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Hello,

My name is Thais, and I am working remotely this semester, so you probably won't see me around the office. In response to the prompt, throughout my life I have dabbled in learning various languages from my early childhood into adulthood. However, I never really was as passionate about learning a language until I got into a relationship with my now fiancé. For context, his first language is Spanish. Therefore, I connected better with language learning that felt applicable and useful in my own life and to speaking with him and his family in their native language. I also greatly appreciated learning about cultural topics because they were more engaging to me and allowed me better insight into his culture. Language teaching practices that have a focus on using language as a way to connect with people is highly effective in my perspective. I prefer that over vocabulary drilling for things I may or may not ever need to use. For example, if I don't have my ears pierced, my brain is unlikely to feel the need to remember what the word for earrings is in Spanish. I have never connected as much with repetitive language learning such as Dualingo or other online programs as I feel it doesn't prepare you for using language for personal connection even if it is great for vocabulary and grammar practice. I hope you take something from the experiences I have shared and can't wait to see what everyone writes as well!

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Hi guys!

I'm Bree, and I've been learning Japanese for about 3 years now. Honestly I chose Japanese because it was so different from English and I thought it would be quite a challenge, and I was definitely correct. For me I think I view learning a language a lot like putting a puzzle together, and at first I was just trying to learn enough pieces to put basic sentences together. Since then, I've read a lot of Japanese blogs and one of the biggest pieces of advice I've seen has been to try to think in your language instead of translating. I try to make this into a game and try to say as much in Japanese in my head whenever I think about it, and honestly it has helped a lot. I find recalling words in useful situations to be a lot more effective than just running through word lists. What I've struggled most with is listening and speaking skills. Teaching labs actually has increased my confidence in speaking a lot, but I've struggled to find opportunities to really practice my conversational skills. The most important thing I've learned though is that it's way better to try to say something and be wrong, than to say nothing at all. When I'm wrong I usually end up learning something. When I'm quiet I just end up feeling worse about my language abilities.

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I'm Vanessa. I'm going into my fourth year of German classes and my first year of teaching labs on my own. I chose German on a whim in high school, but I've found a deep passion for the language. I love learning the language, culture, history, and people. I just recently spent a month in Germany, and I am counting down the days when I can go back. I loved getting a chance to communicate with other people, and speaking their language allowed them to be more themselves and natural. My biggest challenge is fighting that "stupid" feeling. When you're so lost that you completely check out. Its very disheartening, but I think that taking a deep breath and focusing on what you can do helps you get out of that hole. It will allow you to conquer mountains. You learn a lot of patience and practice when you learn a second language, and I believe that you'll be greatly rewarded in the end because of it.

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Hi everybody!

My name is Annika and I am from Germany. I grew up on the French border, which is why French in particular has always played a big role in my life. I started learning French when I was 8 and English when I was 10 and I have loved them ever since! After high school I decided to become a French and English teacher. As part of my studies, going abroad to an English-speaking country is mandatory and that is why I am here in Boise :) For me sometimes I feel embarrassed of my accent or grammar mistakes I make. I have to remind myself that these things are totally normal and happen to everybody who is trying to learn a language. What I like about learning languages is that it opens up so many new possibilities in life. If I had not learned English at school, I would not have been able to come to Boise.

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Bonjour!

My name is Elanor, and I've been learning French for about 12 years! I began my education at a dual-language school in California, and have been fortunate to find opportunities for learning everywhere I go. Growing up, being bilingual was a relatively universal skill: almost everyone I knew spoke another language besides English. It wasn't until later in life that I realized what an immense privilege it is to be able to learn another language and gain competency with it. Of course, there are aspects of language acquisition that are extremely difficult and even frustrating. One thing I disliked about learning French was the constant emphasis on grammar, which can be tricky to grasp because the structure is so different to English. I would recommend contextualizing the grammar as much as possible within readings, videos, or music. Learning grammar is harder when it comes from a list or a recitation, but it can be fun! To make learning enjoyable, I've found it can be really helpful to participate in the culture as much as possible by spending time engaging with media like books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, and songs! The most helpful thing a learner can try and do is to speak often and out loud. It doesn't necessarily need to be to a native speaker- it can be to a pet, to a voice recording, to a friend or family member, or even to yourself! Plus, it's so rewarding to connect to a new culture. All of a sudden, things like food or history or celebrities that didn't catch your attention before bring on new meaning and joy when you have a connection to that language. There are so many positives to learning- it's worth a try!

