There are lots of mistakes that new and experienced language learners make but there are three that stand out. Those who are consistently successful and become strong speakers of whatever language they learn have learned to overcome these three bad habits.
1. FEAR – There are too many self conscious and overly concerned language learners who don’t want to try speaking until they are confident that they will say it perfectly. THIS IS RIDICULOUS! Learning a foreign language is like being an infant again. When you were an infant you didn’t say anything correctly but everyone got the idea of what you were saying and didn’t make fun of you. In fact they cheered and were excited at the simple fact that you were trying.
You have to practice and make mistakes otherwise you will never gain experience. Experience is the key to being a successful language speaker. Experience takes two ingredients. Repetition and Time. I think we are all capable of doing those things and thus we are all capable of becoming successful language learners. So get out there and just say it. Sure you might sound funny, who cares, but each time it will get better.
2. INSTANT SUCCESS - In the world of instant gratification in which we have come to forget the basic virtues of patience and hard work. Also, due to some language products and their commercialization there is the common misunderstanding that language learning is easy or instant. Of course there are those rare people who naturally take to languages like fish in water but those people exist in any activity (Sports, Academics, Business). Most likely you and I are not one of them. So don’t get discouraged and give up when you are not a native level Spanish speaker in 2 months. Depending on our aptitude, previous experience, EFFORTS, opportunities to travel or be immersed, and the instruction we receive it can take years or a life time to become truly fluent.
Just because becoming truly fluent could take years or a lifetime doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the fruits of learning a foreign language now. You can communicate conversational without being native, make new friends, travel, and enjoy the arts and literature from that language. So don’t be impatient and enjoy the process of learning a new language not just the goal.
3. HARD WORK – I’ve mentioned this in previous posts but hard work is the backbone of learning a new foreign language. If you are learning Spanish and you depend solely on your teachers instruction to advance your skills you will not get you very far. Teachers are guides but you have to do the walking. So make sure you are willing to put in the TIME and EFFORT needed to truly learn a foreign language.
Alright guys sorry to break your hearts but there is no magic pill that will make you learn a foreign language instantly. Are there some that have natural god given language skills that make them seem to learn languages effortlessly? Yes. Are you one of them? Probably not.
So what do you do? Just like the Tortoise or Thomas the Train that though he could those who are steady and consistent in their efforts win the race to foreign language mastery. So pace yourself and don’t burn out by studying 10 hrs a day and then after 3 months when you aren’t fluent you don’t give up. Setup and game plan that is challenging yet achievable. Then start practicing.
Don’t forget your Foreign Language Resolutions and Practice.
Learning a foreign language can be intimidating, frustrating, and you may become discouraged. In order to keep things fresh try new techniques regularly in order to keep up your spirits and to keep things interesting. You may even try more passive learning methods that allow you to learn without feeling like you’re learning. For example instead of trying to memorize vocabulary from a list watch a movie with the subtitles on and learn vocabulary by what the actors do and say on screen. You will need to look things up from time to time to make sure you are observing accurately but with practice you will become very efficient.
You can’t say that our tax dollars aren’t hard at work. Look at this wonderful resource our spying and snooping has got us. Actually it is all public information but it’s definitely more fun to think they had to go in “Sydney Bristo” style to get all this info. Either way the CIA has created a very detailed and useful reference guide to almost every country in the world. It’s called The World Factbook.
The someone at the CIA works hard to keep this resource update because the last update was November of 2006. You can find information such as Government, Ethnicity, Birth Rate, Languages Spoken, Major Exports, and much more. If you need information for a homework assignment or are just curious about a particular country this is a great place to start. I especially recommend taking a look at the country who’s language you want to learn in order to get familiar with the culture and current state of affairs.
Enjoy!
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Le Tutor Language Services provides Private Foreign Language Lessons and Tutoring in Phoenix, Arizona to Individuals and Businesses.
We specialize in teaching Real Life language skills. If you want an effective, native, and fun language learning experience Contact us to schedule a free introductory lesson.
Languages and Locations:
Spanish Phoenix
French Tempe
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English Avondale
*Our foreign language tutors can teach at your home, place of business, or a central location such as a library or cafe.
Benefits: The world is getting smaller everyday so take advantage of the rich opportunities that are available by learning a new language.
- Learn to Speak the language
- Advance your business or career
- Enjoy meeting new people and traveling
- Improve your Grades
We look forward to helping you learn more about your foreign language of interest and improving your ability to communicate.
Le Tutor Language Services
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Two Languages at once...
One of our readers has posed the question as to whether or not learning two or more languages simultaneously is a good or bad thing. This is a tough question and somewhat subjective. However after looking at my personal experience at that of others I have formed an opinion on the matter.
First, in order to remove some subjectivity I would ask the learner, what is your goal? Do you want to become fluent or at least conversational or are you just a casual learner who enjoys learning the language and it’s culture? If your answer was the second you can skip the rest of this post and continue to learn how you want and enjoy what you do because that is what you want to do. However, if your response was the prior then read on. Does this seem like a choose your own adventure book? Trust me if you read on you are not going to fall into a giant pit and die.
