I was taking Chinese, and we were finally getting around to writing the characters. My characters were legible, but nothing special. My classmate, on the other hand, was an artist and recreated every character perfectly. Our instructor, a visiting professor from China, was very impressed, and told us that even her brother didn’t write as nicely.
While my writing wasn’t impressive, I received a few compliments for my ability to distinguish between tones and recreate them accurately. (This was a pleasant surprise since I always considered myself tone deaf, at least musically.)
Chinese is an extremely difficult language for English speakers to learn, and yet my classmate and I–and the rest of the class–managed to learn quite a bit in our two semesters. The key was to find something about learning the language that came easy to us.
A good instructor, no matter at what level, will help students find a talent or ability that will not only help them succeed in some aspect of their language class, but will also give them confidence so that they can succeed in all areas of language learning.
(Thanks, Ms. Yang!)
The first thing you learn in a foreign language, after ‘hello’ of course, is how to say your name. In English, we typically say “my name is ___” to introduce ourselves, but other languages have different ways of doing this.
In Romance languages, one says, “I call myself ___”. The Spanish version of this is “me llamo ___’; ‘me’ means ‘myself’, and ‘llamo’ means ‘I call’, so the translation of this phrase is ‘I call myself’.
This is particularly troublesome because in English, the subject is ‘my name’, but in Spanish it is ‘I’. Spanish students have extra trouble with this when they try to translate word for word; ‘me’ becomes ‘my’ and ‘llamo’ becomes ‘name’, which logically must be followed by ‘is’ ~ ‘es’.
So when you say ‘me llamo es John’, it sounds like you are saying ‘me llamo Ace John’, or ‘I call myself Ace John’. I know of two people named Ace: Ace Frehley of KISS, and Ace Young from American Idol a few years ago. It’s really not that common–I doubt that YOUR name is really Ace.
I just got back from the first class of the new semester. I always enjoy the first class, because I start speaking Spanish right away and like to watch the looks on everyone’s faces. First, there’s fear. Then excitement as some of the words are familiar. Then relief when the students realize that they understand more than what they expected.
There is usually at least one student who expresses dismay that they do not understand every word. And for that student, I offer the example of Airport Listening.
When you are in the airport, waiting for your flight, you are bombarded with almost constant announcements. They are boarding flights, paging passengers, etc. You can’t possibly process all that information, so you have to screen it. You will recognize your flight number when they call it, and of course, your name.
The same pertains to a foreign language. When the instructor is speaking in the target language in class, or when you are listening to audio exercises, music, TV, or real life conversations, you can not expect to understand every word if you are not yet fluent. So, you listen for words that you recognize, for the main ideas. Enough to get you what you need. As you progress in your language learning, you will understand more and more.
My friend was trying to learn Spanish for her (now) husband, a native speaker. She bought the Pimsleur Approach (widely used and highly respected) to use in conjunction with a generic textbook. She found the CDs to be of little use because the speaker spoke too fast. Her husband, like I said, a native speaker, agreed with her.
Pimsleur was a genius, but the CDs work best for someone who is an auditory learner.
If you are in school (high school, college) and have to study a foreign language to meet requirements, you don’t have many choices, except maybe testing out of language classes if you have some prior knowledge. If you are considering learning a language because it will help you do your job, make an upcoming trip easier, or just for fun, you have more options.
Classroom instruction is great, but there are other methods to consider. One-on-one with a tutor is a good way to start. Private sessions mean that your tutor can focus on your learning needs. If you need a more thorough review of English grammar, that’s OK. If you want extra examples, your tutor can provide them without inconveniencing the rest of the class.
Language-learning packages (instruction books, grammar exercises, an audio CD and/or computer software) are useful as well. A word of advice, though: take at least the first semester of your target language or schedule a few lessons with a tutor before you start any do-it-yourself program. You will have a better idea of things like word order, verb conjugation patterns, and pronunciation if you begin with a real instructor. (If terms like “conjugation” make you uneasy, you definitely need some face-to-face time with a person who can explain things to you.)
Some colleges/universities offer courses tailored to meet the needs of specific occupations (medical, law enforcement, construction…). This is a great way to get the language you need without a semester of homework and exams. If you are at all curious about languages, however, this type of class may leave you with more questions than when you started, since learning is achieved by repetition and practice, with almost no grammar explanations given. That may sound like a dream come true if you suffered through your high school Spanish class, but if you need to know WHY one word ends with an ‘a’ while the others end with an ‘o’, you might be driven to reading a grammar book!
Whatever method you choose, I have lots of tips to help you make the most of it!
Well, to some of us it is. Others may think otherwise. Whether you have always dreamed of being multilingual or are stuck in a required class you don’t like, I can help you maximize your learning.
