Experiences in Language Learning (Part Two)

As promised, here is the second installment about my successful and unsuccessful language learning experiences...
 

Continuing my study of Russian in college, I studied for one horrific year under the tutelage of a woman whose methods consisted of explaining the grammar from the front of the class, ridiculing students who mispronounced or could not answer, not answering student questions and not allowing practice in conversation. It was by far the worst language learning experience I have encountered, and it affected me so dramatically that any interest I had in learning the language was completely crushed for more than a decade.

Moving on to other pursuits, I decided Latin might be the thing since I enjoyed history and already spoke Spanish. In Latin class, we read short stories and attempted to translate them into English. I guess there was a component of grammar, but since I could usually translate well enough just by knowing Spanish and having previously read the stories we were translating, I didn’t put much time into learning it. As with German and Russian, I didn’t look for other sources of input with which I might practice my new language. I wish now that I had paid a more attention to the grammar and done a bit of study on my own.

After being out of college for a year or so, I began craving more learning experiences. I especially missed studying languages, but for some reason didn’t consider studying a language on my own. About that time, our church began offering a class in Koine Greek, and I eagerly joined. With no other schoolwork to do, I had more time to focus on learning Greek, and spent hours making flash cards, practicing verb conjugations and vocabulary and reading the passages from the book. I started understanding some important grammatical features of the language and making associations between Greek, Spanish and Russian, but I still didn’t feel like I understood the language on any level equal to the way I understood English and Spanish. After a semester, we moved to another town, and I had to withdraw from my Greek class. Although I devoted significantly more time and effort to learning Greek than I had to the previous three languages I had attempted, I believe the lack of context, few materials and lack of opportunity to practice with others outside of class made my learning shallow and short-lived.

A few years later, while on a rickety old cruise ship in the Galapagos Islands, I met an interesting couple from Israel.  Their adventurous spirit resonated with me, and I enjoyed listening to stories of their travels during their long backpacking trip around South America. I also had plenty of opportunities to listen to them conversing in Hebrew, and decided to try a new language when I got home. This was my first attempt to learn a language completely on my own, without any formal class. I bought the Pimsleur language course, downloaded the free Hebrew program from www.byki.com, got a dictionary and verb book, and found some websites offering streaming video from Israel. I put in hours studying on my own and sometimes studied with a conversation partner I had found on www.livemocha.com, who was willing to help me practice speaking. I could see that my efforts with Hebrew were more successful than any of my previous attempts at language learning, and I attributed it to my use of a wider variety of sources, including audio, video and speaking practice. Unfortunately, my partner was only available for an hour or two per week, and I eventually got discouraged when my language stagnated at the upper beginner level. After studying for a full year, I gave up on ever being truly proficient in Hebrew.

My next language experience resulted from a trip to Ireland. While touring the country, I encountered a community of Polish speakers and was intrigued by the sound of the language. Upon returning home, I ordered the Pimsleur Polish course, and similar materials to those I had used in studying Hebrew. After studying the language for only a couple months, however, I discovered the Turkish language, and was captivated by its unique grammatical structure and the musical quality resulting from vowel and consonant harmony.

Once again, the words have exceeded their limit and I am forced to end this post. Stay tuned for the last installment of this series about my previous language learning experiences.

This is me, signing off...

Experiences in Language Learning (Part One)

My recent reading about languages and language learning theories, as well as the recent blog post at http://blog.thelinguist.com/ (Aug. 29, 2012) has gotten me thinking more and more about my own language learning experiences and what they indicate about how I can best learn languages when participating in a formal class, as well as when learning independently.

My first experience in second language acquisition started when my family moved to Mexico when I was six. Having no previous experience with Spanish, moving to a tiny town in central Mexico was quite a shock at first. No one spoke any English, and I soon discovered that if I wanted to make friends, I needed to learn to communicate. I learned via immersion, playing with kids in the street. By the end of two months I could understand most of what they said, and could make myself understood too. By the end of a year, I was speaking nearly fluently. A year after that, when we moved to another town, most people thought I was Mexican.

