Thursday 28 January 2016

The Challenges of Learning A Language


What Motivates You to Learn a Language? 


Most of the time, it is to communicate with someone. Nothing better than seeing a heartfelt smile when you greet someone in their mother tongue or say thank you. What about answering a question or helping them with something. 

Usually, you start off with ‘caveman’ language like the essentials such as ‘drink’, ‘eat’ or ‘bathroom’. Now you can write a whole sentence in Google translate and see the equivalent in a foreign tongue. But the best thing is to start identifying the individual words and even memorising short sentences.

For me, I had the same book but in two different languages and I painstakingly looked up all the words I didn’t know. I read out the sentences and highlighted important words I recognised so that I could get the point across. It was a weekly effort and it required hours of preparation beforehand. I guess you could call it a labour of love.

Lack of Progress


I’ve got lazy. I don’t prepare beforehand, I don’t look up the words I don’t know and I rarely identify the main points before discussing the article with someone. I mentally beat myself for not progressing.

When I do prepare, I feel confident, I feel enthusiastic, I feel free to answer and comment. New words just pop into my mind magically! Fluent sentences just flow out of my mouth like the lyrics of a song. I can’t help but feel enthusiastic! I’ve got to get back to a better learning routine. I have to make the time. A regular, predictable routine is better than leaving it to chance. 

Working on Cultivating Good Habits


Certainly, having a love for what you do, motivates you to keep hacking away at the proverbial stone until an almost perfect 'David' by Michelangelo is formed out of it. Keep hacking away at it each day and several times a day. The same routine that farmers work at, writers write, mothers mother their children, the construction worker on a house. 





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