Problem
1 I don't want to learn another language - why should I? Everybody speaks English.
2 I want to learn an easy language
3 I don't have time
4 I don't know where to start
5 I can read but not speak
6 I can speak but not read
7 I can speak and read - but not fluently nor correctly.
Answers
1 a) It's one more skill to help you get a job, impress your friends, make you confident.
b) In business it helps to understand what negotiators are muttering thinking you don't understand.
c) Some countries have shared taxis on main routes. In others you might share a private car on Uber. When other passengers, strangers, who are chatting like pals to the driver and ask to turn down a side street it's quite scary. Is it possibly danger such as a plant o rob or kill you. You want to know if they are friendly or hostile, talking about you and your money, a knife or a gun, or just the quick route, avoiding traffic, to their hotel.
d) That's OK until you lose your group - you need to be able to ask for help. This happened to me three times.
Abandoned at a Russian Railway Station
Firstly, as a student, on a Russian railway station with heavy luggage, I lagged behind and I lost my group. They had popped into a waiting room around the corner.
FRENCH FOREIGNERS
In Spain, at a Parador hotel, we wanted breakfast, just about the time we thought the restaurant might shut. We didn't know the word desayuno (breakfast). We didn't know that the receptionist had, under her desk, a four-language registration form including the words for food or restaurant or meals. A race back to the bedroom, a hunt for the dictionary and phrase book, a search for the word breakfast in a dictionary, got us into the restaurant - just in time, and very hungry.
In France, I stopped to take a photo and lost my group who were around the corner in a restaurant.
I've also joined the end of the wrong walking tour around a stately home in France and found myself with a German-speaking guide. Eventually, somebody shouted to another guide, and I found my English speaking group.
In China, up a mountain in Guilin, on paths wide enough for only one person, we got separated. I went to the toilet, took the wrong turn at a fork in the path. At teh foot of the mountain, nobody about except a postcard seller, I had lost my way and couldn't tell a postcard seller I had lost my group. When I burst into tears she led me around the corner to a coach park.
LOST IN CHINA
On another occasion, on a tour with complete strangers who spoke other languages, I got on the wrong coach in a car park. We drove off and our Chinese guide spoke in Chinese - no English translation. When I called out to him asking him to speak in English, which he did not speak, he and I realised I didn't belong. The coach did a quick U-turn and hooted my bus which was slowly circling the car park and about to depart without me!
At very least a few words written in English and translated (including my name, language, group, and destination hotel) would have been helpful.
Learning a second language or being bilingual postpones the onset of Alzheimers by five years.
2 If you want the easiest first language, pick one which will help with others, such as German (also like Dutch), Spanish Italian or Portuguese which are like each other, one which is widely spoken. such as English, Spanish, or Chinese.
Alternatively, if you need something simple and logical and quicker to learn, go for a constructed language such as Esperanto and make a penpal or friend from a country which has another minority language who like you will be grateful to have a new friend.
3 It's a more useful and constructive distraction activity than reading more news, being passive
4) You can do it on the train, in your lunch break, when bored. Do it when you have time.
5) Make an effort to listen and learn - click on the sound symbols in Wikipedia, watch videos on You tube. Use a system such as Memrise which has videos of actual speakers. Video your bilingual friends saying the numbers one to ten,. Record your taxi driver or guide. LEarn a group of related theme words such as foods. Better still learn simple sentences. If that's too hard, learn a simple song, such as a nursery rhyme in modern language teaching numbers, days of the week, or lots of repetition, or a well-known tune and translation of words which you know in English.
6) Read a grammar book, borrow a course from the library, look at the grammar page at the start of every Duolingo course, read children's books, progress onto a newspaper or simple signs in public places
7 When you learn a word, repeat it, note the spelling and accent. Ask people to correct you.
I hope this helps.
