and heard polyglots say that the more languages one learns, the easier keeping track of all of them gets. In that way I could see the brain, or at least the lingual portion of it, as similar to any other muscle in the body. The more its trained and exercised, the more weight it pulls.

My first call with my language partner is scheduled for tomorrow. I have individually studied some phrases and grammar already so she can correct what I already know, but I think I will end up asking her what she thinks is important to know. I know that if I was asked to teach English I don't think I would be able to replicate what a ESL textbook would teach, since it isn't how I and other native English speakers learned the language, so I think it would be unreasonable to ask someone who isn't familiar with that style of teaching to replicate those results. Overall I am excited and hope everything goes well.

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112 Learning Journal Post #1

As my first journal post, I have not been able to officially start studying yet.  However, I do have some ideas for what I would like to focus on and some reflections on what has worked best with language learning before.  

After spending last Spring semester in Chile, it is safe to say I am fluent in Spanish.  There are still a lot of specifics I don't know along with some vocabulary, but I can carry on long conversations with locals and have been able to apply my skills in situations here in the U.S.  As the first language other than English I have studied, I know some mistakes I have made and tactics that have worked for me in my learning process.  While I was in Chile, I had a Spanish class 4 days a week for 3 hours.  We went over grammar, did exercises, and got a mini-lecture on what would be covered in our classes later that day.  Despite the 12 hours per week studying, I noticed little improvement in my speaking and fluency abilities.  At that point, I understood essentially all of Spanish grammar in a classroom setting, but application was key in getting it to be natural with minimal thinking time.  Practicing every day talking with my host family, people at the grocery store, and locals around the food markets drastically increased my fluency and understanding of the language.  

When learning Korean, I don't want to make the same mistake by only learning out of a textbook and not producing the language extensively.  Vocabulary is also an essential part of a language.  I have learned that simple sentences can be categorized by structure.  Once you know that structure, you can substitute several words to create countless versions of essentially the same sentence.  I want to make sure I focus on vocabulary this semester alongside conversing and producing the language regularly.  

Over the summer, I downloaded an app called Pimsleur which has pre-made 30 min lessons, but it's all auditory learning.  There is a lot of repetition and you are given several opportunities to reproduce what you're learning in that lesson and in lessons to follow to review.  I found that knowing phrases first and then being able to break them down afterward grammatically was an effective tactic in my learning of Korean.  In just two weeks I was able to formally talk about the weather, if that person had eaten lunch/breakfast, if they speak Korean/English and to what extent, where I'm from, and phrases such as excuse me, thank you, I'm sorry, that's right, and how to incorporate small adjectives such as a little, yet, a lot, something, anything, nothing, etc.  In other words, I learned a lot.  If possible, I would like to continue something like this, but if not then hopefully a student here could go through that process with me.  

I am very much looking forward to continuing my Korean studies, especially now since I'm not studying Spanish at the same time.  I hope I can truly focus on it and I'm excited about the new opportunities with the Korean Church partnership.  

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Ning Post #1

Unitha Cherry

SDLC

Reading Reflection #2

 

 

