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It seems that a good part of the language learning activity in the world is aimed at learning English. English is quite a young language. It is the combination on one small and cloudy North Atlantic Island of Anglo-Saxon, Norman French, Scandinavian even Latin and other influences. The collision of the different writing systems of these various languages and the famous “vowel shift” in England around the time that printing became widespread (15th century) all have contributed to the notoriously inconsistent spelling of English. Who would have thought that his language would become the most common international language? Who knows how long this will last?

Every language has its history, its culture and its charm. Every language has people who speak it, whom we can get to know. In the modern world where we can travel so easily and communicate cheaply by telephone or Internet we have an opportunity that no previous generation had. We can share a part of our lives with people all over the world in their languages. We can learn their languages more easily. Of course The Linguist helps make that even easier.

I learned nine languages and would gladly learn another nine. It gets easier with each language. There is no unlearnable language. Even a language as different from English as Chinese can be learned and give immense enjoyment.

When I was 17 I could only speak one language. Now I speak 9. I am convinced that most people can learn to speak many languages. We are all potential linguists.

I am astounded at how strongly people cling to the belief that they cannot learn. This belief then becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

I like to ask “if I gave you a million dollars to learn the language in 6 months, or if your life depended on it, do you think you could learn?” Then the answer is yes. I guess like in the story about the old man and the pretty young socialite at the cocktail party, everyone has their price.

We had a conversation class tonight with about 20 English learners, in Blenz cafe on the corner of Richards and Hastings in Vancouver. It has been raining hard the last few days and I am concerned about the snow conditions in the nearby mountains, especially Whistler.

People like to get together and talk in a foreign language. Really I should run a bistro where people can just meet and talk in English or other languages they are learning. I also like meeting people and talking, in whatever language. Yet just getting together to talk, as important as it is, is not enough. People still need to work at their language. You cannot get away from listening and reading and deliberately adding to your vocabulary of words and phrases.

I had been listening to  a Chinese CD of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the famous Chinese epic novel. Now I am listening to  a history of Sweden in Swedish. I also have the book which is word for word the same as the CDs. It is very interesting to learn about the history of Sweden and I have the impression that I am learning better than if I just read the book. After listening to a chapter I read the book. This is really a very effective way to learn anything, even in your own language. It is even more effective for learning a foreign language.

I think that the combination of CDs and books could replace much of what is taught in lectures at universities. With an Internet chatroom, voice and text, with other learners and the professor, who needs to attend classes. The rest of the learning should take place in a cafe or bar or discussion place.

Native speakers of any language know naturally which words belong together. They have heard their own language so often and in so many situations that they can naturally put words together in a way that sounds effective. The foreign learner cannot do this.

Unfortunately most language schools teach vocabulary and grammar. Vocabulary is very important. You need words, not only the high frequency words, but also the less frequent words, in order to be able to deal with many situations. But research has shown that you cannot learn them from lists or in groups. You cannot learn by studying the terms for the parts of the body, or what to say at the train station, or the colours, or opposites or words that mean the same thing. This will only confuse you. You need to learn words in context.

The ideal context is the phrase. You can learn a phrase to go with each new word you learn. Soon you will have a variety of phrases with the new words you have learned. Each phrases gives the word a slightly different meaning. Each phrase is a proven way of using the new word in combination with other words.

Every sentence is unique, but phrases repeat themselves often. A phrase is any group of two or more, (usually no more than five) words that naturally belong together and can be used in many situations.

Learn to look for phrases, save them and learn them. One word of caution is necessary, however. The phrases must come from meaningful content that you are listening to and reading. Free examples of sentences and phrases from dictionaries are false friends. You think you are learning but you are not. You need to find your own phrases as you discover the language from interesting content. That is why at The Linguist we let you create your own database of phrases from the real life content that you find in our large library, or from other articles that you find on the Internet.