My second attempt at a foreign language, German, was quite different. When I was ten, my mom bought us a language course containing a phrase book with amusing pictures and a set of tapes with audio for each of the sentences in the book. Although I really enjoyed reading the book, looking at the pictures and trying to copy what I heard on the tape, the material was not practical or useful. There were no Germans living in our town in Mexico, and eventually I forgot most of the phrases. The only thing left now is—pardon the spelling—‘Mein tee ist gut abbe meine tasse ist tsu klein’ [My tea is good, but my cup is too small]. Beyond the fun of trying out a new language, and possibly the exposure to a new set of language sounds, I think the attempt at learning German was a pretty dismal failure, and contrasted quite sharply with my resounding success in learning Spanish. 

Back in the States, I enrolled in a public alternative high school. Having already mastered Spanish, the only other language course available to me in our small town was Russian. I wasn’t terribly excited about it, but my mom insisted and I needed the credits, so I signed up. This was my first formal language learning experience. The class met a couple times a week and was led by a charming and friendly Ukrainian woman. Unfortunately, the language made absolutely no sense to me, and aside from memorizing some vocabulary, I felt totally lost. I had never encountered noun cases before and had no idea how they worked. Also, I was distracted by a really cute boy, who I later persuaded to tutor me in Algebra and eventually married. Aside from memorizing vocabulary and reading the practice sentences from the book, I did no other study in the language on my own. I didn’t think to look for other sources of language input which may have been available, such as the Russian-speaking community in our town or books on tape.

Since this post is getting quite long, I have decided to describe my more recent language experiences in my next post. Stay tuned!

This is me, signing off...

Welcome! Bienvenidos! Hoşgeldiniz!

Hello friends, fellow travelers, adventurers and language-learners!

I am excited about this new blog, where I intend to post stories and pictures of my travel adventures as well as my language-learning and other educational adventures. Posts will be in English, Spanish, Turkish and whatever other language I happen to be working on at the moment. If you don't understand a post, try reading the next one, or try your luck with GoogleTranslate! (Alternatively, try commenting with 'anlamadım,' 'no entiendo' or 'huh???')

The end of this year is already chock-full of plans for adventurous sightseeing and learning...

I'll be leaving for Turkey in two weeks, where I will spend three months studying, traveling and perfecting my Turkish with good friends in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and maybe Kapadokya and other places. I'll be traveling with my dear little daughter Maria (7), who is as excited about the trip as I am.

My first adventure will be an intensive CELTA course in Istanbul, where after four weeks I will hopefully receive a certificate which will open some teaching doors down the road; Next, sightseeing around Turkey; Finally, if my friend shows up from California, I hope to travel to (one or all) Italy, France and Spain with her. I'll be arriving back in Chicago on December 10.

The next day we'll be heading to Costa Rica for a family vacation, including everyone, since they can't all come with me to Turkey. My parents will hopefully show up for part of the trip as well.

My husband, parents and I discussed this trip to Costa Rica last year, but I was disappointed, thinking we wouldn't be able to go after all. Turns out, my husband is eager to drag himself onto a beach where he can spend some long hours turning into a lobster while being eaten by mosquitoes, reading his book and being buried in sand by our enthusiastic children.

I plan to take advantage of being in a Spanish-speaking country and refresh my very rusty Spanish, which will especially need refreshing after my intensive language experience in Turkey. Aside from speaking to every local I encounter, my plan is to drink all the coconut water on the beach, swim with the barracudas and sharks, take a canopy tour, zip line through the cloud forests, go bird and turtle and monkey watching, go kayaking, visit some deserted islands, and generally relax...

Everyone says that you always need a vacation when you get back from vacation. It looks like I'll get to test this out and see if it really works. Are two vacations in a row really better than only one?

Before leaving for Turkey, I have been reading through an entire library of books about language learning and teaching, grammar, educational philosophies, etc. I am averaging a book every two days (which is saying something, for those of you who don't know about my reading habits) and I'm really learning a lot!

My favorite book so far has been http://www.tesl-ej.org/books/lomb-2nd-Ed.pdf Polyglot: How I Learn Languages by Kato Lomb. Really fascinating. I cheated a bit by listening to it with my "Free Natural Reader" electronic reading software--for the non-readers among us.

Stay tuned for some really amazing pictures of Turkey and Costa Rica in the coming months. Feel free to leave some comments and snippets about your own travels and language-learning experiences!

This is me, signing off...