After reading How the Brain Handles Language, I was first fascinated with the idea the damage to a particular part of the brain could result in a reduced ability to understand speech, but you would still be able to speak and then vice versa for comprehension and speech in Boca’s area. I think that it is to some degree scary to know that speech, such a vital part of everyday life is controlled by such a seemingly small part of the brain. It also made me wonder what about speech would make the act harder to preform because in theory people who had damage to either Boca’s area or Wernicke’s are should still be able to read and thus would not have their reading or writing comprehension affected. I enjoyed the breakdown of what speech is and what it involves. The example of the hi, how are you made me think about how language becomes so second nature that it feels almost innate but that there are a million and one different processes going on inside the brain to connect the dots. I was amused by the analysis on tongue slips primarily because I speak very fast when excited or slur my words horribly when tired and more often than not say thigs that don’t make sense for example hold my brothers car keys and asking repeatedly if they were his “key cars” looking quite puzzled but not being able to notice what was wrong. It makes sense that sometimes because words sound the same or involve the same tongue and mouth movements your brain would make mistakes. It also poked a giant hole in the idea of Freudian slips having any psychological because it is truly a simple mistake. The article made me think about all the ways that because come up with their own ways of communicating specifically people who are selectively mute or have developmental delays. Their forms of communication are not any less valid because they are more often nonverbal, but I think looking into how the brain makes up for that and how then then process speech would be very interesting. For the How we mean article I was interested in the idea that there is a relationship between how a word sounds and what it refers to. I first find issue with the concept because Plato spoke Greek and without a doubt that may have been the case but in English not so much. It is easy to make that assumption when your language is combinations of other words or builds off of root words but not all languages are like that and in that regard, I am more of a conventionalist because I do believe that naming and words can be wholly arbitrary. I will concede that language is a delicate balance of the two and to me the most important factor is the sense of a word in language. I liked the portion about sense and reference and it made me think about all the words primarily insults that people use for each other but because they have a sense of the word they are aware it is not the reference but some new meaning as a result of how languages change.

 

 

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Discussion Post 1

I understood most of what the two articles were talking about, but it was pretty confusing once it got into collocations and lexemes. I thought that the part of how words convey a sense of meaning through context was very interesting. How there are many words that mean so many different things and the senses of meanings are infinite. That is why language is so complex and unique. I think language is more than just a purely biological phenomenon. When someone speaks a sentence, although there are many biological events occurring in the brain, most people talk with physical movements and body language. Furthermore, language differs through different culture, which invokes more than just your brain firing neurons. You feel a sense of emotion and feeling. The article states that the Broca’s area is most important for the production and comprehension of speech. Also the front of the fissure of Rolando is a big component of language. People conceptualize and process meaning through context, using different words. When someone says the word “place,” we can usually infer through context of other words to understand the meaning of sense of place. Whether it’s referring to a location or referring to the action of putting something down. The two articles have definitely made me understand the complexity of language and how it applies to my SDLC course in Korean. I have to be able to use context and sense of meaning for a word that might mean different things. Furthermore, I can’t assume that a word in Korean has the same meanings as the word in English. For example, I can’t assume that Aunt in Korean means the same thing in English because different cultures may have different sense of meanings of words.

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Discussion Post #1

There is a lot of interesting information in this article, it shows us the complexity and charm of language. The sound of a word or even a word is the result of a series of activities, closely related to the function of different parts of the brain. For most people, the speech area is primarily located in the left hemisphere of the brain, which consists of a larger brain area. The speech area includes the speech motor area, called Broca's area, which if damaged will causes motor aphasia. There's a speech hearing center above the temporal lobe, near the occipital lobe, that's involved in understanding spoken speech, also known as the Wernicke’s area, damage to this area can cause auditory aphasia; In the parietal occipital junction, there's also the speech vision center, and damage to this area can lead to difficulties in understanding written language. I think language learning is a process of building neural connections, just like memory. Through early practice, deep furrows in the cortex and stable neural connections are established.

The charm of language is reflected in many places. There are many languages in the world, but there are always different degrees of contact between languages. At the same time, it is very common that a word can have many meanings. Language is formed because of the need for communication between people, so it's easy to explain why the lexical coverage of different language systems is different.The names of relatives mentioned in the book and the language mentioned in the previous class that did not have a word to describe the war. There are many ways to address relatives in China, you can always find the right word.I think it's because China has a long tradition of ethnic group.Many of the ancient buildings are big houses. A family name may develop from family to a small town, which means that all the people in the town are related by blood. It's important to know what to call your relatives.

I think language learning is a process of building neural connections, just like memory. Through early practice, deep furrows in the cortex and stable neural connections are established. To maintain memory requires constant use, so language learning cannot be separated from communication. At the same time, an in-depth understanding of a language requires an understanding of its formation, such as the culture and history of the country.