1 I don't want to learn another language - why should I? Everybody speaks English.
2 I want to learn an easy language
3 I don't have time
4 I don't know where to start
5 I can read but not speak
6 I can speak but not read
7 I can speak and read - but not fluently nor correctly.
Answers
1 a) It's one more skill to help you get a job, impress your friends, make you confident.
b) In business it helps to understand what negotiators are muttering thinking you don't understand.
c) Some countries have shared taxis on main routes. In others you might share a private car on Uber. When other passengers, strangers, who are chatting like pals to the driver and ask to turn down a side street it's quite scary. Is it possibly danger such as a plant o rob or kill you. You want to know if they are friendly or hostile, talking about you and your money, a knife or a gun, or just the quick route, avoiding traffic, to their hotel.
d) That's OK until you lose your group - you need to be able to ask for help. This happened to me three times.
Abandoned at a Russian Railway Station
Firstly, as a student, on a Russian railway station with heavy luggage, I lagged behind and I lost my group. They had popped into a waiting room around the corner.
FRENCH FOREIGNERS
In Spain, at a Parador hotel, we wanted breakfast, just about the time we thought the restaurant might shut. We didn't know the word desayuno (breakfast). We didn't know that the receptionist had, under her desk, a four-language registration form including the words for food or restaurant or meals. A race back to the bedroom, a hunt for the dictionary and phrase book, a search for the word breakfast in a dictionary, got us into the restaurant - just in time, and very hungry.
In France, I stopped to take a photo and lost my group who were around the corner in a restaurant.
I've also joined the end of the wrong walking tour around a stately home in France and found myself with a German-speaking guide. Eventually, somebody shouted to another guide, and I found my English speaking group.
In China, up a mountain in Guilin, on paths wide enough for only one person, we got separated. I went to the toilet, took the wrong turn at a fork in the path. At teh foot of the mountain, nobody about except a postcard seller, I had lost my way and couldn't tell a postcard seller I had lost my group. When I burst into tears she led me around the corner to a coach park.
LOST IN CHINA
On another occasion, on a tour with complete strangers who spoke other languages, I got on the wrong coach in a car park. We drove off and our Chinese guide spoke in Chinese - no English translation. When I called out to him asking him to speak in English, which he did not speak, he and I realised I didn't belong. The coach did a quick U-turn and hooted my bus which was slowly circling the car park and about to depart without me!
At very least a few words written in English and translated (including my name, language, group, and destination hotel) would have been helpful.
Learning a second language or being bilingual postpones the onset of Alzheimers by five years.
2 If you want the easiest first language, pick one which will help with others, such as German (also like Dutch), Spanish Italian or Portuguese which are like each other, one which is widely spoken. such as English, Spanish, or Chinese.
Alternatively, if you need something simple and logical and quicker to learn, go for a constructed language such as Esperanto and make a penpal or friend from a country which has another minority language who like you will be grateful to have a new friend.
3 It's a more useful and constructive distraction activity than reading more news, being passive
4) You can do it on the train, in your lunch break, when bored. Do it when you have time.
5) Make an effort to listen and learn - click on the sound symbols in Wikipedia, watch videos on You tube. Use a system such as Memrise which has videos of actual speakers. Video your bilingual friends saying the numbers one to ten,. Record your taxi driver or guide. LEarn a group of related theme words such as foods. Better still learn simple sentences. If that's too hard, learn a simple song, such as a nursery rhyme in modern language teaching numbers, days of the week, or lots of repetition, or a well-known tune and translation of words which you know in English.
6) Read a grammar book, borrow a course from the library, look at the grammar page at the start of every Duolingo course, read children's books, progress onto a newspaper or simple signs in public places
7 When you learn a word, repeat it, note the spelling and accent. Ask people to correct you.
I hope this helps.
Useful Websites
memrise.com
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. I teach individuals English and French (any language - if you want to start and just need somebody to help you get going). I also do workshops and entertain groups and give amusing talks on languages, problems learning foreign languages, and the ease of learning Esperanto. If you are a member of Toastmasters International like me want a free talk for Toastmasters contact me through Toastmasters. If you need a paid for talk outside Toastmasters, you can contact me through Toastmasters groups and through Facebook and LinkedIn.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. I teach individuals English and French (any language - if you want to start and just need somebody to help you get going). I also do workshops and entertain groups and give amusing talks on languages, problems learning foreign languages, and the ease of learning Esperanto. If you are a member of Toastmasters International like me want a free talk for Toastmasters contact me through Toastmasters. If you need a paid for talk outside Toastmasters, you can contact me through Toastmasters groups and through Facebook and LinkedIn.
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