https://padlet.com/joanndelaney55/yrtdh0ffljin A sandbox trial en-us 2017-11-16 16:17:55 UTC 2017-11-19 01:06:45 UTC hello@padlet.com joanndelaney55 https://padlet.com/joanndelaney55/yrtdh0ffljin/wish/207751727 2017-11-16 16:19:55 UTC https://padlet.com/joanndelaney55/yrtdh0ffljin/wish/207751727 joanndelaney55 https://padlet.com/joanndelaney55/yrtdh0ffljin/wish/207751911 I started learning Spanish by teaching myself with CDs and books recommended to me by friends. As a 'treat' and 'goal' I booked a trip to Madrid, timed for when I had worked my way through the CD course. I planned my days in Madrid around the chapters/language points of the course i.e. 'at the tourist office', 'travelling by bus', etc. When I went to Madrid, people actually understood me! I know I made mistakes, but they didn't seem to mind and were happy to help me.]]> 2017-11-16 16:20:12 UTC https://padlet.com/joanndelaney55/yrtdh0ffljin/wish/207751911 joanndelaney55 https://padlet.com/joanndelaney55/yrtdh0ffljin/wish/207752134 I left the UK to live in another country when I was 8 years old. However, I was sent to an English medium school and use of the local language was discouraged at school, even at playtimes. Although I picked up a smattering of the language, and still remember bits, even as a child I felt it was a real waste.  When I tried to use it outside school, my friends would laugh at me. So I never really bothered to learn it. AL

I initially learned French in French-Canada, when I came to school in England the French teacher from France couldn't understand my accent / vocabulary and told me it was just 'wrong'. That was a bit hard to take as all my family and friends in Canada spoke that way. Consequently, I stopped bothering in French classes at school.

I studied German at university (and it was my major). My groupmates and I, who were all upper-intermediate, were absolutely shocked when our grammar-translation classes began, in which we were forced to use a Soviet A1 coursebook from the 1960s. We spent 2 years reading texts about Ernst Thälmann (the leader of the German Communist party before Nazi Germany). Needless to say, when we complained to our native-speaking tutors, who taught other subjects, they didn't know who that was! Eventually, some of us decided to put more effort into studying on our own/taking extra classes at private language schools (and students never have enough free time for that), whereas others went to Germany as au-pairs just to brush up their spoken language. (Ana 1)

I also have another story (don't get me started! :D) about my Greek classes. We had a native speaker, who'd been living in Ukraine for 20 years. However, even though she was a native speaker, I didn't hear a single word in Greek from her in 6 months because she spoke fluent Russian (I was still attending classes and hoping). There were 30 of us in class, and the lessons were 2 hours long. Before the class, early in the morning, she would write 200 words on the board, which we (and all the groups before/after us) had to copy: 2 hours were just enough. Our homework would be... to translate those words and find out what the topic was. Of course, it was hard to copy Greek script, which was relatively new to us, and we were making plenty of mistakes,  which also meant we couldn't find those words in a dictionary. Word choice for an A1 class was also ridiculous because 200 words related to 'cuisine/kitchen' would include 'gas burner',  'colander', 'egg whisk', 'exhaust fan', 'to gut (fish)' etc. (Ana2)]]> 2017-11-16 16:20:32 UTC https://padlet.com/joanndelaney55/yrtdh0ffljin/wish/207752134 joanndelaney55 https://padlet.com/joanndelaney55/yrtdh0ffljin/wish/207752539 Exploration - the more you learn, the more you understand not only about the language, but also about the people / cultures who speak it. 

Solving a riddle - when you're trying to figure out why one phrase is acceptable but the other isn't! (Ana)]]> 2017-11-16 16:21:07 UTC https://padlet.com/joanndelaney55/yrtdh0ffljin/wish/207752539