Insights that significantly improved my foreign language.
Introduction.
Communication between people spreads out of countries borbers for a long time ago. Nowadays, a lot of people travel around the World, work at international companies or just communicate with people from another countries via Internet. Therefore, people start to learn foreign language. And I beleave most of them would like to learn foreign language as soon as possible and start to speak fluently.
I have learnt foreign language for the last 5 years. And I have got some insights that significantly improved my foreign language.
And I would like to share my language learning insights with you.
Insight 1.
There are a lot of ways how to get started to learn foreign language. But I strongly recommend to find a teacher at the beginning of your learning journey.
Find a teacher is classical learning way and maybe looks obvious. But there was some hidden insight for me that I got only 2 years later after completing my foreign language courses.
Lets me show example.
Imagine you are a traveler and you go to country side by walk. You pass through the field and face to huge forest. You stop in order to check your direction because you have never been in this place. You get compass, map and realize that you have to go through the forest in order to get your destination.
How quickly do you pass through the forest?
It depends on your skill to find the right way. But imagine the same trip with guide who knows this forest best. He shows the right way and you get destination quickly and safety.
So, teacher is guide at your learning journey. Self-education is really powerful learning tool. But from my point of view, learning with teacher is more productive then self-education if subject is new for you.
Therefore, first insight is:
Find a teacher and build solid basic knowledge at new subject.
Insight 2.
Certainly, there is some reason why you have started learning foreign language. And it is called motivation.
Motiviation is important but it usually has short effect and quickly disappear when learning process already have started. Another words, motivation impact depends on your needs. And needs could be different.
For example:
- you decide to start learning foreign language because you would like to watch films at foreign one.
- you have to learn foreign language due to your job duties.
In first example, learning language is nice to have but is not required. In second example, learning language is requirement due to job duties, nevertheless would you like to learn or not. Another words, motivation push you to start learning something new. And motivation is works further if only you have strong needs to do that like as job duties.
Sometimes people push yourself to special environment when they have to learning by duty. And I know a lot of people that behave yourself in such way. It works. But from my point of view, it is not always productive and usually unpleasent way to learn.
I prefer another way. It is based on interest. One day, one of my teachers said: interest is the best teacher. And I completely agree with him.
There are a lot of ways to get interest in learning. For example, making learning process joyful is the most popular way to get interest. Another example, make someone happy. It is create great interest to learn something new.
Therefore, second insight is:
Find out your interest in learning process.
Insight 3.
Do you know difference between teacher and trainer?
You may be confuse a little bit if you read meaning words in English dictionary. It is ok because I use this words at more broad meaning then person’s job duties. What do I mean?
- Teacher is person who shares his knowledge.
- Trainer is person who improves what you already have learnt.
Another words, if person teaches me he gives me new knowledge. If person trains me he makes me to perform some actions repeatedly. (In real life both job duties contnain teaching and training)
So, learning language rules are vitaly important. But it will be inefficient way to learn if you don’t train (practice) what you have learnt.
I read and heard a lot phrase like this: “if you want to speak you have to speak”. Another words, if you want to speak you have to practice speaking skill. (I am going to discuss speaking skill further in article)
Therefore, third insight:
Get knowledge from teachers and practice, practice and practice again.
And don’t forget about interest. It is really important in practice process too.
Insight 4.
I used to create sentence in native language and translate it to foreign one when I started learn foreign language. It was difficult and I was not able to translate it completely.
Why is happen? — I thought.
And I found out the answer at one of foreign language speaking club meetings. One day I visited such meeting. A person told story about his friend adveture. His speech was extremely bad because has a lot of grammar errors. Also his speech was primitive because each sentence contains usually 2–3 words.
But to be honest, he spoke. And he told story for half an hour. I realized that I knew a lot of grammar rules but I could not told any story like him. I was upset.
Few months later I walked through the park. Women walked with a child in the same direction. And they were speaking at foreign language that I started to learn. And one important insight came to me at that moment: child spoke like a person at speaking club.
And after that I realized what my translation problem was. I had 25+ years experience in native language and only 6 month at foreign one at that moment. Another words, I am adult at native language and child at foreign one. And my native language sentence is too complicated for foreign one.
And I got started build as simple sentences as possible. Usually, each sentence contains 3–4 words. And it works for me!
I am able to tell stories. I could speak. — I thought.
Therefore, forth insight:
Start speaking in foreign language like a child. And “grow up” in speaking when you become more experienced.
Insight 5.
I used to write down unknown words and translate it. And it was a huge list. But to be honest, I rarely read it. And most of words are forgotten. Moreover, it does not help me to improve my speaking skill as I supposed.
