Success stories

I have been interested in foreign languages as long as I can remember. As a child I used to watch Swedish children's programmes on TV - for some reason I was inspired by the Swedish pronunciation. Swedish has always had some kind of a special place in my heart. My motivation increased as I was praised by the teachers for my language skills. When I was in the 7th grade, I set myself a goal: I wanted to be the one receiving a scholarship for skills in Swedish at the end of the 9th grade. I was so proud when I heard my name at the end-of-term fête!

My language learning strategy is simple: I try to listen to the language as much as possible. I am not sure why it is so important to me, but I find learning a language difficult as long as I do not have a tape to listen to. When I can hear the same text over and over again, I begin to understand the characteristics of the pronunciation. Maybe I can distinguish the components of the language with the help of the pronunciation system. I would find it hard to study a language that is not spoken, for example Latin.

I like to think of ways to make my own learning process easier. I hardly ever study the schoolbook vocabularies. I like to read foreign magazines or novels instead. It is important to choose texts yourself: interesting content makes the language easier to remember. When I was in high school, I wrote my diary in English. My mother and her relatives are too keen to know other people's business but - luckily for me - they cannot understand English! I also learnt to write about different subjects and more freely than before.

At the moment I am studying at the university: my main subject is French language and culture. I chose French because it might be useful for work sometime in the future. The more I learn, the more I love the language! Every language and culture has its special features with good and bad sides. It is also fascinating to learn expressions that cannot be translated - at least not very well - into some other language.

The learner in this story is very aware of the strategies she uses, and the goals she has for learning. In the beginning, it is very important to her to listen to the new language as much as possible. Click to read more about different learning styles.