Tuesday, July 2, 2013

How To Learn Another Language

By Daniel White


Communicating to a person who speaks a different language can be frustrating, especially if you do not even know basic vocabularies. For instance, Danish-speaking people and English-speaking people can only understand a few words that are common to both languages, making it possible for them to have some basic communication. However, it is almost impossible for a Japanese-speaking person and an English-speaking person to understand what the other is saying because of the difference in grammar, lettering and pronunciation among other things. The question most people have when they want to travel abroad, move to a new country or improve their language skills is how they can learn a new language quickly and efficiently. While different people may have different answers to this question, the key to learning another language lies in starting young.

Developing the Mind

The evidence about the efficiency in learning a new language at a young age is phenomenal. Developmental psychologists as well as linguists all agree that there is no more efficient way to get a new set of vocabulary and grammar into your head than if you do it at an age when your mind and body is still developing. A child who begins to learn a new language at age five will have more mastery in only a year than a full-grown adult can in five years. This is because the parts of the brain that deal with speech and memory are growing most rapidly when a child is between the ages of four and ten, whereas once you reach your teenage years they begin to slow and finally cease their growth altogether. Just as you can fit more information into a storage unit that is constantly growing, so too is it easier for a child to absorb new information at a time when their brain is doubling in size. Of course, not everyone is five years old: for those of us who have long since stopped growing, what is the best way to get a new language in our minds?

The immersion

Because language is used in several areas of your mind's memory, it is more difficult and complex a task to master a new language than to learn how to fix a car. You basically need to replace your entire grasp of grammar and vocabulary in order to talk fluently in an other language; it is not as simple as just calling up the specific words that you need. Your brain will start to automatically adapt to the process of talking and thinking in a different language if you are exposed to another language. You then have no choice but to think in that language, and if you want to learn French for example, there is no better way than to spend some time in a French speaking country. Compare the experience you will get from immersing yourself in an other culture and language, to simply spending an hour or two at home each day trying to learn that language. Studying the language at home means that you are not really exposed to it, making it that much more difficult to learn. If every sign, TV show, menu and conversation was in a different language, it would be a lot easier to learn it.

Aim For Ok, Not Great

The main reason why most people often fail in their efforts to learn a new language is that they try to be perfect. In order to be successful, a person needs to stop thinking about being perfect in speaking that tongue - after all nobody is perfect - and start thinking about how best to communicate his or her points to other people. Ideal translations and success are two different things. You should be happy about the fact that you do not have to struggle when holding a basic conversion; the fact that you are unable to summon the perfect phrases should not frustrate you.

Look over the web

Though academic study, classrooms, and textbooks are a good help, people looking for a way to learn a language without every leaving home can use the greatest resource known to man: the world wide web. Using the Internet, you can connect to people on the other side of the globe, write letters or posts, communicate face-to-face with video chat, and find language-specific gatherings or meetings that allow you to practice with like-minded individuals. Likewise, if you want to travel abroad, use search sites for places to stay or activities to engage in that will demand use of your new language skills and keep them sharp.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment