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July 6, 2010

How To Speak A New Language Confidently Even With Less Than Capable Skills

Being able to muster up the courage to speak a new language is an important facet of acquiring it.   Without that, you’ll end up isolating yourself much longer than is necessary, essentially hindering faster development of skills.

We’re not blind to the fact that only competence can breed real confidence.   That’s why we’re not asking you to magically transform your internal emotions 100%.  Instead, we’re harping at something completely different.

While studying with a language software offer plenty of potential for learning, the best way to speed up your acquisition is to pair that effort with actually going out and using the things you learn.  Don’t do it timidly either.  Feign confidence when you do it, so that you know you’re putting in all the effort you can muster.

  1. Motivate yourself regularly.  Whether it be imagining the career opportunities that language learning opens up or reminding yourself how acquiring the new language can improve your life, use that primary  moving force to motivate you regularly.  Doing so won’t only help you stay on your learning schedule, it gives you good reason to go out and do everything needed to accelerate your learning.
  2. Make peace with failure.  Mistakes are part of learning and you’ll make plenty of them as you use the language.   Accept that you’ll probably fail on occasion and take it as part of the process.
  3. Know yourself.  You’re not pretending to be a native speaker or a longtime student of the language.  So why be embarrassed?  You’re a learner making the effort – know it and embrace it.
February 16, 2010

Two Key Concepts When Beginning To Use A New Language

Speaking a language involves two key features: creation and cooperation.  Creation entails building your own sentences to serve what you want to communicate, while cooperation refers to the dynamic relationship between the speaker and the listener.  Both things go hand-in-hand to create a fruitful interaction.

The creativity that speaking a language entails is one of the main reasons why it’s best to give yourself time before using it in the real world.  While memorized phrases are helpful, committing them verbatim are seldom sufficient to successfully hold your own even in the most basic settings.

Even if you only manage to master twenty of the most frequently used words in a month, that will be enough to afford you some creativity in the field.  Paired with memorized phrases, you can construct enough proper conversation materials to be able to communicate what you need.

Cooperation involves the dynamic of understanding the speaker and returning their efforts, in order to complete the interaction.  While that’s the natural course of things, it becomes difficult to achieve when one of the parties doesn’t have the necessary skills in the language (e.g. you’re only on the first lesson of your language education software).  While it’s not impossible, the work required on the part of the both parties tend to be too much.

So what’s the point?  You have to keep this two things in mind when preparing to use the target language in a real-world setting.  Be prepared to be creative and be cooperative.  That’s the only way to get things done.

August 17, 2009

When Should You Start Speaking A New Language?

New language learners, inevitably, always ask, “When will I be ready to speak in the new vernacular?”  Different teachers and learners have varying answers for this.  Some say a month; others insist around three months; and, still, others argue it’s much longer.

Here’s the real answer: you can start speaking it as soon as you learn your first word.

That makes sense, right?  If you learn how to say “Hello” in French, you can already stroll down any street in Paris, greeting everyone in sight.  Congratulations, you’re now speaking the language.

Regardless of whether you are in the first or last lesson in your language learning software, you’re always ready to speak a language.  The only reason you may not be doing so is fear and, at the end of the day, that is really what’s holding many language learners back.

When you study a language and have this set idea in your mind about when you’ll be ready to speak, the most likely result is that you’ll never be ready.   In fact, the more you delay it, the more likely you’ll be stuck in analysis mode,  paralyzed by fear at actually taking action.  Have you ever met someone who took a language class, yet still refuses to even try to converse with their newfound skills?

There’s always something more to learn.  That’s not the point.  How many Dutch phrases do you really need to know before having the confidence to converse with a German fellow?  The true answer is only you need one and you’re ready to go.

July 29, 2009

Speaking A Language Poorly: The Next Step To Success

For intermediate language learners, the next step to success is usually not as obvious.  You’ll need to learn to speak the language poorly.  Yes, poorly.  Let me explain.

While you may have focused much of your early studies on grammar and structure, advancing beyond the first phase of language learning means developing your full abilities as a speaker.  That means moving from the focus on grammatical correctness to developing the confidence to use the language on a regular basis.

And that’s where a lot of language learners slip up.

To effectively master a language as quickly as possible, you need to do three things, in addition to following the lessons in your language learning software: immerse yourself into as much input as possible, apply it in real-world conversations and get a deeper sense of the background of its native speakers.  Both the first and third items can be done by the same diligent study that you apply to working on your language software; the second, however, can only be done by stepping out into the world and applying everything you’ve learned so far.

The only way to achieve flawless speech is by continually engaging in interactions, regardless of how poorly you may be able to communicate.  This real-world application is the only thing that can really offer you direct feedback as to your current level of ability, showing you errors and letting you correct them in real time.
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