A
few years ago, I had an English pupil who was a bit out of the
ordinary. Most of my students are college-aged, or, if they are older,
they are professional people who need English for their work. Luis, on
the other hand, didn't necessarily have to learn English, he simply
liked doing so. He was 46 years old, and an officer in the Spanish
Army. Not surprisingly, he always learned in a disciplined manner, and
preferred to progress as methodically as possible. He had been learning
English on his own for only about two years, yet I was surprised at all
he knew about both grammar and vocabulary, and at how well he could
speak - but then, as you already know, discipline, patience and
perseverance will always get you far!
The reason he wanted to have classes with me is that
whenever he watched an American or British film, he was frustrated
since he couldn't understand everything. Of course, if you have never
had much practice speaking, and have never lived in a country where
your target language is spoken, comprehending everything you hear in a
film is certainly not easy: the actors speak quickly, they don't always
enunciate well, they employ colloquial expressions that a foreigner
wouldn't know, and so on.
I told him in the beginning that a couple of months
of classes (only twice a week) wasn't going to enable him to understand
everything in a film, but that he should continue to listen to as much
English as possible between classes - films, radio, tapes, whatever.
A few weeks later, his frustration seemed to have
lessened as far as "total comprehension" was concerned. He explained to
me that he had merely changed his attitude: instead of
intensively trying to understand every single word he heard in a film
(or on an audio tape), and thus never being content, he had decided to
be happy if he simply understood something - maybe a complete
sentence here, a few words there - without worrying about knowing
everything that was said. After listening to a tape once, he'd then
listen to it again the next day, and maybe a couple of more times
during the week. He said that each time he listened to it, he picked up
more of what was being said, until he could understand at least the
gist of it.
Indeed, sometimes we can make life a lot easier by
not demanding too much of ourselves. True, our final goal is
EXCELLENCE. Yet besides our "grand goal", we should have lots of little
goals along the way: learning so-and-so many new words every day,
systematically learning the elements of grammar, etc. And on that path,
we should not confuse our final goal - excellence - with our daily goal
- doing something, however small, in order to make definite
progress.
It would be an unrealistic goal for Luis to expect
to understand everything he hears in a film. But it is a very
realistic goal to expect to understand something. And if
you approach this in a relaxed way, you will often be surprised at how
much you can pick up.
Take me, for example, in my many-year quest to learn
French. I had about a year of it back in college, back in the 70's;
after that, I returned to it a few times, yet never had the opportunity
to live in France, or to have long conversations with French people. As
a result, though I can get by with what I know, my spoken French is
lousy. I sometimes listen to an audio book in French, or a TV show, to
see what I can grasp. Whenever I really actively try to
understand, I find that I get a bit tense, frustrated, and am sorely
tempted to change to another channel. But when I simply relax and
listen, I understand a lot more.
The more you listen to your target language, the
more you will pick up, especially if, at other moments of the day, you
are learning your daily "quota" of new words, expressions, verb forms,
etc. Allow yourself to be pleased with what you already know, instead
of getting totally frustrated about how much you don't
know. (You'll note that I say "pleased", not "satisfied", for if you
are satisfied, you might not keep on learning!) When you get a chance
to spend a few months in a country where your target language is
spoken, you'll find that you will progress very rapidly... that is,
assuming that you make it a point to associate with the "natives", and
don't spend all your time hanging around with English speakers!
That last point is of supreme importance. I can
never understand why some people put out the money to go to a foreign
land to learn the language, and yet spend the better part of every day
with friends from their own country. Well, okay, I do
understand... psychologically, it's a lot more comfortable being with
people like you, who speak your language. But when you make the leap
and go to another country, ALWAYS REMEMBER that you are there to
learn a foreign language,
not simply to feel comfortable. A bit of initial discipline in this
respect will reap you magnificent rewards: by speaking only your new
language with native speakers, the progress you make week by week will
be notable, and after about a month or so, even though you will still
be having some difficulties, you will find it quite natural to
converse in that language. At this point, you will be well on your way
to being truly bilingual. And that's definitely worth the effort, isn't
it?
Next: 11) The Absolute
best Way to Learn a foreign Language quickly
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David at:
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