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Hi,

I'm Taylor. I have been learned American Sign Language my whole life because my aunt is deaf. I first started learning when I was around 3 years old and have continued to look into the language as I got older. Due to starting at such a young age, and my chronic talking with my hands, I've been able to pick up and retain ASL fairly easily. If I had to give one piece of advice for learning ASL it would be to use it often even if no one else understands, it could be as simple as fingerspelling words that you find interesting or challenging to remember. This will help you become more comfortable with fingerspelling and help you retain information. However, the biggest challenge for me when learning ASL has been finding people to practice with outside of class. No one in my family knows sign language beyond the basics so I have to do a lot of self practice or signing to myself. While this is a struggle, it also encouraged me to connect more with my classmates so that we could practice together outside of class. This has allowed me to make many friends and allows me to better understand how my signs are being received.

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I'm Lexi and I have been learning American Sign Language for 5 years now. As a kid, I was always fascinated by the language. When I got to high school I knew I did not want to take Spanish so I began my ASL journey. I never could have imagined it would become what it has for me, a passion! As I've learned more and more about the language, I have grown to love the beauty of it and the emotion that comes with every single thing you say. My second year of learning ASL we were learning how to describe rooms and for some reason it was the hardest thing in the world to me. I remember standing in front of my teacher, trying to remember how to sign the word BOX. Since then, there has been many little things similar to that experience but I have never let them set me back. I feel lucky to have an understanding of such an amazing language and the best feeling for me has been being able to help out deaf/HH groups or individuals while working my summer job at a waterpark, which is big and often very confusing to people who have never been. I often find myself signing along to songs in the car or fingerspelling random words which sounds silly but it honestly really has helped me retain and even learn more random ways of saying words or phrases when out in real life scenarios. What started as a required language class in high school has become so much more to me!

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Hi! My name is Kennedy, and I have been learning ASL for 7 years. I chose ASL in high school because as a child, my mom had taught me some basic signs as well as the alphabet and I didn't want to take Spanish like everyone else was. I remember immediately having a love and passion for the language as well as the Deaf community. I remember wanting to be an advocate for those who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing and helping their voice be heard in our communities and world. I've always loved the beauty of ASL. It's a highly visual language and, while difficult at first, eventually everything just clicks and learning the language is no longer a struggle but instead a joy. The biggest challenge I found in learning ASL is that it requires a lot of dedication and focus, like any other language being learned as a second language. At first, you have to watch intently and try to pick up on little hints and clues to try piece together words into sentences. You also often don't know words and so it can seem frustrating at first, the more dedication you put into it, the more you get out of the language.

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My name is Daniela and Spanish is my first language. My hometown is Antigua, Guatemala, so I grew up speaking Spanish. I started learning English when I was a little kid, my parents wanted my brothers and me to be able to speak English, so we went to English academies in Guatemala. I went to 3 different academies throughout my learning journey, and the one that worked best for me and the one I enjoyed the most was the last English academy I went to, because the professors were all from the U.S. and most of them didn't even speak Spanish, so it was a great experience for me to "force myself" to practice speaking in English more and better my pronunciation. Another thing that helped me a lot was watching movies and series in English with Subtitles in English. The subtitles helped a lot to learn how to write something I didn't know how to, or understand something I didn't understand because they were talking too fast. Being bilingual has opened so many opportunities for me, both professionally and academically. You get a lot of satisfaction once you are able to master a new language!

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I have been learning Spanish for 3 years now. Some of the strategies that I have enjoyed are listening with subtitles. There is an app called Lingo Pie or something like that and it has tons of Spanish movies with subtitles. It tells you the level they are and allows you to click on words to learn what they mean in the specific context. It is great to watch movies originally filmed in Spanish to get a feel for the more natural and informal way that people speak rather than reading the in class texts that are typically very formal. Also this Lingo Pie has movies from Spanish speaking countries from all around the world which allows you to learn the unique accents and vocabulary from different regions. Some things that don't help me is using Spanish translator to rely on for long texts especially because it can be inaccurate and hinders you from doing the thinking yourself. Something else that I find helpful to learn Spanish is listening to pods-casts and reading books!

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My name is Kassidy and I have been learning Spanish for 7 years on and off. I started learning Spanish in high school. I took a couple years off from learning and lost a lot of my skill and vocabulary. When I started taking Spanish classes again I felt very behind and lost a lot of my confidence. To combat this, I started using Duolingo to practice. I also watch a lot of Spanish TV with English subtitles as well as English TV with Spanish subtitles. Sometimes when I am sitting in an area I will try to describe what I see around me and what I am doing in Spanish and when I get stuck on a word I use my favorite app SpanishDictionary. I try to immerse myself in the language as much as possible with TV, music, and the occasional podcast. Slowly over the years I have regained my confidence and I have enjoyed learning new words and skills everyday. Learning a new language can be challenging and scary, but it is so rewarding.

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I'm Aleah, and I am now starting my seventh year of learning German and this is my first semester working at the WLRC! I chose to start learning German in high school because my school had a really great German teacher and program and my three older sisters had all done it before me and loved it. I think part of what made that teacher so great was she always tried to make lessons fun while still making sure we got the most out of it. I think this mix of fun and games with history, grammar rules, etc. is a great way to keep students engaged in the class and excited to learn without sacrificing too much time. I haven't been able to study or spend a large amount of time in Germany yet, but when I have spoken to native speakers in the past I've found my biggest struggle is being afraid that I'm going to get something wrong, which makes me hesitant to say anything at all. But I know practice is the only way to learn and get better, and most people will be understanding that you're learning a new language and will probably make some mistakes! I think a fun way to both utilize your new language skills while also improving them is to listen to music or watch/read some sort of media in that language. It really opens up an entirely new culture and is really rewarding!

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Hello! I'm Molly! I've been learning ASL for 7 years now. Growing up my parents used basic signs to communicate, since I wasn't fully aware of talking. After that, once I got to highschool I realized that they offered Sign Language. Immediately I was intrigued because not many schools around me offered that language. So I took the opportunity to start learning. And eventually I had finished all 4 years of ASL. Not once did I not LOVE it. ASL was something that set me apart from everyone else. I started fingerspelling everything and everywhere. Once I started to understand more and conversation came easy, that's when I finally felt rewarded. Learning a new language is difficult! But not impossible. The more curious I got, the easier it got to retain the language better. The best advice I received from a past ASL teacher was to ask questions! It's not uncommon to ask a Deaf person what a certain word means. Or ask for correction. Broadening my connections within the Deaf community was something very intimidating. But after realizing how accepting people can be, I never wanted to stop learning. Learning ASL comes with its challenges, but it becomes rewarding when you can help one another!

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I‘m Emily and I‘m from Germany, so German is my first language. In Germany, we start learning englisch in elementary school when we are 8 years old. Due to this, I can not remember exactly how it felt to start learning a new language. I know, that I didn’t care if I made mistakes when I was younger. But the older I got, the more embarrasing it became to me when mistakes happened. Because of this I stopped participating in the englisch classes more and more and when the french classes in the 7th grade started, I didn’t even tried. Due to Englisch being spoken everywhere - films, TV, music, social media, … - and because I lost my fear of speaking while travelling through different countries, I am still able to communicate in Englisch, but sadly I could not have any conversation in french (and I had french classes for 5 years!). So I really know about the difficulties of learning a new language and that‘s why I‘m happy to be a German Tutor in the next weeks!

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Hi Guys! My name is Caitlin O'Callaghan and this is my 8th year of learning French. I will be working on OER in person in the WLRC. I chose French in high school because my French teacher was infamous for her fun and entertaining classes. She made language learning so much fun when it could have been painful and difficult. She made me fall in love with learning other languages. Because of her, I went to France and studied there for a full year in order to better understand spoken French. I loved getting to know slang and sentence structure through trial and error. But that was also the most difficult thing for me. In order to improve, you need to mess up first so you can understand why and how to fix it. This was very embarrassing in front of native speakers but they also wanted to see me succeed so they helped me how they could. I can't wait for learning more with you guys!