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There are some pretty traditional ideas on learning a language. You can spend seven years learning French in high school, only to go to France and say ‘oui’.
And as adults, we think a night language class is our only option. We don’t have time and energy.
Truly, there are so many options out there. But ultimately, you need to do what’s best for you.
Give yourself permission to say, ‘this isn’t for me’ but then get ready to look for what learning style suits you. Go for it.
I have recently realised that group classes don’t suit my needs. I learn quickly and need to voice my understanding. A group class doesn’t meet those needs. It’s okay to put your hand up and say that’s not for me.
Here’s a way to start thinking about yourself as a learner…
1.Take some time to reflect on the things you do in your day naturally, and consider how you can change it to add some language learning.
2. Reflect on what you liked and didn’t like about primary and high school. What kinds of activities did you enjoy? You can recreate these situations for yourself.
3. How do you get things done? Do you schedule set, consistent chunks of time or do you break the task up into lots of little parts to be done frequently?
Go forth and find your style. You know yourself better than anyone.
Let me know if you have recently discovered something about yourself as a learner in the comments below.
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Oh I have so much to add on this subject. I very much have my own way of learning. I take elements from different styles and implement them. I’ve never had a teacher or been to a class. Classes unfortunately are beyond my budget much as I’d like to use them. My first experience learing Italian was Duolingo and 8 months on I’m still using it. It works for me because I can learn at my own speed fast (more because I am impatient rathert than because I am naturally gifted) and I continually dip in to keep things fresh. Because of the way I work (I run my own business), I dip in and out every couple of hours. I do Duolingo lessons, I’ve recently started using Duolingo Tinycards, which is brilliant for me, and I converted all my devices to Italian so the language is an hourly part of my life now. I read a number of Italian Facebook pages and Twitter feeds and I’ve recently started using the microphone function to dictate my texts to the Italian friends I’ve made, because it’s my real time speech recall that needs bolstering now. I also talk to myself, especially when I’m driving or working. I describe what I can see, what I need to do. It’s the relentless dripfeed which means I now feel that I can call Italian my second language. I can read the news, understand slow Italian speech and read subtitles. I feel victorious!
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It’s so great to get to know how you learn! I find it really empowering 🙂
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