How to Learn a New Language

With all new things, you start and just don't notice the details. They escape your attention. Your eye doesn't know where to look. I felt that way when I learned to drive in Italy after 16 years of driving in the States. The stop lights were in the wrong places. While at home I was trained to look ahead for the signals, in Italy I had to look at the painting on the ground more, and stop lights are in line with where your car actually needs to stop in the road. So you may have to look ninety degrees to the right to see whether it is red or green. At some point, however, I knew where to look. It was about the time I understood how long the car was and how wide, so that parking became (relatively) easier.

The same is true (trust me on this one, I know it's a stretch) for languages. At first you learn the basics, and it is sort of exciting, until it gets frustrating. That is the moment when you realize this is going to be harder than you thought. Then we get angry, blame our teachers for not being very good, or not being this or not being that (it's always the teachers' fault, isn't it?). Most people stop here, when learning becomes uncomfortable. We have the feeling that all of the time and energy we put in (years of classes in some cases) were for nought. We don't understand a thing. We can't talk. Hmmmph!

Some people do not give up, though. They get determined. They realize that they need to have more contact with the language so that it can become more familiar to them, so they start to recognize expressions, speak them little by little until they get to the point where they understand most everything and can express what they want to say.

Here is what those people do.
1. They have patience with themselves and are confident the language will one day "make sense" if they just stick to it.
2. They create their own world with that language at the center.
3. They put their phone and other devices into the target language.
4. They make any t.v. watching deliberate and in the target language.
5. They watch movies with audio and subtitles in the target language and don't care if they do not understand. They know this is normal.
6. They listen to talk radio in the target language. They look at it as an exercise in intonation and musicality. They do not try to understand.
7. They read at least ten minutes a day OUT LOUD in the target language. Understanding is not important.
8. They speak the target language with anyone they can as often as possible. They do not worry about making mistakes. Sometimes they find a buddy to speak with.

Little by little the language becomes less gibberish. They start to understand little expressions, they can say things at certain times. The few things they say are understood. That gives them courage to continue.

These people understand that it is necessary to go through the period of not understanding before we get to the period of understanding and that is okay. They start to have those magic CLICKS of understanding. Sometimes they are big, sometimes they are small. But they happen.

Learning a foriegn language takes time, but it is one of the greatest feelings of pride and satisfaction that we will ever feel.

And if you think you are too old to learn a language, it is not true.

I learned English at birth.
I learned French at age 17.
I learned Portuguese at age 25.
I learned Italian at 30.
I am trying to learn Slovene at 40.

The process never changes, but with each new language we relax a little more and mind less feeling like a kid again. We even become more creative with how we express ourselves. Oh, I forget my languages sometimes. They do come and go depending on how much I use them, but they are still there and wake up when I really need them. I wouldn't trade them for the world.

My advice. Don't wait. Give a new language a try.