One day, my foreign language teacher gave me a paper at A4 format. Paper contained phrases divided by groups. For example, how to start sentences if you would like to say your opinion. Another words, he gives me commonly used phrases or speech patterns.
And I watched on this paper every time when spoke in foreign language at lessons. Using this speech patterns improved my speaking skill and made my foreign language speech more natural. And now I often use this phrases in conversation.
Maybe looks like that learning words is bad practice. But it is not true. Translating words while you are reading is more effective rather than just writing down words and learning it by hard. I translate every unknown word that I have met in text. And it is ok if you forget just translated word. I had a lot of such words. And just translate word again. Usually, I remembered word after several translations. Another words, I remember word if it is often used or forget it if word is used rarely.
Therefore, fifth insight:
Learn speech patterns rather than separate words. Read a lot in order to remember words.
Insight 6.
I was on IT conference few years ago. One speaker told about topic at language that I had learnt. I tried to grasp every word that he told. Then I translate it in my mind, build translated sentence in my mind and try to understand what he said. And I successfully done all this actions. But I felt strong headache after 10–15 minutes because my brain tired to do all translation activities. I was disappoint about my language skills, namely listening one. So I stopped to translate what speaker said and just stared to presentation on display. I was full of sadness.
After a while I realized some incredible insight: speaker spoke and I didn’t translate his speech but commonly I understood what he said.
How is it possible?! — I thought.
I was shocked by this insight. I thought a lot about it after conference. And I remembered one thing that I could not understood from the time when I was a teenager.
I watched Japanese cartoon (anime) where German girl drive robot and fight with another robot driven by its own. Japanese boy is appeared on battlefield at some moment. Girl pass him to robot cabin in order to protect. Then she try to give command to robot in her mind and continue fighting. But robot shows some error message on display. And girl realized that robot could not recognize her commands because it could not choose language between Deutsche and Japanese. She become angry. She shout to boy and force him to think on Deutsche language rather than Japanese one. Japanese boy does not know Deutsche language and he ask: how to think in Deutsche?
And I also could not understand how is possible to think in another language rather than native one. But it is possible and I realized it at IT conference. Therefore, I started to practice this skill. I have started reading without translating text to native language. Then I have started to watch videos without translating speech to native language. And then, I have started thinking in foreign language. Finally, I have started speaking without using native language. And it works!
Therefore, sixth insight:
Practice reading, listening, thinking and speaking in foreign language without using native one.
Insight 7.
Personally, I beleave participating in conversation is the main goal for all people who learn foreign language. And most of them would like to start speaking as soon as possible. But someone achieves that after 6 months but another is only after 5 years.
Why is someone succeed quickly? And why are another persons not succeed for years?
There are a lot of success stories how to start speaking in foreign language quickly. Authors of such stories share their own way to success. But usually some learning technics work for one person and doesn’t work for another. And it is ok for many reasons. So, it looks like there is only one way — try every learning technic one by one and hopes that you are lucky person.
But this way consumes a lot of time and it is not guarantee that you succeed quickly. So I found another way.
First of all, speaking skill is complex skill. So, lets take a look on the picture below:
So, speaking skill contains of:
- writting skill
- pronunciation skill
- listening skill
And all skills base on basic language knowledge like alphabet, common rules, sentence structure and etc. Therefore, speaking skill is difficult to develop.
But why is only this skills? Lets take a look on the picture below:
Any dialog is conversation between two persons. And nevertheless how many participants in conversation it is possible to split up any conversation to small dialogs between two persons.
Dialog has two actions:
- send information
- receive information
So, different skills are required to perform different action. Writting and pronunciation skills are required to send information. And listening skill is required to receive information.
Lets take a look on every skill.
Writting
It is ability to create meaningful sentences in mind and write it down. But how it related to speech? If you are able to write down your thoughts and you can make it quickly, you could replace “write down” action to “say” one.
Pronunciation
It is the way in which a word or letter is said. And it is not about accent. Accent does not matter at all because there are a lot of accents in every country. It is important how you clear and correctly say words because another person should understand what you said.
Listening
It is ability to give attention to someone and recognize what another person said. And people have different pronunciation. And it is needed to practice listening speech of different people in order to improve this skill. Also in conversation I often heard only part of word and my brain “recover” another word’s part. But it works if I only know word. Therefore, reading is important for listening skills because you are increase yours word list.
Insight 7 conclusion
I started to read and write at foreign language. And then I started to listen adaptive audiobooks, watch videos. And finally, I have no any barriers to start to speak after that. And now I just improve my speaking skill and I beleave improving something is endless process.
Therefore, seventh insight:
Speaking skill is complex one. Split up it on smaller skills and develop their separately.
And don’t forget about interest. All skill development activities are significantly effective if they are interesting for you.
