My own experience learning languages with some reflection. The prompt for this assignment is as follows : 

Questions for brainstorming ideas about language/literacy autobiography

1.   In what context(s) did you learn languages in the past (in school, at home)? How did you learn them?

2.   What are your proficiency levels in those languages (i.e. speaking, listening, reading, and writing)?

3.   Have you found similarities and differences in those languages?

 What has shaped your own experience with language as a reader and writer as you have moved through different contexts?

 What do you remember about your first experience in reading and writing in L1?

 What do you remember about your first experience in reading and writing in L2 (if applicable)?

 How different/similar are #5 and #6? Any conflict and tension between the two experiences? How did you try to overcome the challenges?

 Do you consider yourself as “monolingual,” "bilingual" or "multilingual"? Explain why.

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       I love to learn languages. I was always interested in other languages and cultures from highschool. In my freshman year of highschool, I tried learning Japanese on my own, but since it was too difficult I gave up and took Spanish class instead. After my 4 years in highschool Spanish I went to the University of Kansas and began to learn Korean, and then Japanese in my second year. I always struggled to learn another language on my own, since I did not have much language learning experience yet. I find it is much easier to learn a language in a class. Compared to high school-me, I could learn Russian or Chinese now on my own since I know how languages work, and there are plenty of online resources to learn a language. 

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       For my Spanish class in highschool, we had very helpful activities that helped us to learn in conversational and educational contexts. We would have oral and written tests, presentations, play games, and learn about the culture. I think the teaching method was pretty good, since I remember a lot of basic Spanish, and it was also pretty easy. Looking back on my Spanish class I think my teacher was really good at teaching us language and culture. If it wasn't for Covid, we would have tried authentic Honduran cuisine in the class as well. During the time I took Spanish class I think I would have called my level Intermediate high. My listening skills are not very good (in any language) but my reading skills are very good because of the similarities to English. They are so closely related that it's very easy to learn. I think for English speakers, learning a Latin root language first compared to Korean is smart to get the hang of learning a language, since a language cannot be learned like math or history. 

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       Korean was a language I got very interested in during highschool. I watched K-Dramas and listened to K R&B so much that I fell in love with the sound of Korean. I looked a little into the language before learning in class, and I really needed a lot of input before really starting to understand the language. I have even heard other people who learn language will just listen to the language for hours before they even attempt speaking or reading or learning grammar and vocab. I think this method is similar to how babies learn language, they listen to it for months before they say their first word. Since we already know the language and how to speak, we don't have to wait months before speaking, but we should listen to the language before speaking. We need input before we can provide output. 

My first experience writing in another language was with Spanish, but the only special characters were the accent marks and the ñ. Writing in Korean was the first difficult writing experience for me. Getting the korean characters to “look right” was difficult, and my Korean teacher was very strict with the shape of the characters. Also in Japanese, getting the Kanji or even the hiragana and katakana to look correct was difficult. Especially when we had to learn so many kanji characters every chapter.

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       Even before I started learning Japanese, I could hear a lot of similarities to Korean. Given the history between Japan and Korea, this wasn't that surprising. They also share Chinese ancestry and similarities. For example the word library in Korean is 도서관 (doseogwan) and in Japanese its doshoukan. I know this word has Chinese roots because when I watched a Chinese drama I could hear them say something similar when the subtitle said “library”. 

When it comes to my first experiences reading and writing in English, I don’t really remember much. I think I was the most proficient at reading, and I remember I would read huge college level books that my mom had around for no reason. I would take thick chapter books to the dentist, and I read the entire Harry Potter series seven times by age 12. When I got into cell phones, Youtube, and other technology, I stopped reading so much even to this day. I think I could have audio processing difficulties because I have always preferred having subtitles on when I watch a video or movie. I also have always found the listening quizzes and listening parts of tests or exams for Korean very difficult.

 

       Some people say that learning another language makes another personality, and I also recently saw a Youtube video that showed a language learning method that leans into creating different personalities based on different languages. I think this is a very viable method, as I also have experienced this personality switch when I speak other languages. I would consider myself multi-lingual yet not fluent in any language other than English. I think fluency should be defined as being able to fully understand most everyday situations, media, and also speak it to the degree you can understand it. I think fluency can only be cultivated in a country that mostly speaks only that language. Language acquisition is also a large part of fluency, being able to speak about things without thinking about the grammar or pronunciation. This is when words start to sound like what they are rather than just a sound. I know when I have acquired a part of language when I want to say something in English and the word I think of first is in another language. 

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       Now that I am in South Korea, I can really tell how much Korean I have learned. Since my listening skill is the worst, I often feel confused when Koreans speak to me at the convenience store or restaurants. Reading is easy, but I don’t know enough vocabulary to read large bodies of text so I revert to translating it. Since we are also here as English language teachers, I feel I cannot practice Korean with the students since they are meant to talk to me in English. Even Greg, the English teacher we work with, said he doesn't know that much Korean despite having lived here for 14 years. So even if you are in the country where your target language is spoken, you have to actively practice to learn the language.