Creative Learning

I have always loved reading and learning. Those things often go hand in hand. When I got my Kindle I could hardly believe the free library at my finger tips (there is a TON of free content like classics, deals of the day, and so on).

I loved school for the classes. I am, for sure, an all out nerd. I took calculus for fun, and it turned out to be my favourite class in high school.  It might have helped there were only 6 of us in the class, but I actually believe it was because it stretched my mind and made me think.

I also loved taking French and German, and waaaaay back in fifth grade I took a tiny (TINY) bit of Spanish. Language is fascinating to me. Combine my love of learning with reading and languages and you have a perfect storm of geekdom. At one point in my senior year I bought the book 'Teach Yourself Hindi'. I worked through some of it and got to a place where I could ask what something was, tell you my name, and understand some vocab.  It came in handy on a month long visit to P-stan. By the end of that month, I could follow some conversations when I went visiting with some friends (not ALL of the conversation, but the jist).

Anyway, two summers ago S and I went to a language acquisition course. Once I got past the heat and the crazy amount of stairs (I have IT band syndrome - ouch!), I was in my glory! It was so much fun practicing all of the different sounds your mouth can make - I would giggle my way through half of them knowing I looked hilarious in my North American pronunciation.  My favourite thing to come out of that course was the practical learning aspect of it - how to fashion your own language learning course where there is no school.

That brings us to now! I have recently enlisted some of my new dear friends who have, only a year ago, moved to Canada to help me learn Farsi! I doubt she/ they knew what they were getting into when they said yes! HA!

We try to meet about twice a week. So far, this has mostly been over skype. In order to gain vocabulary, I've been cutting up magazines and making flash cards to hold up in front of the web came. It has nourished my creative streak as well as my intellectual side. Oh how good it feels!

Cards for colours!

The theory behind the method I'm using to learn this new language is listening, listening, listening to as much as you can before you speak. SO! In the first round of learning new vocab, like say those colors ^  , I'll hold up a card, my friend will tell me what it is. I'll do that until I think I mostly remember what they are. Next, I'll hold up a colour card and she'll say a colour. I'll have to tell her 'yes' or 'no'  as to whether it was the correct word or not.  THEN! She'll ask me to hold up a colour and I'll have to pick up the corresponding card.

It kind of feels like a game, but it is super useful. So far, we've done simple pronouns, colours, articles of clothing and some body parts. Once we get past some of the basic vocab, we can put them together.  Now, she'll tell me 'he is wearing a purple shirt and blue scarf' and I'll have to hold up the right cards! The next step will be using 'not' and having more complex sentences like 'she is not wearing a green coat, but she is wearing a blue scarf'.

God has given me this awesome opportunity, and I can't wait to see how He uses it!

Fun, no?
XO,
J

Soli Deo Gloria!