Maximiliano A. Molina
Professor Isenkul
University 150: Writing for college success
26 September 2014
Language Barriers and how to overcome them
Language barriers can be very difficult to overcome especially if you’re not fluent in the language that is hindering your learning. There are some scenarios where a language does not always hinder the course entirely in classes such as math and sciences. On the other hand if that were the case in an english course or a philosophy course where there is an extensive amount of either writing or speaking being involved it would be much more difficult if a language barrier is present. Language barriers can be handled with multiple ways of overcoming a barrier of language that often comes with confusion and aggravation.
Sometimes a student can feel frustrated if they have to take a course with a professor who’s first language is not the mother tongue of the student. This can often translate into frustration and sometimes it can lead to lack of motivation from the student. There are a few ways to help cope with the language barrier. One can be paying more attention to the lectures and taking more detailed notes. Another is to actually communicate with the professor and telling them that you are having a bit of trouble to due a language barrier. Getting to know the professor can help you understand them a little better when they pronunciate words. These two viable options are better than not doing anything and just relying on your academic abilities to power through a language barrier.
While people struggle and seek for help when there’s a language barrier there are others who just don’t do anything and solely rely on their academic abilities to get them through the course. For some people this does work but for the rest of us who aren’t as academically suited for that type of rigorous workload it does not work. This is a very dangerous thing to do because essentially you are just relying on yourself to learn all the material without the professor’s help. This can lead you to becoming confused and frustrated at times if you don’t seek help with learning the material from a professor or even another student. All it takes is just to seek for a little help and if worse comes to worse you can find a tutor to help you with your studies.
Like I have been saying in some portions of this essay that some students would rather rely on their own academic abilities to help them get through a course where there is a language barrier. This can work but it comes with a cost of a lot of studying outside of the course including rereading your notes over and over again until you understand the readings or notes. Also you have to be a good notetaker so that you can reanalyze your notes after your readings so that you make sure you know what your notes are actually about. If you are all about doing the extra work outside of class then teaching it to yourself is not a bad idea but just remember difficult that it is not easy to teach yourself a class.
Overcoming a language barrier is difficult but it is not impossible. Through lots of work and dedication you can get through a course where a language barrier is present. For some people seeking for help is not an option and they would rather teach them self the material, but for others working closely with the professor or other students can truly impact the way of learning and can help them with understanding the material. It is important to be truthful to yourself to make sure you don’t lie to yourself by saying you can teach yourself the material because it is often difficult and complicated. If you decide to do so either way then you are just setting yourself up for a disaster because you don’t have any help, and if you don;t have any help when you don’t know what you’re learning then you wont learn the material.