My Language Background and Reading Habits

Hey I'm Enes and this blog is going to be about the languages I speak, my experience with them, and my reading habits.

My mother tongue is Albanian, I mostly use this with my parents and family back at home in Albania however when I can't find the right word I use English to help me out . Hopefully in the future I can properly learn Albanian as still to this day I make mistakes when writing and at times even when talking.
The second language and the one which I'm most comfortable with is English. I learned this in the 1st grade, I use English everyday, with my friends and teachers at school. For me English and Albanian are my 1st languages as I learned English at a very young age. Nevertheless I still make grammar mistakes when writing in English which are things that I would like to avoid in the future.
The 3rd language I speak is Italian. I learned Italian when I used to live in Italy. When I first learned it I was very good at writing but now since it has been a long time my skills in writing have deteriorated, but I can still speak it and understand it quite well.
The 4th language I know is German. I learned this in our school Miina Härma Gümnaasium. I can speak it at an ok level, but my grammar skills and writing are nothing too crazy. I know enough to get myself out of sticky situations, and have a little conversation.
Then the last which I used to know again pretty well but forgot it completely is Spanish. I also learned this when I lived in Italy. I learned this at my old school and at the time my grammar, writing and talking skills were pretty good, but once I left I rarely used it which led to me forgetting it, however this year I am taking it once again to freshen my memory and learn it once more.
Now on to my reading habits. My reading habits aren't as good as I want them to be but at least I still read from time to time. When I usually read I like to go somewhere with complete silence so it's just me and the book. I also make sure to find a comfortable spot since I will be staying there for a long time, and sometimes also bring a snack or a drink such as tea because for some reason it makes me feel cozy. The books I usually read vary from different subjects but they aren't too thick nor too slim.

English Entry

 I was born and raised in a predominantly Greek-speaking country, but simultaneously learned in British schooling systems for around 10 years. During this time I was fluent in 3 languages, nowadays I can confidently speak Estonian and English, but my Greek could use a lot of help. 

I’m pursuing HL English in IB because I have a hard time coming around to reading books and long texts without being forced to. Because of this I am losing precious resources for my own literary development. In other words, I am actively going out of my comfort zone over the course of the program to try and build a standard of myself that I can apply outside of school. 

 Although I have never struggled with reading most forms of writings in English. I have somewhat recently been attempting to pick up niche philosophy books, but I have found most are filled with meticulously placed hyper-jargon which produces heavily emotional responses when understood. The conjoining of concepts and complex definitions fascinates me a lot, it’s a very unique style of writing (at least from my experience) which I find most enjoyable to read. A problem I tend to have with it, however, is that 1 page will cost me around 15 minutes of dictionary scouting.

 Where it stands with my English is such that I am looking to enrich my vocabulary to the extent of understanding my favorite genre of writing. In addition, I want to be forced to become familiar with the act of dedicating time to picking up and reading a book. 

My Language Background

Even though I was born in Indonesia, I had two first languages. I started speaking in both Indonesian and English at the same time, so both can be called my mother tongues. When I was 6 I learned how to speak fluent Spanish and I started studying Korean 4 years ago, I can read, write and understand quite a lot very well though I still struggle when it comes to speaking. I've also studied Russian for 3 years though I still am very bad at it and I recently began learning French. In terms of English, I'm great at reading, I read very quickly and on average at least 2 books every month. Usually, between 700-900 words but I look for quality over quantity in books. I do write a bit as well and I believe I'm quite good at it, I'm also quite fast, I can type around 7,000-10,000 words an hour though I hope to improve it in the future. 

About My language background

I have learned English for since first grade but I'd say that I'm not very fluent. I'm from Sri Lanka and my mother tongue is Sinhala. Since middle school I've been studying in English. But I only started speaking in English when I came to Estonia about 6 years ago. I am good at writing, but it usually takes way too long for me to get started (get it going). My reading experience I'd say not very good. I don't read that often and the book I read are usually short (500<pages).  I think I've read more books during this summer than 2 previous years combined

My language background

I am quite confident as to say that my English language background is quite good. In terms of verbal communication I can say that I am quite good, since I have spoken English my entire life. Writing on the other hand is a more finicky subject. I am good at writing and can write elaborate and complex sentences, but I feel as though I am way too slow and always end up spending too much time fixing my mistakes. My reading background is quite strong, in the sense that I read a lot on a weekly basis and have quite a few books.

LangLit assessment

 

Information competence MOOC

Just a suggestion on how to behave online and do research easily, a Tartu University MOOC in Estonian: https://sisu.ut.ee/infootsitugi