Joy Young

Language learning is hard. I mean really  hard. The kind of hard that makes adults who have accomplished major things in their lives want to give up. Staying focused in another language is exhausting. It’s mentally draining in a way that’s hard to explain unless you’ve lived it. It would be so easy to check out during a lesson. Instead, you’re trying to follow what’s being said, process it, figure out how to respond, and then say something back — all in the moment, all while trying to use the...

What the affective filter looks like before anyone notices I’ve described moments like this before: sitting in class, overwhelmed, trying to keep up while that dark wall of confusion slowly builds. This time, I want to slow the experience down and look more closely at what’s happening internally when learning starts to shut down. Not all at once, but gradually. After all, I don’t walk into every class wanting to throw a chair in the first few minutes. At first, I am a very positive learner. I...

Misunderstanding gaps, effort, and the quiet cost of being misread In third grade, I struggled with spelling. I still do at times, especially if I don’t slow myself down and think carefully through what I’m writing. That year, I was supposed to be the helper who collected the papers for the month. The problem was that I rarely had time to finish my tests, especially spelling tests. I needed more time to think through the words and remember how to spell them. No one explained why that was....