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The fun level has fallen. | ||
Tags: School Education | Motivation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6013 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 9 of 13 05 February 2010 at 8:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Writing is a good opportunity to push yourself out of your "comfort zone" with language. You've got more time to think than when speaking, so you can use structures you're not confident with (you can check your grammar book to make sure you're using them right!)
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| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5569 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 10 of 13 05 February 2010 at 8:19am | IP Logged | ||
Amen to that! I had to drop out of my second year Chinese class in college because I just couldn't handle it. French literature class was a yawn and a half, but I got through it because it's an easy language. I never wanted to do my homework and did the minimum amount of studying for my language classes. But now that I've graduated I can't stop studying languages. The fun level definitely correlates with how much control you have to do what you want. Edited by Levi on 05 February 2010 at 8:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5497 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 11 of 13 05 February 2010 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Jordan,
Language education in Canada is not much better either. Here from grades primary to nine you must take French (or English if you're a Francophone). The class usually consists of cross word puzzles, present tense conjugations of etre and -er verbs every year (I'm not kidding), music, drawing pictures and other artistic things, and of course the fact that no one, myself included, ever takes it seriously. There is a brighter side to it however. In grade 7 (in some places I know it starts earlier) you can enter the Immersion programme, where almost every class (except English, gym etc.) is conducted in easy French. Then when you reach high school, you can continue in the programme and about one third to one half of your courses are conducted entirely in real French. These are more often than not classes with writing biology, history, and French class of courses, and not classes like math or physics. Too many times I was in your same situation, writing French essays on things I didn't care about. I liked school, but being forced to write in another language on a specific topic isn't always easy. In the end though, I was glad there was lots of writing. Even though I never picked up a good French accent, my writing stuck and is still pretty good 3 years out of high school without any study of French. One thing I also noticed, was that of course once a certain level is reached, the grammar instruction begins to focus on more "advanced" concepts, and any common basic errors amongst the group usually stay. A kind of dialect almost develops, because the French classes all consist of mostly the same students, who speak the same way. Any writing however, is a good way to weed out these common errors. Sometimes I'd make a mistake while writing, and say to myself, "Hey we all say that, but it doesn't make sense." When you see it on paper, the errors are more apparent for you to fix them. I hope that my own experience is somewhat encouraging! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5568 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish | Message 12 of 13 05 February 2010 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I hear you Jordan, the worst thing ever is to be forced to write papers and stuff you don't like or not prepared for in your target language.
Learning languages should be fun and should be natural according to what you like and dislike and not like your teacher want you to do. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5587 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 13 of 13 05 February 2010 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I sure I will learn a lot, but at least give me a topic I enjoy! My friend that takes the class with me said she finished in 2.5 hours. :( So much for a Friday night. It's supposed to snow here (like 4 inches) so I'll be snowed in. I'll start working on it as soon as I get home. Hopefully this forum won't be a distraction! I think I'll rent a movie and watch it in Spanish :)
Might as well make the best of it huh? :) canada38- at least you start early! and have an immersion program :) I would LOVE that. Cainntear- I like that approach actually :D I'll do my best! American teaching consists of straight grammar. Little to no speaking, or "actual" language. Entering AP Spanish was like being punched in the face. It was a chore catching up. I'm doing alright now, but it's VERY annoying not being able to do what I'd like. It gets old and boring. :( UGH. -Jordan Edited by datsunking1 on 05 February 2010 at 5:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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