There must be millions if not hundreds of millions of people who study languages. Most of them are frustrated and do not achieve fluency. I believe it is the false friends of language learning that let them down.

These false friends are:

the classroom

text books

grammar explanations

exercises and drills

vocabulary lists and books

conversation class

thick dictionaries

Why are these false friends? Because they are not natural. They do not offer real communication in the language. I am sure that most people who are fluent in a second or third language did not learn from these false friends brendaclark homes. They learned by listening, reading and communicating in the language on subjects of interests, in other words, for real. Maybe they learned from friends, from TV, or from movies or from necessity, but the key is that they were motivated to learn. They took over the learning process and did not rely on the false friends. Certainly I was only able to achieve fluency in nine languages by studying on my own.

Anybody out there with some language learning experience to share?

Along with the false friends of language learning, there are myths. These also hold people back. Here I will mention just a few.

“You have to have a talent for languages in order to learn.”

Is it likely that this talent for languages exists only with certain nations? Is it likely that the Dutch and Swedes are all born with this talent for languages whereas the English are not? Is it likely that Singaporeans are all talented while the Chinese are not? I do not think so. Instead it is a matter of attitude and exposure to the language.

“I have to go to the country to learn the language.”

This is not so. I grew up in Montreal surrounded by French, but I was not interested in learning French until I reached the age of 17. When I became motivated, I learned. There are many immigrants in Canada who never learn to speak well. Yet I have met people in places like China who were absolutely fluent in English. I learned to become fluent in Mandarin in a city where the language was not spoken, Hong Kong.

Exposure alone will not do it. If you are motivated and know how to create your own interesting language world to learn from, you can learn anywhere. This is the key to effective language learning. I know. I have done it many times.

“You have to have an ear for music to learn languages.”

I lived in Japan for nine years. I often went to karaoke. Most Japanese men at karaoke bars are good singers, and have a good ear for music. Very few of them are good at languages. They either are not motivated or do not have an effective system for learning.

” My teacher is no good.”

It is not the school or teacher that will determine language learning success. It is the learner. The greatest role of the teacher is to stimulate the learner, to help the learner become a truly motivated independent learner. It is still up to the learner to learn.

” Only children can learn languages well.”

Children are uninhibited, encouraged and not corrected, spend a lot of time using a new language with their peers, and do not hide in their own language and culture while resisting a new language as adults do. On the other hand adults know more, have a wider vocabulary and can learn faster. If they can imitate the attitude of the child and take advantage of their own greater knowledge and experience, they will learn faster than any child. They may not be able to achieve accent free pronunciation but that is the only area where they are at a disadvantage. Even there, it is a matter of attitude.

Many language learners have been conditioned to think that they need to learn grammar to learn a language. This is wrong, wrong, wrong! When I go to learn a new language I avoid explanations of grammar and avoid all questions or exercises based on grammar. Instead I look to the language to teach me.

I listen and read and observe the new language. I take it in small doses. At first it is only 30 seconds or 1 minute at a time. In time the doses can be longer. I repeatedly listen to these small doses and occasionally read them. Of course I need help in having the meaning explained. This help can come from a teacher or can be  automated as we did on The Linguist system  Thereafter it is just me and the new language.

The grammar learner is conditioned to think of rules and ask why? “Why is it said this way? I thought the rule was something else.” Half the time the learner has the rule wrong. Besides, if every time the learner wants say something he/she has to remember a rule, he/she will never speak fluently.

For most languages there is a lack of interesting material to learn from. Most textbook material is just too artificial and boring. The main purpose seems to be to explain points of grammar. So there is a tendency for the learner to lose interest. It is just too tiring and not enjoyable. If the main purpose seems to be to learn grammar it is too difficult to continue after a while.

This need not be a problem for English. At The Linguist we have created a library of interesting audio and text files of real language, not text book language. There a person can learn and enjoy it. One day we will do the same for other languages. We will not teach grammar, but people will learn, the way I do.