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Reflection Paper #1

I was brought up in a household where two languages (Telugu and English) were used equally often hence I was able to freely switch between the languages in my day-to-day conversations. I’ve been taught English formally in school ever since I was a little kid so I didn’t give much thought how I did it or how easy/difficult it was. However, I never knew how to read/write in Telugu, so when I was 13 years old I decided to finally learn how to read and write Telugu and I picked it up as a language class in school. Even though Telugu was my mother tongue I found it extremely difficult to learn the script and to use more advanced vocabulary. I often didn’t understand what was being taught and eventually stopped learning it. I just told myself that it just wasn’t in me to delve deeper into reading and writing Telugu. 

I had a somewhat similar experience with Hindi. Being a Telugu-speaker, I always ended up messing up Hindi pronunciations. In the case of me learning Hindi, I formally learned the language for 9 years and could read and write it easily. My vocabulary was also very good considering the fact that I could read Hindi literature and poetry and easily understand it. However, I could never speak it right. Even though I am extremely confident about my Hindi knowledge, I just couldn’t hold a conversation. I just told myself that it wasn’t in me to nail the Hindi pronunciations.

About 2 years ago, I was determined to make sure I knew my mother tongue (Telugu) and to make sure that I could speak the language that made so much sense to me (Hindi) and I read Benny Lewis’ book titled Fluent in 3 Months. I understood that the backward classroom education which made me simply focus on hacking the grading system didn’t properly aid my language learning process. I would simply cram words and memorise answers to various questions one day before my test and then forget everything the next day. I could never really follow along the fast paced classes which didn’t have any visual or hands-on component beyond seeing/writing on the black board. It made sense to me then about why I couldn’t read and write Telugu and speak Hindi. I am a visual and tactile learner and I needed to try to learn by focusing on those strengths. That’s when I decided on two things: I would hang out with my Hindi-speaking friends and their families more and use Hindi as my primary language, and I would write a letter to my mother every week and make sure that any errand that required me writing something down, I was going to write it in Telugu. This way I was able to understand the North Indian culture more and seeing my friends interacting with each other and their family members and trying to do so myself resulted in a huge improvement. Similarly, writing letters or making a grocery list and going over my mistakes with my mom really helped me not only read and write Telugu but also helped improve my vocabulary.

From these experiences I understand that the best way for me to learn a language is to set some time aside every week to engage in visually stimulating and hands-on activities to learn something new related to the language itself and the culture of the native speakers of the language, and then find a way to include it into my daily life to retain and develop what I learned.

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Reflection Paper #1

I began to learn English when I was in kindergarten, which was an optional interest class. The teacher let us slowly learn letters and numbers through games and songs, those interesting content made me very interested in English at the beginning. Then I officially started my English class in primary school. As a visual learner, the bright colors and interesting illustrations in primary school textbooks make me very active in learning English. Most of the time, my teacher would play English cartoons for us. I would watch them so intently that I even bought some to watch at home.

 

However, with the growth of the grade, the content of English class has changed. With fewer and fewer pictures in the book, in order to learn grammar and sentence patterns, the teacher asked us to recite long paragraphs of the text. It was very boring and difficult for me, the sentences were very long and I could hardly memorize them, and the grammatical structure was confusing. In addition, memorizing words changed from looking at pictures to looking at a list. I could only read English and corresponding Chinese explanations. Later, I tried to turn the characters and stories in the article into three-dimensional objects in my mind, and turn the article into a film in my mind. After a few classes, I found this method really useful. By high school, my English level was already very good. I started watching a lot of TV series, “Friends” is one of my favorite. Through watching various kinds of shows and TV dramas, I have learned a lot of practical short and expression ways, which cannot be learned in class.

 

When I was a freshman, I took a German class. At the beginning, the teacher only used German to communicate in class, which confused me a lot. For many times, I could not understand what activities to do. However, with the increase of vocabulary, I found that this kind of grammar is more useful than just reading textbooks. Video in the homework is mostly local interviews. Although it needs to be listened to many times, I think it is more conducive to language learning than listening to pure accent. After all, I will not only communicate with announcers in the future, right?

 

I think I should focus more on speaking in my future language learning. A lot of times I'm afraid of speaking the wrong language or pronunciation, but after some frustration, I found that speaking can help a lot on improve communication skills, I just need more courage.

