Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

General discussion about learning languages
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smallwhite
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Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

Postby smallwhite » Fri Jul 06, 2018 11:11 pm

Inspired by the thread:
Your Language Learning Weaknesses

and a quote in this thread:
"Despite knowing their own, self-reported learning preferences, nearly 70% of students failed to employ study techniques that supported those preferences".

:?: What are your language learning strengths?
:?: Do you take advantage of your strengths? How?

(Questions are about strengths despite quote being about preferences).
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Re: Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

Postby eido » Sat Jul 07, 2018 12:22 am

What are your language learning strengths?
Do you take advantage of your strengths? How?

1. I'm pretty good at memorizing, so in a class setting I shine. Or thrive. Your choice. I was able in high school to memorize lists quickly, not even needing to use words in context to remember them, or how to use them. I'm still able to do so now to some extent, even on my own. I do still need some help though to make sure I'm learning the right words at the right time, and using them so I can remember them for a long time as opposed to just a year or so as the class progresses. This I think is my only strength besides that is that I have the belief that I can do better, and that I am great. Confidence can be a strength, right? Just not too much. Maybe my willingness to want to have fun and come back to the language even after it whips me are strengths too, even though I'm quite the complainer. I love Spanish and its sounds, it just doesn't love me.
2. I don't think I do. However I've never used Anki or any other SRS extensively. I only rely on my brain, because somehow my brain thinks it's always being tested, and you can't have a flashcard on a test. Not the mentality, anyway. So in a way that's a good thing, because life is always a test.

I'd be interested to see, if I made language learning friends, what they thought of my language learning strengths after they got to know me.
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Re: Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

Postby koolawant » Sat Jul 07, 2018 12:31 am

Listening! Easily my strongest skill as I can and regularly pour hours into this a day.

I've only recently began using it to my advantage (like a week ago recently) and it wasn't on purpose; discovered completely on accident. I downloaded an anki deck that has audio files for all the cards. My retention of these words are 94% after being exposed to them the first day! I'm still a little amazed on how much better I do by simply having the audio files instead of just reading the words. In terms of vocabulary retention I think I've hit a gold mine.

Now equipped with this information, makes me wonder how to use this to my advantage with grammar. There is an excellent youtube channel that teaches Japanese grammar in Japanese but I hardly used it since I thought I needed to be studying books. I think I'll try making audio/video learning a priority instead of books and see what happens :)
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Re: Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

Postby devilyoudont » Sat Jul 07, 2018 1:19 am

I'm not really sure what my strengths are, or what kind of activities would play to what kinds of strengths :( But, open to advice about this for sure, if anyone has any.
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Re: Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

Postby NoManches » Sat Jul 07, 2018 4:55 am

Strengths?

I've always been pretty good at speaking (in English and in Spanish). I don't really get shy or nervous and I'm pretty good at just talking and "winging it". I've always fooled native Spanish speakers about my level because I can just talk talk talk and I usually throw in some Mexican slang which is always good for a laugh. Once they start talking and I have to listen...well that's when my weaknesses come out (although I have to admit, my listening is a hell of a lot better than it used to be).

My other strength is that I have a somewhat obsessive personality when it comes to certain hobbies. I do try to treat Spanish like a fun part of my life...but at the same it is such a huge priority for me and I'm absolutely committed to reaching native like fluency. I know a lot of people who quit learning Spanish when things got tough or they became frustrated. For me, when things get tough or I get frustrated, that's when I REALLY get motivated to keep studying. It's like a competition with myself...I just won't quit and I keep pushing on.
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Re: Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

Postby Ani » Sat Jul 07, 2018 5:39 am

I'm not really sure I have any strengths... The only thing I do have is consistency in the enjoyment and study of languages, so even though my study might be poorly directed, haphazard and unbalanced, I keep coming back to it.
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Re: Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

Postby Mooby » Sat Jul 07, 2018 7:21 am

Publicly: The only strength I can perceive via public feedback is my pronunciation.
Privately: Perserverance (but maybe I'm too dumb to quit!)
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Re: Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

Postby I_likes_languages » Sat Jul 07, 2018 10:17 am

I believe I'm pretty good at mimicking intonation/pitch/overall prosody. It's mostly helpful but of course if the person I'm speaking with has a weird way of speaking I'll subconciously copy that too.
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Re: Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

Postby aaleks » Sat Jul 07, 2018 10:56 am

In no particular order: the ability to learn by ears, the way my brain deals with big chunks of information, not being afraid or discouraged by the difficulty of native materials. In other words, the way of dealing with the information I have received. I like analyzing and drawing conclusions. But that means I need a lot of information (its quality doesn't actually matter). At the other hand, that is probably the reason I'm not good with textbooks. So my strengths go hand in hand with my weeknesses.

Some time ago I might have listed as one of my strengths the ability to know what would work for me and what would not but it seems I was wrong. So now I think that taking advantage of my strengths is one of the things I am only starting to learn.
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Re: Your strengths and do you take advantage of them

Postby kulaputra » Sat Jul 07, 2018 1:54 pm

1. I'm interested in learning languages. The rest follows from there, really.
2. I discovered formal linguistics at a young age (around 12), which gave me a huge leg up especially with regard to pronunciation. IPA isn't everything there is to acquiring native like accent, but it gives you a significant head start.
3. I have a good ear for phonetics. I'm not sure how much of that is "innate" and how much is from the many hours I spent in middle school listening to and repeating IPA sounds and minimal pairs online.
4. I grew up in a multilingual environment. Many of my relatives speak 3, 4, 5 or more languages, and often understand 1 or 2 others. The idea that you could learn a language, that it wasn't some far fetched goal- this was something I knew from a young age. I feel that people raised in relatively monolingual atmospheres are more likely to lack this understanding.
5. Impatience, which led me to grow tired with the ineffective pedagogy of middle school Spanish, leading me to discover HTLAL, and then FSI, etc.
6. Patience, which led me to understand that just because my efforts weren't manifesting results overnight, it doesn't mean that they won't actually bear fruit.
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