Language problems

I’ve just recently finished my four-semester language requirement for my major this past semester with a passing grade of a C, almost crying at the sight of this grade due to the hell I went through just to earn it. Four semesters of a language that I will probably never use again in my entire life and it’s finally over with the grade of a C. For one of my classmates this was not the case as I soon found out before Spring Break. My classmate ended up not passing the class and has to take it again in order to graduate in May, sadly with the same evil teacher we had last semester. I was also informed this same teacher is worse this time around with the class than she was with us, making the class expectations higher and harder to reach. I wished my classmate luck on passing the class this time around and mulled over the thought of what it could possibly be like in that same language class from last semester except it being twice as hard than what I had experience and shuttered at the thought.

This then spurred another thought into my head: Why are the language classes at the 200 level so hard? Is there something we’re not doing at the 100 level that is making the class that much more difficult? I’ve come to the conclusion that unless you have some background in the language, you are basically screwed at learning it at the basic college level.

I actually had this assumption confirmed by someone who speaks Spanish natively, who said they took a look at the 100-level Spanish book and thought it was a little on the hard side for first-time learners. The concepts being placed in front of a non-native speaker or a person who has recently switched languages are too advanced to someone who just figured out saying “hola” is “hello.”

This type of language learning gap is forcing many to learn a language to the best of their knowledge, scrape by in the lower levels and then be scolded by higher-level teachers who cannot understand why many people do not understand the basics of the language. Yes, the placement test is supposed to help in weeding out the people who need the extra help from the higher level classes, but what about those who have needed the help and are learning the language for the first time?

Truthfully, I think two things need to happen in order for people to become more confident in learning a new language. The first is the teaching style. The books being used now just seem to be too hard even for the basic learner. I suggest teaching the language as it would be taught to a child in elementary school – simple words and simple sentences. I’m currently teaching myself Japanese with two books set up like a child’s workbook. One teaches me very simple, everyday words like “table,” “window” and “cat,” while the other book teaches me simple to slightly complex phrases in small increments with a CD to accompany so I know how to say the words. I know the books being used now have these aspects, but it is being taught at too fast of a pace for anything to really be able to stick in one’s long-term memory. At the second level, give us Easy Reader equivalent books to read and ease us into the reading of the language. The massive stories, poems and plays in a tense that I only used for literary writing is a bit too much, even for the intermediate reader. I looked up the book we used in my 202 class and found out it’s a basic textbook for 300- and higher-level courses in most other schools, which is most likely why even the most advanced person in my class had a hard time reading it. I can see harder books at the 300 level but not the 200 level.

The second thing that needs to happen, and the classmate I talked to came up with this idea, is to have classes just for people who are non-majors who need to take a language for credit. I truly believe anyone who does not need to take anything above 202 or 205 and is not a major or minor in the language should not be forced to learn more than the basics of the language they are taking. If the classes are coordinated properly, the person can continue on to higher-level classes and not be too far behind everyone else in their language skill if they wish to. But something has to be done for the people who need the language credit to graduate and do not really intend on using the language in the near future.

Overall, something needs to be done to fix the difficulty of learning a new language or at least getting through the language someone is currently taking. And I’m not saying all, but some of the professors need to learn to adjust their classes to help those who are struggling in the higher level courses, since it is very rare to see everyone in a class at the same skill level required for a course. Sometimes the tutors in the Language Learning Center just are not enough.

And to all of you who are struggling with a difficult language with an even stricter teacher, keep your chin up. It will be over soon and you know for the future not to schedule for a class with them if you can help it.