If anyone is not familiar with the saying in the title of this blog post, the full version is, "Where angels fear to tread fools rush in." It alludes to someone doing something hastily, not thinking about the consequences.
What I actually want to say is that the right approach to language learning is precisely that: to rush in. This goes directly against the approach which starts a language learner off slowly learning the alphabet, progressing to learning some basic words and by the third of fourth lesson starting to learn very basic sentences, saying things you would never say in real life like, "The dog is red," or, "The house is there."
I am suggesting you get on with learning, even before you might have had a chance to find out some basic things like how many letters are in the alphabet or how you pronounce all the sounds. And there is a theory of language learning that states that you should always be one step ahead of your theoretical knowledge, learning things that don't quite make sense to you yet.
That's certainly the way you learnt your native language. You were driven by basic instincts and needs, wanting the attention of mum - or potentially dad - and also the basic product they provided, namely food in some form.
Incidentally, I find it interesting that the words for 'mum' and 'dad' in different language families do NOT consistently used 'm' in the word for 'mum' and 't', 'd' or 'p' for 'dad'; in Kyrgyz 'apa' is mother and 'ata' means father.
Anyway, the way you learnt your first language was immediately applied, related to life. And it involved stepping out and making lots of mistakes. And that is the way to learn your foreign language.
A few years ago a longstanding friend of mine, who had learnt German almost 20 years previously, came across some German speakers locally. It happened to be Easter and he wanted to get across a key message of Easter; the empty tomb of the risen Jesus Christ. Only instead of writing 'leer' (empty), he wrote 'lehr' (teach). You can imagine how the German speaker might have 'joined the dots' (i.e. drawn his own conclusions) and come up with some meaning relating Easter to teaching. But I am giving this example to say that my friend did the right thing: that is precisely what you should be doing. Rush in and make mistakes. I trust that my friend's enthusiasm and a bit of context will have got the message across eventually - and, in the process he himself (re-)learnt the difference in German between those two homonyms (words which sound identical but with different meanings).
So, get out there and use your language from the very start. Write messages to native speakers. Go to the shop and ask for stuff in your foreign language (make sure you are in the right country first!). Sing along to a song you like.
But there is one qualification. Make your mistakes, but then correct them. Having embarrassed yourself, as I did recently, asking a Spanish speaker how many backsides he had (instead of how old he was), set up a Spanish keyboard on your phone with the letter "ñ", get them to tell you your mistake and how to say or write it correctly.
I have this picture of a body made up of flesh and bones. Flesh is the raw data of language: words, sentences, sounds, phrases etc. And the bones are the structure, the grammar, the correct word order etc. Start with the flesh, but then acquire a skeleton so you can, metaphorically speaking, stand up and not just flail around on the floor.
So, my advice in this post is twofold: (1) rush in and use your language, making mistakes and (2) once you have some 'flesh', acquire a 'skeleton'.
Happy language learning!
If you are interested in language learning, follow this blog.
My name is Russell Phillips. I offer online video language tuition for English and Russian - and also German, Italian and French.
My rate is GBP 9 (nine pounds sterling) per block of 15 minutes (a typical lesson might be 45 minutes), payable in advance.
Contact me via www.facebook.com/russelljamesphillips or on email at regnavit[at]gmail.com
What I actually want to say is that the right approach to language learning is precisely that: to rush in. This goes directly against the approach which starts a language learner off slowly learning the alphabet, progressing to learning some basic words and by the third of fourth lesson starting to learn very basic sentences, saying things you would never say in real life like, "The dog is red," or, "The house is there."
I am suggesting you get on with learning, even before you might have had a chance to find out some basic things like how many letters are in the alphabet or how you pronounce all the sounds. And there is a theory of language learning that states that you should always be one step ahead of your theoretical knowledge, learning things that don't quite make sense to you yet.
That's certainly the way you learnt your native language. You were driven by basic instincts and needs, wanting the attention of mum - or potentially dad - and also the basic product they provided, namely food in some form.
Incidentally, I find it interesting that the words for 'mum' and 'dad' in different language families do NOT consistently used 'm' in the word for 'mum' and 't', 'd' or 'p' for 'dad'; in Kyrgyz 'apa' is mother and 'ata' means father.
Anyway, the way you learnt your first language was immediately applied, related to life. And it involved stepping out and making lots of mistakes. And that is the way to learn your foreign language.
A few years ago a longstanding friend of mine, who had learnt German almost 20 years previously, came across some German speakers locally. It happened to be Easter and he wanted to get across a key message of Easter; the empty tomb of the risen Jesus Christ. Only instead of writing 'leer' (empty), he wrote 'lehr' (teach). You can imagine how the German speaker might have 'joined the dots' (i.e. drawn his own conclusions) and come up with some meaning relating Easter to teaching. But I am giving this example to say that my friend did the right thing: that is precisely what you should be doing. Rush in and make mistakes. I trust that my friend's enthusiasm and a bit of context will have got the message across eventually - and, in the process he himself (re-)learnt the difference in German between those two homonyms (words which sound identical but with different meanings).So, get out there and use your language from the very start. Write messages to native speakers. Go to the shop and ask for stuff in your foreign language (make sure you are in the right country first!). Sing along to a song you like.
But there is one qualification. Make your mistakes, but then correct them. Having embarrassed yourself, as I did recently, asking a Spanish speaker how many backsides he had (instead of how old he was), set up a Spanish keyboard on your phone with the letter "ñ", get them to tell you your mistake and how to say or write it correctly.
I have this picture of a body made up of flesh and bones. Flesh is the raw data of language: words, sentences, sounds, phrases etc. And the bones are the structure, the grammar, the correct word order etc. Start with the flesh, but then acquire a skeleton so you can, metaphorically speaking, stand up and not just flail around on the floor.
So, my advice in this post is twofold: (1) rush in and use your language, making mistakes and (2) once you have some 'flesh', acquire a 'skeleton'.
Happy language learning!
If you are interested in language learning, follow this blog.
My name is Russell Phillips. I offer online video language tuition for English and Russian - and also German, Italian and French.
My rate is GBP 9 (nine pounds sterling) per block of 15 minutes (a typical lesson might be 45 minutes), payable in advance.
Contact me via www.facebook.com/russelljamesphillips or on email at regnavit[at]gmail.com
excellent thoughts and advise
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