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Fluent in 3 Months. Benny Lewis
Читать онлайн.Название Fluent in 3 Months
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780007556755
Автор произведения Benny Lewis
Жанр Иностранные языки
Издательство HarperCollins
Why is that? If we successfully reached this stage, surely we found the perfect method for us, right?
Not quite. The point is not to search endlessly for the ‘perfect’ method, but to find a good one and adjust it as you go. You reach a plateau because something in your current approach is not allowing you to progress.
If what you’re doing isn’t working, it isn’t good enough and needs to be changed. One of my favourite definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So don’t be afraid to mix things up. A change in how you think about a new language – or how often you speak it and with whom – will go a long way towards helping you avoid plateaus. Even if your previous approach did you well and got you to a particular stage, maybe a slightly new approach should be tried to catapult you to the next level.
11. Perfect Mastery Is Impossible
When people think that speaking a language means nothing less than being able to debate Kantian philosophy, with no accent or hesitations, then it can indeed feel like it would take decades to be able to say that you can actually speak a language. If you have this in mind, the entire project can feel hopeless. Why even bother starting if such an end goal is so impossible?
I don’t know about you, but my English isn’t perfect. I hesitate when I’m nervous, I forget precisely the right word every now and again, and there are plenty of topics I am uncomfortable talking about. Applying higher standards to your target language than you would to your native language is overkill.
Rest assured that fluency is very much possible for us mere mortals, even for those of us who did poorly in languages in school. Aim for a conversational level (or lower) first and then strive for fluency. Mastery can indeed come with time (even if perfection in any language is not possible), but have short-term goals first.
12. Languages Are Boring
A huge misconception in language-learning is that it’s all about studying the entire time.
If what you’re doing is boring, then stop what you’re doing. This doesn’t mean that learning a language is boring, just that the way you’re trying to do it right now is. There are so many interesting ways to progress in your language that don’t require doing something dull.
Try to expose yourself to some alternative content in the language – like through its music, cartoons, films, magazines, jokes, many of which are available online – find a different language exchange partner, or follow any approach that tickles your fancy. There are infinite possibilities for learning a new language. With all these options available to you, staying bored is ridiculous. Do something different and you won’t be bored as easily.
13. Native Speakers Won’t Speak to Me
When I was first learning Spanish, I was really afraid that I would accidentally call someone’s mother a smelly grasshopper (or worse) if I slipped up my pronunciation or conjugations. Because of this, I felt I had to wait until my Spanish was much better before I dared to use it in front of other people.
The problem with this is that you never feel ready enough. There will always be more to learn, so you will always be able to make an excuse that you should go off and learn more words before trying to speak to people. It’s a vicious cycle that keeps many of us from opening our mouths for years.
And what actually happens when you do? People are incredibly encouraging, helpful, so happy to hear you try, patient, and understanding. This idea that we’ll frustrate native speakers is not based on experience (or if it is, we are greatly exaggerating or misinterpreting what happened); it’s based on the assumption they’ll make fun of us or lose patience. This is our own fear manifesting itself; it’s not based on reality.
At some point in your life I am sure someone learning English tried to speak to you. Did their pronunciation and their awkward, halting use of words insult you? Did you laugh out loud and call them a fool for trying? Or did you instead listen patiently and try to understand and communicate with them, and think that it’s great that they speak more than one language? This last scenario is what will certainly happen when you try too. I guarantee, in almost every situation, you will be glad you tried to speak a language.
As for native speakers who simply reply back to us in English, it happens to the best of us. There are simple ways around this issue, though, which I discuss in detail in chapter 5. A bit more confidence and persistence will ensure that the conversation stays in the right language.
14. I’ll Always Have an Accent
Way too much emphasis is put on speaking with no accent, as if being a spy is the ultimate point of your language project rather than communicating with other human beings. Having a little accent can be quite charming. Believe me, it doesn’t hinder communication.
Even if you may always have an accent, this is no reason not to pour everything into this project so that you can be a genuinely fluent speaker. Speaking perfectly is impossible, because even native speakers make mistakes. And native speakers have interesting and varied accents too!
Accent reduction is possible, though, and something we’ll discuss later.
15. My Friends and Family Won’t Support Me
When I decided to get serious with my Spanish, after almost six months of speaking only English while in the country, I thought my friends would instantly support me. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Some of my Spanish friends, it turns out, had been using me to get free English practice. Some of my English-speaking friends fluent in Spanish didn’t have the patience to help me and would only speak back to me in English rather than supporting my efforts to practise my Spanish.
Many of us will go through this difficulty. Our friends or family may not offer any support – language-related or moral – to help us with this huge challenge.
There is no simple one-size-fits-all solution to this problem. But the first thing you should do is to tell your friends and family that you are passionate about learning a new language and you genuinely need their support. They might not appreciate how seriously dedicated you are to learning the language. They might have thought it was just a silly hobby. Showing them how serious you are might convince them to give you the support you need.
And if you still have trouble getting the support you need from those closest to you, remember there are huge communities of people online and in your city who will share in your passion for language-learning – even native speakers themselves – so that you can always find support, even if it isn’t from the friends you already have.
16. Everybody Speaks English
If you’re a tourist hopping between five-star hotels or sticking to the well-beaten tourist trail in particular countries, you can indeed get by without learning the local language. Expensive restaurants provide an English translation of their menus, overpriced tour guides herd you along the same route many millions of other foreigners have travelled, while talking excellent English, and when you board your flight home, at least one of the airline attendants will speak wonderful English to you, no matter where you are flying from.
This is incredibly limiting, though. The prominence of English prevents you from getting off the beaten track and chatting with people who don’t cater to tourists.
While I was travelling through China, for instance, many of the staff at the hotels didn’t speak English. An expression of concern always appeared on their faces as I, a white foreigner, approached them – until, of course, I started speaking Mandarin.
Even if you can get by in other countries speaking only English, you’ll also miss out on a lot. Learning the local language opens up so many doors, from finding cheap local rates to hanging out with people who have never had the chance to speak to foreigners. It allows you to see the true culture of a local place, rather than a chocolate-box packaged version. And it’s all thanks to not speaking English.