From a personal view I do agree with this statement and I think it's important for kids to learn different languages. If everyone is accustomed to one language then there would be no traveling and no discovering new things. Language is the one thing that everyone can agree that really connects us no matter where we come from or where we live. Some people could say that language does the opposite and pushes people and culture farther apart by creating a barrier that isn't easy to get over. While this is true, learning different languages keeps a culture alive and helps us to communicate and evolve. If we don't learn other languages and have interest in learning them then that is just one more 'difference' in humans, one more thing for people to start wars over. It's one more excuse for people to use when arguing that we're not all the same.
2. "Essentially it has to be about speaking and knowing rather than reading and writing."
"They have a neurological hardware that responds to the world, that's fed by the world, that is suited to a pattern that is recognition-heavy, sound-heavy and memory-heavy - that is very structured, and also very sociable."They have an ability to switch between languages very easily, and that involves cognitive skills which are often heritable," he adds.
Birth people are very studious and started learning languages at a very young age. Ray has traveled around the world seemingly for work and such and that's how he got introduced to the languages and got his first real taste. He is self taught and seems to have a really big interest in speaking different languages. He says that all of these languages has given him a better grasp of the world and of culture, by learning another countries language you're opening yourself up to endless culture and knowledge by being able to communicate with the people in their native tongue. I have a friend like this, her name is Meredith and she knows a couple languages. She is fluent in French and of course English and she knows enough Swedish to have a conversation with our other Science teacher. She knows Italian and a little bit of basic Chinese. But those are only the languages she's told me about when I last asked her which was the beginning of Sophomore year. She says that languages interest her, I think it's the thought process and the discipline that goes into learning a new language. I don't really understand it, I would love to learn a couple languages and be able to teach myself and have the diligence to sit down and memorize words and things but I'm not a good language learner at all, and my memory isn't that good. I think with Meredith she can sit down and memorize things with no trouble whereas I have to memorize things through activities or something that I really focus in on and am doing physically.
What sort of language learner do you identify yourself with? In what ways have your language class learning experiences suited your best way of learning languages
I think that I am a visual learner but not a visual memorizer and a kinaesthetic learner. If I visually learn I can write down words and phrases one hundred times to get them down for tests but I'll forget them shortly afterwards, things like that don't stay in my head. If i learn with a group or do a project or do something creatively or even write an essay i'll remember things beyond a few days. In my language class we don't do anything like this other than auditory learning which I cannot learn by. Honestly I haven't had the best experience with languages ever in my entire life here at Sturgis. I loved Latin but I wasn't good at it where as I do not like French and I'm not good at it. I traveled to France and was interested and inspired to learn the language further but the learning tactics in the classroom really aren't connecting for me. I am taking Chinese classes and i'm very interested in that, and i've been benefiting by Kinaesthetic learning, but I only take the lessons once a week and i've been taking them for years so I should be getting somewhere but unfortunately I'm not improving at all really since the lessons only happen once a week- maybe. I want to really sit down and learn Chinese and go over the notes I've learned and everything but I can't seem to make any time. But, I think i'm going to start setting time aside to do flashcards or look at a website or something.
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