There has never been a greater time to learn a new language. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what you do for a living, or if you are a man or a woman. If you are not already trying to learn a new language – let 2015 be the year when you do. Learning a new language has so many benefits. In the following I will reveal some of these benefits, and the best approach to language learning.
Ten years ago I was in China speaking to university students and promoting my book ‘The Linguist, A Language Learning Odyssey’. In the book I drew from my personal experience in learning 9 languages to advise people on how to achieve success in learning a second language or even more. Now, ten years later, my attitude towards language learning has not changed. But other things have. First of all I am 10 years older, (in my 70th year), and secondly I have learned another 6 languages in this period, while working simultaneously.
In addition to the 9 languages that I spoke previously, I have just in the last 10 year period, achieved varying degrees of fluency and good comprehension in Russian, Korean, Portuguese, Czech, Romanian, Ukrainian, and am now starting Polish. After that I intend to learn Turkish, Farsi and Arabic.
Age Is No Excuse
Obviously – despite what many people think – age is not a barrier to language learning. Quite the contrary, there are a number of reasons why seniors, as well as people of all ages, should learn languages.
Language learning is a fascinating hobby. It connects us with worlds that we didn’t even know existed, and with people from different countries and language groups. This enriches our lives in many ways. Language learning is a voyage of discovery, fulfilling and stimulating. But that is not all; it is also very good for our mental health, increasing our intelligence, and protecting us against Alzheimer’s disease, as a number of studies have shown. Language learning is also a wonderful excuse for people of all ages to become better acquainted with the Internet and modern technology.
Endless Resources
Although the majority of people today are still trying to learn languages in various language classes, the range of resources and services available through the Internet is vastly richer and more powerful than what the traditional classroom can offer.
Here is a short list of just a few of them:
– Google translate
– Text to speech
– Podcasts on interesting subjects in the variety of languages
– iTalki
– Duolingo
– Effortless English and AJ Hoge
What is Effortless English and AJ Hoge? AJ is one of the most effective language teachers in the world, with delighted students constantly writing on Twitter to express their appreciation of what AJ has given them.
AJ’s message is similar to my own. Simply relax and enjoy yourself and the rest will come naturally. Don’t get hung up on grammar rules and explanations, grammar exercises, tests and all of the other trappings of traditional language teaching.
The Three Golden Keys of Language Learning
Language learning can be boiled to three essential concepts, what I call the three golden keys.
The first golden key is the attitude of the learner. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you want to learn the language?
– Do you like the language you are trying to learn?
– Do you believe you can achieve fluency in the language?
– Are you happy just to communicate, without worrying about pronunciation or correct grammar?
– Are you prepared to congratulate yourself for whatever you are able to achieve in the language?
– Are you determined to succeed?
If the answer to these questions is yes then you are ready to succeed, and ready to move to the next golden key.
The second Golden key is the need to spend time with the language.
This means engaging with the language itself, not dealing with explanations about the language or exercises that test your knowledge and your patience. Spending time in the classroom with other students who don’t speak the language, or with a teacher explaining things, is not necessarily the best way to spend time with the language.
Listening to the language itself, as spoken by native speakers, whether in face-to-face conversations, or listening to an interesting podcast on an MP3 player, are more intensive language experiences. So is reading in the language.
Language learning takes time. Not only do you need to spend 45 minutes to an hour a day, but it will likely take months and possibly years to achieve your target level of competence in the language.
As long as the time you spend with the language is enjoyable, interesting, and stimulating, you don’t begrudge yourself this time. The task of language learning becomes a fascinating adventure, a rewarding hobby. As AJ and I both stress, it becomes enjoyable. Once you are able to enjoy your learning, your success is guaranteed.
If your attitude is positive and if you have found a way to commit the time necessary for success, you are ready for the third and most elusive of the three golden keys.
The third golden key, is to develop the ability to notice, to become attentive to the language.
There is a Sufi expression which says we can only learn what we already know. We have all had the experience of noticing something that we hadn’t noticed before, and then suddenly this phenomenon seems present everywhere.
When we start in the new language, everything is strange and unclear. Then as we start to notice a few words or sentence patterns that we have encountered over and over, we are better able to notice other things in the language.
The more exposure we have to the language, through listening, reading and communicating with others, the more alert we become to all aspects of the language, including how the language is pronounced.
Teachers, corrections from helpful native speakers, grammar books, etc. can all help us become more attentive. Ultimately, however, these are minor. We have to discover the vast majority of these things ourselves. We have to train ourselves to become attentive to the language.
Our ability to be attentive, therefore, is dependent a) on our attitude; our determination and will, our open-mindedness, and b) dependent on the amount of time we spend with the language.
In fact the three Golden keys; Attitude, Time and Attentiveness are very much interrelated and mutually reinforcing.
Let Technology Help You
In my language learning over the past 10 years, I have spent thousands of hours reading and listening to content that fascinated me. This was content that I chose and which maintained my interest in conquering the language. It is really only in the initial stages that I felt I had to learn from boring beginner content.
Modern technology makes it possible for us to move onto interesting content of our choice, at quite an early stage in our learning. Specifically, it is the availability of online dictionaries, online grammar resources and especially language learning systems like LingQ, which make it possible for us to spend most of our language learning time with content of interest, which is for me, the real driver of language learning.
The Internet offers us unlimited content in the languages we are studying. In my learning of Russian, Czech, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and other languages I have found fascinating resources, just by googling. Audio books, podcasts, radio programs and more are available for download.
I make full use of technology. Not only the Internet, but also MP3 files, iTunes, mobile apps for my iPhone, and iPad to study whenever I have a moment, wherever I am.
Reading and especially listening are not only powerful ways to learn, they are very portable. You can read whenever you want. You can listen while doing other tasks. You can use “dead time “in order to make sure you achieve a level of daily contact with your language of at least one hour.
In order to learn a language today, we simply need to start. If we follow the Three Golden Keys and take advantage of modern technology, success will feed on success and we can learn any language, and however many languages we want, and enjoy the process.
There was never a better time to start learning a new language. What are you waiting for?
Happy New Year Everyone!
