HOW TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 

HOW TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

A lot of people think there is something magical about learning a foreign language, or that they need some kind of talent or just that they are too old or stupid to be able to do it. In fact learning a foreign language is something that anyone, at any age can do. The idea that only kids can learn is wrong. They don’t have a better memory than older people; that’s a myth. In fact adults have a better memory because we have found methods to remember. I’ve taught children from the age of 3, and believe me they have a terrible memory.
So why do children learn faster? It’s true that there is something magical in a baby’s brain that makes them learn a language very fast, but we lose this magical ability very early. From about the age of 3 we learn a language differently and probably we will never be a “native speaker” if we learn after that age. But children over the age of 3 also learn faster for a few reasons.
Firstly, they have more time to learn than adults do! Learning is all they do; all they have to think about and they can do it all day. We have to work, worry, keep a family and concentrate on 1001 other things.
Secondly, they don’t question why, they simply accept that it is so. For example, adults constantly wonder why is this word like this, what exactly does this word mean etc. Children don’t worry about why, they simply learn it as they are told to.
Thirdly, and most importantly, children don’t learn individual words. They learn phrases. This is the key to learning a language faster. Don’t learn individual words; learn phrases. To a child, the phrase “What’s your name?” is all one, something like “Wotsyournem?” It’s all one to them. If we learn all four words individually; 1.what 2. is 3. your 4. name it takes us four times longer to learn than if we learn it altogether. However this means that we have to stop our questioning too and force ourselves to not worry about what the individual words mean.
The person who is on record as having learnt the most languages is a guy called Sir Richard Burton (not the Richard Burton the film actor). He was a British (who said we can’t learn languages) diplomat who lived in the 19th Century and who is famous for discovering, translating and publishing the Kama Sutra (go to www.pages.drexel.edu/~garsonkw/biography.html for more information about this remarkable man). He was able to speak 35 languages! And what is more interesting, he left copious diaries and notes as to how and what method he used to learn them. You would think this man had ‘a talent’ for languages. But no. He learnt each language slowly and often painfully; he had no magical method he simply put a lot of time into it. He is proof that there is no magical method and that it is a myth that you need to have a talent to learn a language.
So come on, stop making excuses and go out and learn a language; it’s supposed to be good for the brain you know and can even make you live longer, so the doctors say because it stimulates blood flow to the brain and keeps your brain active.

LATEST FUNNY BIT
I was reminded recently of a funny story an English guy told me a couple of years ago. He was newly arrived in Poland and was trying to learn Polish. He wanted to buy a large brown envelope at the post office, and he practiced the phrase in Polish “Can I have a large brown envelope please?” repeating it again and again. In Polish this is; “Poprosze duzy, branzowy koperta”
When he got to the window, by mistake he said;
“Poprosze duzy, branzowy kobieta” which actually means; “Can I have a large brown woman please?”
At this the post office woman promptly replied;
“Nie ma” which roughly translates as “We don’t have any.”
This is particularly funny for those of us with experience of Polish post offices, where the workers are particularly fond of the phrase “Nie ma.’
As always in this section, it’s absolutely true.

Bye for now
Julian
julian@bes.info.pl
or
info@polishrecruitment.com