Do you want to learn a foreign language?

Do you want to learn a foreign language?

I am going to share a way of learning languages which might seem very rare. However, it worked perfectly for me many times. I am going to explain how I learnt Portuguese and a bit of another foreign language. It is needed to mention, though, that this „method“  which I am going to describe was effective when I was living in a place where that specific language was being used as an official language.

The easiest way

The method I was using in the past to learn a new language was very simple and the most nature one. I went to live into the country where the target language was spoken (as mentioned above). More specifically, I went to Spain, so I could learn Spanish quite quickly. I was living in Madeira when I wanted to learn Portuguese and thanks to talking to a British person I improved my English.

Though, when you live in the country, it does not mean that you will learn the language. You need to be motivated, you need to feel that it is you who wants to learn the language and it is a plus when you know why. It will help you a lot.

Picture: You know it is good to know the foreign language especially when you live in the country - so it means that even shopping will be easier then.

The embarrassing beginnings

I know that it feels ridiculous to start speaking in a language that you are just getting to know. People in general feel like fools, because they do not know all words for expressing themselves as they wish. I just want to support you. If you are starting with a new language, the older you are the foolish you can feel. Do not worry because this is how everyone feels. I used to study this at the university and what more – I experienced the theory in the practical way.

So when I was in Spain, I really wanted to learn Spanish. I arrived with knowing just a few words. I would say that I was able to express myself in five sentences. I knew how to introduce myself and how to say “hello”. I did know how to thank to others and how to respond when they thank me. Although, I did not know how to say goodbye, for example...

Find a teacher

I was extremely motivated and even though almost all of my subjects at the university were in English, I used to study at home through an Erasmus online language course. I was also living with a young Spaniards who was a Spanish teacher, so I organised a group of Erasmus people and he was giving us some classes for a better price two times a week. So if you do an Erasmus or you move abroad (or you live in your country but want to learn a foreign language), find someone else who wants to be taught the language, find a teacher and you might get some classes for little money.

Put some effort into it

Seriously, if there is no effort, you cannot expect learning the language. If you want me to share a story, I will tell you this one. I went to Scotland to spend a summer in a fruit farm. There was a men whose origin was in the Czech Republic. He had been living in Scotland for seven years by the time I met him. Once he left the farm by tractor. The tractor got suddenly broken, so he took his phone and called the farmer to help him. However, as the farmer knew only English, this Czech men needed to express himself in English, obviously. Anyway, he said something like: “Tractor caput!” Would you believe? After seven years living in the United Kingdom. I know that there was also the fact that he was living on the farm where he did not need to talk much, but you can see that when you do not want to learn, you do not have to (and you will not to).

Picture: You can live in the country, experience some traditions and events, but if you are not keen to learn, the language will not really come.

Practice speaking

So if you have got the motivation and if you know someone to practice with, or you even live in the chosen country, it is the easiest to start learning. And if you do not know anyone you could practice with, try some online apps  where you can meet or chat with people. There are even apps where you can do video calls and so you can teach the person your mother tongue and the other person would teach you the foreign language.

Everyone starts from the same point

Now, back to the point from the theoretical part. You should take into account that when we start learning languages, we are like babies who are born and do not know any language. Can you imagine how they learn a language? There are many phases. It is a process which needs time. It is like when someone is trying to loose weight. It simply does not happene over a night.

When babies are born, they just listen to the sounds that get into their ears. After some time, they can recognize some words, however, they are not ready to speak. This is called a silent period. I mean, they understand the meaning of the words but they are not ready to produce the words themselves. So they keep listening and all of the sudden, they start pronouncing words, they start putting words together, they use easy grammar, they form sentences and then finally, they are ready to speak, indeed.

Picture: Erasmus students come and start usually at the same point when learning a language.

What about adults?

Does it not work in the same way with us – adults? Yes, it does. The only problem is that we are aware of making mistakes. We do not want to do them because someone else could talk about us and we would feel ridiculous. We feel stupid when we are supposed to pronounce a word and we are not really sure whether it should sound that way. Or when there is a sound we do not have in our mother tongue, we do not even try making the correct sound, so we do not look like someone who tries sound like natives when he or she does not even know much from the foreign language. Is that true? Have I just described at least one point which would be correct? As I said, I have been learning many foreign languages and I remember it all well.

My English teacher from my home university used to say: “When you think you know English well enough, start learning a new language, so you remember the whole process of learning foreign languages. Only like that you will understand your pupils and students!” How wise his words were. I keep them on my mind.

When theory meets practice

Well, to get back to Spain and my Spanish acquisition. By then, I was an Erasmus student and as I did not want to prolong my studies at the university, I was studying hard for exams there – in Granada – and for exams back home. One of my home exams was about Didactics of foreign languages. I stated to prepare for this exam only once I arrived back to the Czech Republic and believe me, it was the easiest exam ever! Why? Because when I was reading all the materials, I read everything only once. It was so clear for me. I really experienced everything that was written there (about the whole process of learning a foreign language) in a real life.

So it helped me a lot to realise that there is a theory like the one I shared above (being like babies). It makes sense – everyone starts from zero and all of us feel stupid and embarrassed at the beginning. However, once you know it, there is no reason keep feeling that way. We should be proudthat we put some effort and we try learning a foreign language!

Picture: Be happy and be proud that you are learning a new language.

Let me finish here

All right, I will finish the article here so you can let these very important pieces of information settle down. Just keep them there in your head. I am going to write another article though, in which I will share the rare way of learning foreign languages which was a good fun for me though and it worked perfectly.

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