If you are serious about learning a foreign language and being able to communicate effectively your time would be best spent focusing your efforts on one language whole heartedly rather than dividing your time between two or three languages. It’s like a construction worker who only does part of the job at several sites everyday when he could complete the whole job and then move on to the next one the next day. However if you have already mastered or achieved an acceptable level of fluency in several languages and are just maintaining and or fine tuning them it is easy to split your time.
Conclusion:
* If you are a casual learner then learning several languages at once is no big deal
* If you want to become fluent or conversational focus on one language until you have achieved your goal. Then move to the next language.
* Last, if you have already learned several languages it is much easier to maintain and perfect them than it is to be learning four languages from scratch at the same time.
You can also visit another language site by Francois Micheloud who offers his opinion on the matter.
If you have questions about learning a foreign language in Phoenix, AZ don’t hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. LeTutor Contact
When you are learning a foreign language whether it be Spanish, Japanese, or Hebrew you need to start at the beginning. Although the alphabet may be completely different or similar to your native language you should always know the alphabet and the sounds that each letter makes. You don’t have to know it perfectly at first you should work towards having it memorized by heart.
While you are learning the alphabet make sure you are learning the correct pronunciation and accent for each letter. If you do it right from the beginning you will avoid larger problems in the future. It is much harder to unlearn a bad habit than to start with a good one. Once you have learned the alphabet by heart then you can start more difficult exercises.
Once you’ve mastered the alphabet try using flash cards or writing them out of order. Anything to build your reflexes so that when in a real life situation you don’t have to go through the entire alphabet to in order to recall one letter. Doing these exercises will make the alphabet like second nature and you will simply react instead of thinking it out.
Review:
1. Learn the Alphabet
2. Memorize the sound of each letter
3. Practice the Alphabet out of order
These seem like rather simple exercises and you’re right they are. However they work and work well.
To learn more about private language lessons or business language training visit our site
Le Tutor Language Services has many great native level French instructors available in the Phoenix valley. If you are interested in learning real life French or need a French tutor for your classes please contact us because we can help you. Our French teachers can also help you and your employees learn to speak French so that you can impress your foreign clients with your language skills. We have helped many businesses in the valley improve their abilities to communicate in French with their employees or customers.
Strengths:
- Native French speakers
- Lessons for Real Life
- Effective
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- Improve your grades or expand your business opportunities
If you have a questions or would like to schedule French lessons just give us a call.
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I must first begin by reiterating, as I always do, that online, software, or CD language lessons have there place in learning a foreign language but can never replace a live person. With that said BBC has made an exceptional online language program to help you with your language studies.
BBC Language Lessons
The BBC has created rich lessons for French, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, German, and Greek learners. The free online lessons take you step by step through the lessons and include video and audio tracks to help you with your listening and speaking comprehension. I would recommend this program to anyone who is wanting to experiment with a new language to see if they are really interested and committed or for those who want to supplement their studies with some great lessons that cover grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and common mistakes.
Especially if you are considering buying some expensive software that can cost upwards of three or four hundred dollars I would recommend that you first check out this FREE language learning guide by the BBC.
Best of luck and work hard.
One of the most difficult things for any foreign language student to master is the accent and pronunciation of the foreign language they are learning. I learned French and speak it fluently. Although I speak fluently and have good pronunciation and accent I am still far off from sounding native. So while thinking about what has contributed to my success I made a list of things you can do to improve or reduce your accent.
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
1. Be a Copy Cat: So everyone knows that game you played to annoy your siblings where you repeated everything they said, well now before it was really annoying but now it’s a really effective learning tool. Purchase, beg, borrow, or steal some foreign language tapes, cd’s, or movies and start copying the native speakers accents, pronunciation, and rythm. * Two words of advice. If you are a guy don’t mimic the female voices and vice versa, this will only develop bad speaking habits. Secondly, choose a voice that you think is pleasing, if possible and if not choose anyone, then mimic that one voice. I isolate a short segment, about 10 seconds, and play that snippet over and over until I’m burnt out or feel very comfortable with it.
2. Sound Groups: Identify the sounds that different letter combinations make. This will allow you to immediately know how to pronounce any new word you learn.
For Example: The word COU CH ER in french has three main sound groupings, OU, CH, and ER. If I know that OU always makes the sound like in Boo, CH makes Shhh, and ER makes the sound Hay the I will know that COUCHER sounds like Cooshay.
Once you learn the way different letters sound with each other then you can apply those sounds to any knew word that you learn in that language and will save you a lot of time. *You can apply this to almost all latin, germanic, and slavic languages.
3. Exagerate: Often times when reducing our accent or improving our pronunciation in a new language it is difficult because the sounds are entirely new to us. So while learning these new sounds exagerate them. So if you are learning Spanish really roll your Rs or for french speak heavily in the back of your throat and threw your nose. Although in the beginning you will sound like a larger than life spaniard or frenchmen you will lay a foundation for a solid accent. After you are able to easily make those sounds you can then rope in your accent and give it a softer touch.
If you consistently apply these accent reduction and pronunciation improving exercises you will see measurable improvement in your speaking ability. Work hard and best of luck.
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