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Reflection Paper #1

As a language learner, I have learned 3 different languages, including English, Japanese and French besides my mother tone, Chinese. Based on my experiences learning those languages, I found out that I enjoy communicating with people using the new words or grammar I learned in class. During the process of talking to people, I could not only practice the new knowledge I learned but also exchanges my opinions with people. Also, talking to people using new knowledge helps me to remember. Talking to people using the new language is also a process of self-correction. After all, the main purpose of learning a new language is learning a new culture and communicating with more people.

 

Moreover, I found out that reading magazines or watching TV shows are also really helpful. Sometimes, the way that you express your ideas in a second language is different from the way that native speakers speak. For example, when I learned Japanese, I learned the word “no” in Japanese to reject other people’s requests or invitation. However, when I saw Japanese TV shows, I found out that they never use the word “no” to reject others. Instead, they will say “emm….” to express their rejections. It is a common phenomenon in Japanese culture. If you say the word “no” directly, Japanese people would think you are rude.

 

In speaking of the language as a medium of culture, I also think that traveling or living in the country is a good way to experience its culture. For example, when I studied abroad in Paris, I took the elementary French class. I found out that actually living in France and learning French are mutually beneficial to each other. For example, I gained a better understanding of how French people use the phrase “oh la la”. They use the phrase “oh la la” literally everywhere in daily life. It can indicate surprise, disappointment, commiseration, distress or even annoyance. In short, living in a native language environment can actually help you to speak like a local and think like a local.

 

On top of the opinions stated above, I believe that the persistence of knowledge accumulation is also important. As language learners, we need to keep learning, reviewing and practicing the new words, new grammar, new expressions day after day. This is the only way to learn a new language or even any skills. For me, I am used to remembering new words in the morning when I am most concentrated, and practicing those words during the day in class or casual conversations, and, most importantly, reviewing those words at the end of the day before I go to bed. The same method suits for grammars or expressions. In such way, I could fully master the new knowledge and never forget.

 

Based on all my past experiences stated above, I believe that a native speaker who has a comprehensive understanding of the Turkish culture could offer me many help and advice. I am looking forward to learning a new language and, most importantly, getting to understand a new culture and a different perspective. 

 

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Reflection paper 1

I remember the first time I took a language class was in 7th grade, and I lasted one year before giving up on French. I tried again with German and really didn't like it. Then came Spanish, and after three grueling semesters to meet the school boards language requirement I was done with that as well. Then I transferred into a boarding school where nobody was willing to speak English with me, and I was finally forced to learn a foreign language in a radically different way than I had previously experienced. My friends taught me curse words first, and basic knowledge came after, and by the end of the year I could surprise the average Chinese high school freshman with a simple request in Mandarin. I realized in college that languages were what I was truly interested in (failing out of econ helped me learn that) and I have done Chinese ever since. This is my first year that I am not taking a Chinese class, and so I replaced it with other languages instead. I think that what really clicked for me with Chinese is the immersion that I had at boarding school rather than than the fairly free and easy high school classes. I never really felt like I needed to learn french or spanish, but with chinese I was faced with true necessity. I'm lucky enough now to be friends with some native hebrew speakers that are willing to help with any questions or just practice, so I am excited to begin hebrew in earnest with the lessons I have learned from past languages, both failures and successes included.

My top scores in one of the surveys were linguistic and kinesthetic. The other survey said I was a mostly tactile learner, and I think those two results complement each other. I'm quite competitive and I learn best when there are real stakes and when I feel like failure/success will have a real impact on my life. I have always loved assignments that involved public speaking or answering questions in front of the class, but I am not sure how I would incorporate that style of learning into self directed study. Also, watching tv in a target language has always been effective for me, and I consider it lucky that Israeli tv is generally pretty high quality and interesting, and they also have a diverse music and art scene. Can't wait to get started!

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Reflection Paper 1

English is a mandatory course in Chinese School since elementary school and even now in Kindergarten. I remember taking three extra-curriculum English courses on my weekends to become top achievers in class and to gain extra credits in my application for Middle School. The Chinese school textbooks placed the majority of their emphasis on grammar. I hated memorizing tenses and different grammatical structures through text-completion exams. Throughout my journey in learning English, I disliked learning new vocabularies through mechanically memorizing the meaning of the words. I would rather learn new words by using them in conversations and utilizing them in real-world situations. For a period of time, I found myself only able to read and understand the language, but unable to converse with others. When I transferred to a British School during Fifth Grade, I felt 'muted.' It wasn't until forcing myself to only speak English with my classmates and teachers, that I gradually became more fluent. My interest in Japanese and Korean culture pushed me to began learning these two languages, and I have already learned the Korean and Japanese alphabets on my own through video courses. However, realizing the importance of physically using the language and talking to native speakers, I decided to apply for this Self-Directed Learning Language Course.

One of the surveys I have taken states that I lean more towards a visual learner, and I believe that through visualizing the application of the new language will help me understand and remember. Another thing that I have noticed is that I am good at copying pronunciations of different languages, even of languages that I don't speak, including Spanish, French, Korean and Japanese. I hope this characteristic would encourage me to become more vocal when learning Korean and other languages. Moreover, I believe that through immersing yourself in a foreign language can help you dramatically in improving in both listening and speaking. Since the steps of becoming fluent in a language go from Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, we must force ourselves into the environment. When I first began learning English, my teacher told me to watch American TV series in order to get used to the "sense of the language:" the flow, pronunciation, and even grammatical structure. During this semester, I need to spend a lot of time learning new vocabularies and the grammatical structure of the Korean language, but I will also watch Korean TV series and films, in order to improve my listening skills. On the other hand, through watching these shows, I will also gain a better understanding of Korean society and their cultural values. Furthermore, as History Major, I hope to study more about Korean History during the 19th - 20th Century and their relationships with China and Japan.

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SDLC reflection paper 1

When I was learning my native language Chinese, I enjoyed reading books, even when I was a little kid. I started with books that have a lot of pictures because pictures can often stimulate my brain and help me comprehend the contents more easily. Chinese has a system called Pinyin that shows the pronunciation of Chinese characters using letters. I learned Pinyin before I started learning the actual Chinese characters. My mom bought me some more books after she saw my interest in reading, and she also helped me to subscribe to a couple of magazines for kids. Reading, or in other words, visual learning played a major part in my learning of Chinese in the early years. By reading various types of books on my own, I developed a large vocabulary earlier than others. The speaking and listening part of learning seemed to come naturally, also I do remember listening to tapes of children stories. Besides that, watching children cartoons was another way I improved my listening and speaking skills. Later on, when I started to learn English, reading books and watching videos was my preferred way of learning. In English classes, I also preferred to taking notes and reviewing them afterward.

            I have always been more of a visual learner. From the survey I finished, auditory takes up 20%, tactile learning takes up 35%, and visual learning takes up the rest 45%. The survey result defined a visual learner as someone learn by reading or seeing pictures, understand and remember things by sight, picture what you are learning in your head, and learn best by using methods that are primarily visual. Visual learners are usually neat and clean. They often close eyes to visualize or remember something and will find something to watch if become bored. I think this description fits me perfectly. If I’m only getting spoken instructions for learning, it is way harder for me to comprehends those because I like to visualize those instructions in my head in order to understand them.

            The survey also suggested a few tips that can help visual learners to do better. Use flashcards to learn new words: I personally already find this quite helpful when I am learning English. I like to memorize a picture or a scenario that I can associate with the word, so I can automatically come up with the word when I see the picture or vice versa. Try to visualize things that you hear or things that are read to you: I think this is also helpful when I read stories in the new language I learn because having a visual image in mind can be useful when I try to remember things. Write down keywords, ideas, or instructions: I always prefer having a lot of notes on my notebook because when I am writing down something, my mind is actually already trying to remember it. Besides this, I think having conversations with people who are fluent in the language I learn will also aid me with improving my skills.

