Michelle Lam's Blog
Welcome to the first entry of my Blog.
Here is the link to my introduction video: >> click me!! <<
(oops my video didn't show the timestamp when I was recording. Video is 6:43 mins 😥)
**Please use the Video Player from Google Drive if you are unable to view. **
Here is the winter melon soup I was talking about in the video 😊
You make an excellent point about Northern and Southern Vietnamese dialects being different so the language itself becomes different. Gass and Selinker (1994) explain how sound systems in English change from word to word because there are some blends at the end of a word that can never be at the start of a word (p. 9). We as future teachers must remember that countries do not have a universal language, and there is great variation depending on which part of the country a student may be from. Even English has some variation to the language depending on what part of the country you are in, but we can still understand what everyone is saying when having a conversation.
ReplyDeleteDevon, thanks for commenting! Us future teachers do have it rough, and I cannot imagine how much more difficult it is for the students. Gass and Selinker (2015) talked about the syntax and how English has interchangeable sentences that are equivalent in terms of meaning (10). For example, “Tom was hit by a car [vs] A car hit Tom” (10). Although both of these sentences are correct in the outcome, the wording placement plays a strong role. One thing that always helped me was reading novels and trying to understand the placement of words while practicing reading aloud!
DeleteHi Michelle! It is interesting that you shared your experience being home taught Vietnamese. I was also home taught my parents’ native language, Spanish. You specifically mentioned that your pronunciation in Vietnamese is different than that of a native speaker. I can also relate to this! Sometimes when I am in the middle of a conversation with my parents they will interrupt me to correct my pronunciation of certain words. This has its pros and cons, of course my parents’ corrections help me become a better Spanish speaker, but it can also be very frustrating. This reminded me of the investigation of Julie, Ortega (2013), a native British English speaker who showcased her non-native Arabic (p. 15). While some of the listeners though Julie was a native Arabic speaker the others specified that her accent was not quite the same as that of a native speaker. It is safe to assume that a non-native speaker will have a difficult time sounding indistinguishable from a native speaker.
ReplyDeleteKaren, thanks for commenting! I try very hard to mimic the accents when I pronounce any words in a foreign language but I just cannot get the accents correct! Ortega (2013) mentioned that early starts are better than the later starters in second language context (28). I think this stands to be true because my Vietnamese was much better when I was younger, but now today- I am able to have a full conversation with my grandparents mixed in with some English!
DeleteHey, Michelle! Really enjoyed watching you video and learning about your experience with speaking multiple languages. I definitely envy you for that because I really want to learn more languages. It was interesting when you talked about how you would mix up what language to speak based on which side of the family you were visiting. My parents both speak Spanish but my Mom learned more of her Spanish from Spain and my Dad knows more Spanish from Mexico. So although then can still understand each other, the languages still have their differences. Our books talks about dialects making languages different and I thought your experience really depicted that (Gass and Selinker, 2008). I’m curious if you found it harder to juggle between both Vietnamese dialects, or if it was more of a challenge to learn English? Also, if you had any advice for someone wanting to learn another language, what would it be?
ReplyDeleteRemy, thanks for commenting! It’s really fun learning multiple languages, but I wish I was able to retain the conversations more fluently! In my honest opinion, I think it was more of a challenge juggling between both Vietnamese and TeoChew. I think English was much easier for me to learn because of going to a Public School throughout High School where there were so much more resources such as classmates and books. I found it quite interesting when King Charles spoke multilinguals: Italian to women, French to men and German to his horse (Gass & Selinker, 22). After reading this, it reminded me how my aunt speaks Vietnamese to her dog, and now her dog understands Vietnamese!
DeleteTo answer your last question, you could perhaps take an online course such as https://www.coursera.org/. I forgot how I came across this website, but it offers free courses (including foreign languages). It’s just like an online course with a professor, classmates, assignments- but it’s also free (unless you are doing this for a college credit). I think it’s better than self-teaching because you can communicate with your classmates :D This is just something I would do later down the road though.
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteI love that you enjoy learning different languages! Your efforts truly resemble compassion and caring in practicing them. I find it interesting that sometimes you were confused on speaking a language that turned out to be another language. I once tried learning Vietnamese and I found it to be quite a struggle. I was trying to become an instructed learner (Ortega, 2013) through a phone app but since I am a kinesthetic learner I can only imagine that attempting to hold conversations with someone speaking Vietnamese would have facilitated a more effective way of learning the dialect. I was only able to retain counting 1-5, ordering my favorite Viet meal (pho ga with hai cha gio), "toi la toi", dep trai (handsome), nam (brisket), "ham choi" and a few other sayings.
Anicia, thanks for commenting! I love how you can recall some Vietnamese, and even be able to order the all-time popular Vietnamese meal (I love pho SO much). Ortega (2013) mentioned that knowing more than two languages can accelerate the learning of an additional one, which may show a relation as to why I know so many languages! Was there a certain reasoning for you to learn Vietnamese? Did you ever try to learn another language besides Spanish and Vietnamese?
DeleteMy motivation to learn was to connect more with the parents of a Vietnamese boy that I dated for two years. Unfortunately, he hardly knew Vietnamese, so I relied heavily on the app since he wasn’t much of help. I wanted to show my appreciation and efforts into learning about their culture by first learning how to speak their language. To answer your question, I tried learning Portuguese and enjoyed it very much. My reason for learning the language is to help me when I eventually travel to Brazil.
DeleteHi Michelle!
ReplyDeleteI really admire the fact that you would like to teach fifth or sixth grade. As you stated, it is a stage where children are trying to learn about themselves yet could still use quite a bit of guidance. I also think it's very cool how you like to learn different languages as well and even went as far as taking classes. I too, tried to be an instructed learner by learning Arabic through apps and different computer programs (Ortega, 2013). However it is difficult keeping up with the language if you are not consistent with it due to the environments we are in. I also think it's funny how you mix English with Vietnamese at home, because that's exactly what I do with Swahili!
Alya, thanks for commenting! It is pretty fun learning multiple languages, and I wish I could maintain all the information. But just as we mentioned, we have to be consistent with it Just as Ortega (2015) introduced, instructed learners are usually common for when we had to learn a foreign language for 2 years in High School in order to graduate. On the other hand, naturalistic learners encounter their language development informally through our family and culture growing up.
DeleteMichelle, I admire your drive to learn different languages as well! From my personal experience with Spanish, I understand how easy it can be to forget the information you have learned, such as vocabulary and grammar rules, if it is not frequently practiced. Ortega also mentions that practice is fundamental to learning and developing language as it “enables controlled processes gradually to be withdrawn during performance and automatic processes to take over the same performance” (Ortega, 2013, p. 84). In this way, the language becomes automatic, similar to how familiar we are with our mother language.
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