Friday, November 10, 2006

Learning Styles: Born to Read

There are many ways to categorize/label a learner's "learning style". For example, it could be tactile, visual or audio. It could be "learn by doing", or by watching, thinking or feeling.

I'd say all learners, whether it is languages or any other skill, learn through a combination of these styles, though one is often pre-dominant.

For me, it is visual/reading. When in Montreal, I lamented my poor French skills. I relied so much on the written word that I couldn't produce an intelligible word.

I was delighted to come to Japan - I figured that I'd finally learn to speak a language as there was no way I could read it.

Well, eight years later - I am very competent at doing various functional tasks that involve reading in Japanese (kanji); I shop online, I handle all kinds of funkiness when auctioning our goods or buying on the auction...I can barely speak a word, and can't pronounce the kanji I read!

Alas - changing a learning style may be harder than I thought!

1 comment:

-lyn said...

I, too, am a very visual learner. In Japan I was almost hamstrung in trying to understand the spoken word, or trying to speak, because I would "see" one of the words in the string and miss all the rest of the sentence. Sid Sharma came to visit, and he easily carried on conversations with strangers. He could somehow "feel" what they meant, and could pick up phrases quickly after hearing them spoken.

It's good that you can navigate the written language, though!!!!