Language Learning History

Today, one of my classmates attended me to the fact that I had not submitted my Language Learning History on my blog yet. I had a look and I found out that I had completely forgotten to add this important feature to this blog!

The Language Learning History, or LLH, is a summary about how you came in contact with the English language. It focuses on your first experiences with English, how your language skills improved over the years and what you want to achieve in the years coming.

I hope you will enjoy reading it and if you have any comments, you know where the button is. :)



Language learning history

My first experiences with the English language were at primary school, where we learned some of the basics of the language. In the Netherlands, movies are subtitled and are (most often) spoken in the original English. This means that, contrary to countries like Germany and France, you gain a lot of experience with the use of English by watching TV. I think this really helps you in getting familiar with a foreign language.

Besides learning English during the last two years of primary education, I learned a lot from my family. I have three uncles and a lot of cousins living in Canada, and we have visited them multiple times. My cousins only speak English and Frisian, my native language. We used to switch between these two languages all the time, which has provided me with a steady language base as well.

After primary school, I went to secondary school on the level VWO, which takes six years to complete. In these six years, English was an important language subject, just as Dutch, Frisian, German and French. I think that by gaining experience through subjects in many different languages, your overall linguistic capability increases tremendously. However, these courses did not go very deep in my opinion.

After secondary school, I started travelling and spent a total of two years abroad. I spent most of my time in Australia and I have learned a lot of English skills in this country. By submerging into a different country where they do not speak your native language, your English speaking skills get put to the test. I found this very helpful in my development. I was forced to speak English and because I have worked in Australia for a very long time, my communication skills had to be sufficient to be able to function well. One of my jobs was being the manager of a backpacker hostel. I had to speak to customers, suppliers, maintenance people, and of course my boss, who was located 2000 kilometers away from me. I think I have learned a lot from these experiences, both in managing and in English language skills.

My expectations about the course I am taking before coming to university in Groningen, and in particular the fact that it is in English, were that I would not have too much of a problem understanding it. This turned out to be true, I am able to understand the majority of the material I am provided with. However, emphasis is being laid on academic English in writing reports and other assignments. I am not too familiar with academic English and applying it is sometimes hard.

I think the English course that is part of the IB&M program is very helpful to gaining greater academic English skills. Especially on the part of writing, this course provides useful feedback and teaches students on how to structure their texts in a way that is pleasant to read. I like the way it emphasizes on the use of topic sentences and other important characteristics of a text because we can use this knowledge in the assignments for other subjects.

In three years time, after graduating from this program, I expect myself to possess academic and professional business language skills. I am going to try my best to increase my language, both verbally and written, especially in English. I hope this will give me a solid base for a future in international business.