Learning foreign languages... What are the most important details you should know?

Learning a foreign language…. As everyone knows, is not easy for many and many people! We know it as a fact. We know… And if it becomes hard for us while learning, we try harder to work on the process or on the opposite-drop it and get annoyed, frustrated and disappointed in our personal failure.

Sometimes failure to learn and master a foreign language hurts in a deeper level at certain points of our life. Why? Because of our nature or a life necessities connected to work, travelling or encountering other cultures, nationalities and mentalities. Have you ever asked yourself: I wish I spoke English/ Spanish/ German/ Chinese…?

I think you have… At least I have. I’ve become a linguist-translator, following one of the greatest dreams of my life, and turned into a bilingual and now- a writer person. I can’t say it was easy- not at all! It took me many years to advance, master and make it a semi-native for myself. I’ve encountered thousands possible issues in learning foreign languages. And would like to give an insight on some problems that people face when starting to learn or learning foreign languages that might help you with that complicated task.

The first thing you should look into- is the nature of your will to learn, study and usage of the language. Just think about the one you’ve always wanted to speak, that attracts you a great deal, the native speakers with a particular mentality you’re willing (or have a high possibility) to meet and apply your knowledge.

Believe it or not, but these aspects are crucial for learning a language.

You might say: what if my job requires learning a particular language?

I know, a lot of us would think that way, but language is more than just a thing that you can learn and use right away. It’s very deeply psychological no matter how desperate you are.

If you don’t have a WILL that’s coming from the very inside- you will fail sooner or later or just simply won’t be completely satisfied. How many times did we encounter the situation when we had to do something, but weren’t satisfied afterwards?... That’s exactly what I’m talking about!

Many of us sometimes are crazy about starting up to learn a language. We announce about our enthusiasm to our friends, family, co-workers… That sounds very exciting to all of them and they even become proud of you! And then we start….

Oh, yeah! How do we start? Modern approaches offer an exquisite number of miscellaneous classes, techniques, methods, translating software and solutions for especially problematic languages. But do they really work? Are they worth spending money on? Does the software provide grammatically correct translation and really help? Do the tutors do their job well?

The choice seems to be very complicated. And I totally understand why. As a linguist-translator, I’ve tried pretty much everything and analyzed various variants in order to find the best one for me.

My best advice would be – a personal tutor even though it’s one of the most expensive ways. And the result’s worth it!

Why not learning in a group with other people? It’s very psychological again! Do you remember at school either you or your class-mates would be embarrassed when answering a teacher’s question and being afraid to say something wrong and the others’ judgment? You might encounter the same in a language class!

If you never get embarrassed, there will always be the ones that do! That’s one of the direct reasons why the process of learning slows down a lot.

And on the other hand, personal tutor’s attention will help you concentrate and not be forced to move to a new topic or be slowed down by others, personalize the way of teaching in accordance with your level of knowledge (or start from nothing), interest and availability. And that turned out to be the best way for me and as a result- fantastic knowledge of my first and favorite foreign language!

Some, however, prefer group classes over a personal tutor because of the chance to communicate with other people. That particular aspect has 2 sides: either it might help you with communication or while chatting to others- miss very important points.

The next way of learning- textbooks + disks- has its ups and downs as well. The absence of a teacher might slow you down as well and many times push you to make your own research if you encountered a misunderstanding in grammar (that in many languages includes a lot of exceptions) or pronunciation difficulties.

I’ve been there as well! The result- I didn’t go too far for the above mentioned reasons…. Too much misunderstanding, but not too bad for a super basic level of any foreign language. That’s it.

On the other hand- it can be pretty worthy for learning a foreign language that’s similar to your native or the one that you speak on an advanced level, for instance your native language is Spanish (or the first foreign language) and you want to learn Italian etc…They are close in many ways, so it won’t be too difficult to do so.

I will speak about all a fore mentioned methods in my following hubs providing more detailed pros and cons. Because all of them require specific attention!

Another aspect that you should consider when you start learning a foreign language- a chance to practice with a native speaker! It’s extremely important! Without speaking –there is no good foreign language to know and to be proud of! I can be a good example! I’ve been learning and dedicating myself to a foreign language for years and was great with grammar, writing, speaking (many people from my surrounding and I thought so)…. But when I encountered a native-speaking country on my own and people with different lifestyle… I just got lost… Before I even started using my knowledge, I had to listen, listen and listen again…. About 2 weeks after I arrived in a different country, I was able to manage everything in my head, put it all together and get on my road of a totally different life and perspectives that were given to me by all those incredible years dedicated to a language…

So, for now, think precisely about what you really want to do and we’ll review other learning methods that I brought up in my next hubs!

Good luck!