Trylingual

I still have no idea why it took me so long to figure this out. Maybe I’m too stupid or I’m just a clown 🤡

Yesterday, I had a lesson that started at half past 6 in the morning. I know what you’re thinking. No, I’m not lying, and you’re reading the correct information. I do have an online class at 6:30 in the morning. “Hustling every morning” is my new mantra.

But it isn’t the main point. The thing is my student asked me to wait for a few minutes as she had something to deal with. Then I randomly picked a movie on Netflix before she came back.

I should have told you that I’ve been always feeling guilty for my interest in watching K-dramas. Looking at my peers, I feel even worse as they’ve learned a lot more about everyday colloquial expressions from films and TV shows in English. And all I’ve got is just from reading and podcasts (not much). However, my life has been alright *touch wood* without learning English from watching movies. But I think my English is just enough for my everyday tasks, and I never stop learning.

Now I’m a bit more mature. My learning path doesn’t solely include acquiring English as my second language. My ambitions have grown bigger, and one of them is to master the French language. But I don’t have as much time as I used to when I was a school kid. My passive listening tactic turned out to be quite effective when I was preparing for my French proficiency test last summer. At that time, I tried to listen to French podcasts on Spotify whenever possible, so even though I didn’t understand much, I still got familiarized with the sound of this novel language. Maybe this strategy can only work for a pretty short time, as I would be tired and bored if I listened too much.

And a few minute’s break early this morning drove me to a new idea. Why shouldn’t I combine my interests and learning needs into a one-and-only activity that lasts for about an hour and a half?

To be more specific, I found an action Korean film, “Ballerina” today. While enjoying my favorite movie, I can turn on Vietsub and listen to the characters speaking French at the same time. Voila!

In the past, I forced myself to watch French-language films, which I don’t really like. I don’t mean to hurt or offend anyone, it’s all about personal interest. From now on, I will cling to this method to find some more delight in this boring life whilst learning something new. What I mean by “something” here is the sound of a new language.

As there are 3 components regarding languages in the film I chose today: Korean, French, and Vietnamese, I decided on the title for this article “Trilingual”. Nonetheless, I don’t really learn 3 languages in this context, instead, I’m trying to merge useful elements together, so I named this article “Trylingual”.

I hope you find this helpful as you can adapt to your own situation, based on your mother tongue and the language you’re learning. Or am I the last one to come up with this new “recipe” 🤡?

If so, please drop me a message so I’ll be less embarrassed, thank you.

And have a nice day ^^