 

           

 

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Reflection #1

Unitha Cherry

SDLC 105

Reflection Paper #1

 

 

In the past as a language learner I have been taught through rote memorization and basic drills. There was never any practical need for the languages I studied in my life outside of what could be memorized. I studied Latin but didn’t need to understand the language outside of the prayers that were said in school. I never got practice outside of saying hello to my teacher. It was more of the same when I moved on to study Spanish in middle and high school. The biggest change came in college fulfilling the COM 2 requirement. I found that having class was very helpful. Practice every day is what I need to ensure the information I’m learning doesn’t go in one ear and out the other. Additionally, while sometimes it was exhausting having a drill in which I can only speak my target language and I have to answer questions on the fly without the chance to think about them gave me the confidence to know I knew the material and that I was capable of speech. When I decided to study abroad the fact that very few people around me spoke English helped my language acquisition a lot. In order for my host mother to understand what I was saying I needed to be able to communicate properly so I would ask for help from native speakers and make sure that my pronunciation was where it needed to be.  Something I’ve always been really good at is parroting or repeating people. It has always helped me with pronunciation and making the words feel natural instead of so foreign. When talking the surveys, I found out that I am an auditory learner which isn’t really surprising. Hearing how a language is supposed to sound has always helped me. In high school watching movies in my target language really helped me to not only become comfortable with the language but also practice the nuances of language. I think that as I study Hebrew and to some degree biblical Hebrew scripture, commentary and outside materials will be helpful in becoming familiar with it. I also think that in the beginning I may have to revert to the rote memorization tasks at least until I am comfortable enough with the language. I think the biggest challenges and frustrations will come from not having the same alphabet and needing to get used to the new sounds. In the past I have found success with games and other ways of learning that don’t feel so ridged. Something I have liked in the past is the immersion that comes with being in a new culture and being forced to speak to people in your target language. I think that as I’m moving forward that is surely going to be something, I included in my learning plan.  My only worries come from not having people in the community that speak Hevrew at the level I need it outside of biblical Hebrew which is relevant but I have yet to decide if that’s what I want to study.

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Reflection Paper #1

        Since primary school, we were required to take English classes every semester. However, the classes back then were not for us to use English in our daily life, but to take a test and get a good grade. My teachers would stress a lot on grammar or vocabulary or phrases when it came to tests, so I was trained mostly at reading and listening instead of speaking and writing. This flawed training system resulted in my lack of confidence in speaking. What I’ve learned in the classroom is not that useful in my real life, such as having a real conversation with people in English. It became better when I went to my high school when almost everyone around me was speaking English, but my conversation skills did not leap until I came here.


        I started watching Korean variety shows and k-dramas since my eighth grade, and some Korean words started to sound familiar to me while I don’t know the exact meaning of the sentences. The summer before I came to Richmond, I finally decided to take a Korean class, since I’ve wanted it for so long. It was a traditional class as well, with one teacher standing and teaching and five students sitting in front of her. What makes it different was that for each class, our teacher would chat with us in Korean for twenty minutes. If we wanted to use any words or phrases that we haven’t learned, she would explain it to us. I learned the words fast, so at our next class, I would try to use the phrases we learned the day before. In this way, I would feel like I’ve learned it in my heart. I still need to work on vocabulary and reading in Korean a lot more, but this kind of classes lead me to my goal as having conversations with people faster.


        From my learning experience, encouragement and recognition give me confidence and motivate me the most. I’m usually more comfortable in small classes compared with big lectures. In the FIRE model, I lean towards a factual, rational and evaluative student. In “What’s your learning style”, my highest score is in Auditory. It says that I learn by hearing and listening. I got the highest scores in Musical and Self in “Multiple Intelligence Assessment” as well, which shows again that I learn by speaking and listening. As a result, for my language learning experience, I find study partners or small learning groups suit me the best. I can practice by speaking and listening, and I will be able to get feedback pretty quickly. To expand my learning activities, I can break down the sentences in tv shows, learning vocabs from lyrics of K-pop music, or even try out the script of K-dramas. As I believe, learning new things in a familiar scenario will make the memory stay longer than usual. These activities different from daily conversations or simply grammar points will bring more fun and interactions to my learning experience.

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