I would like to contribute this piece to the Polyglot Project.
Primary school
I experienced my first failure when I was in my second class and I should have decided if I wanted to go to the language school or not. I did not know, but my parents wanted me to study there. There was something like an interview and each pupil should have said what he or she knew in any foreign languages. I don’t remember so much from the interview, but I do remember that I failed and that certainly influenced my life. Before that, I used to go to the class with a lot of friends and with my cousin; however they were successful in the interview so they went to study to the language school from a new school year. I have been told by my family members
many times that my cousin studied at language school and I studied only in normal school - I was an average pupil. He was better than me in everything, not only with school. I was always the worse one. My parents wanted me to have good results at school, so I really tried hard but it was difficult for me. I was always different from other pupils who seemed to enjoy their lives doing what they wanted much more than I did. In my 4th class, I had to pick a language which I wanted to study. I picked German, or maybe my parents did, but never mind. So I was studying German in my primary school from my 4th year there up to 9th year, so it was for 6 years. When I look back to evaluate my German knowledge in final year at primary school, it was not too bad. I was quite confident, because I had been studying hard. Unfortunately, I had too many teachers in such a short time – maybe four teachers for the six years, which was not so good, because we always started over again because each new teacher was not sure what we knew.
High School
After my primary school I wanted to study Management in machining industry in high school. I studied two languages there, German and English. German was my first foreign language and I used to have it three times a week. English was was only once a week (one lesson took 45 minutes). Fortunately, for both langauges we had the same teachers for the whole time, so there was not any problem with starting again and again as before. I started learning English there, and it was my first experience
with that language. As a total beginner who did not know anything about English, we were issued a book printed at Cambridge University that was completely in English. It was quite a difficult subject, but for me no subject had ever been difficult enough that I would have given it up without trying my best. I mean, a lot of students did not make any affort while learning subjects in primary school and high school. Some of them were satisfied with their grades, even though they had bad grades (maybe their parents did not care so much). So that's why even languages were not such
difficult subjects for me—I worked so hard on them. In the beginning of the final year, I had to decide what subjects I wanted to do for my final exam at high school. I could have picked a language or maths. A lot of students picked a language – either German or English. For me, I picked maths. I really enjoyed maths at high school. To me it was playing with numbers and variables--it was a subject that I enjoyed most of all. I decided to go to a technical university and to have fun with the similar subjects based on that.
So that's why I focused on maths even more in my final year and I even picked maths as my final exam, and from that point on I did not care about languages at all, because learning languages was not really enjoyable for me. Why not? I was used to memorizing vocabulary for tests and preparing for conversations for a specific topic, but I must say that I did not listen to anything at home, I did not speak German with anyone, anywhere —it was only used in at high school. So, let's calculate: 5 minutes per each lesson, 3 lessons a week, four weeks a month, 10 months a year, for four
years – so the result is 2400 minutes, which is 40 hours. Forty hours speaking for four years with my Czech speaking schoolmates did make me fluent at all. How could it? When I randomly heard native German speakers on radio and television, I did not understand them. And that was after 6 years of studying at my primary school and 4 years at my high school! So after 10 years of studying German “properly,“ according to SCHOOL METHODS, I had made very little progress fro such a hardworking student. Thinking about it now, it's obvious that I did not really care about my results in German at the time.
University
Studying at university was quite difficult. All of a sudden, I lived alone, in a
different city, without my parents,and I had to look after myself. It was an interesting experience. There were some problems because of my attitude towards to my studies. But in two years, I realised what I wanted. I really wanted to get a master‘s degree, so I overcame my distaste for studying and focused on it properly. So I started studying as much as I used to at primary school and high school. I did not care about how difficult the exams were, or what everyone said about each exam. I started studying hard, and even though I did not enjoy it at all, I saw my future, and I saw myself with a good job because of having earned a good degree. I hate
failure, and when I did not pass an exam, I always became depressed. Getting my master’s degree was very stressful for me. In the university, I had to have one language, so I picked German, because It was most familiar to me—more so than English, of which I had really only a basic knowledge. I studied German for 1 year at the university, I passed my exam with the best result I could have gotten and that was the last time I was took any interest in it, because although I did well I still was not able really understand anything or to express myself properly. My good results were meaningless.
I was more and more interested in English. I mean, when I wanted to find something…anything about mechanical engineering, I had to find an English article. Everything was in English. Next thing was that I always watched American television series and I really wanted to watch them in English and to understand them. Some of my friends were able to speak either German or English (or at least to understand) and I was always amazed that somebody could have been fluent in a different language. In my third year at university, I started thinking about my future. I knew that I would have to know a foreign language in order to get a good job, but I did not speak any other languages at that time. I was not interested in German-- I was into English, so I found native-speaking private English tutors.
It was really difficult to understand them and after spending many hours with the tutors, I improved only a little bit . I did not know what I had been doing incorrectly,or how I should have learnt a language. Nobody had taught me that before. I was always used to memorising grammar rules and vocabulary, which has not helped me at all. But I did not give up and went on paying teachers, because I still had a hope. I must say that I am very very strong-minded person and for me it was a
personal failure that I did not know any other language by the age of 26, and it was then that I decided to go to do a Ph. D. I knew that if you do a Ph. D you can go abroad and study there. It was a really great opportunity for me. I thought that it was my last chance to become fluent in English, and I really did not know what else to do.
I could have gone abroad in my second year in my Ph. D ., so during the first year I chose an English program at my university in order to prepare myself for my second year in England. In the courses there were professors, docents and Ph. D. students from my faculty. The courses were divided according to levels and I was placed in the pre-intermediate level. I did not really enjoy the classes. I was stressed because I did not want to appear stupid in front of all clever people there. The methods were
based on working with textbooks—the same principle as always before. At the end of the year, I did not pass the final test. If you pass the test, your English level is considered pre-intermediate and you can go on to the next level – the intermediate level. Since I did not pass the test, I was still considered an elementary student. Since most of the other people in the course passed the test, needless to say it was not good for my selfconfidence. Thinking about it, the language courses were not so good for me, because at primary school and high school, I only wanted to pass tests in order to continue advancing to the next level, but because of my test results (and
the added stress of wanting to get into a good university) and my mediocre grades, I was now really stressed and did not enjoy it at all.
England
As I described before, I finished my language course with an elementary level and with that level I arrived in England in September 2009. It was very difficult for me, because I did not understand most of what I heard and I had difficulty expressing myself in most situations, even easy ones. After a month of living in England, I improved my English only a little bit through speaking with people. At that time, I realised what it was that I wanted and that I would do my best in order to do it. I realised shortly after arriving in England that my goal had always been learning languages, especially English, and in acheiving that goal I had always been a failure.
Usually, when I had wanted to achieve a goal, I generally accomplished it. So why was I not able to master English? I started to research articles in English on the Internet. I have read many articles about people around the world who struggle with learning languages just myself . I found a method called the “Effortless English”
system which is based on deep listening. The founder of the method is American and I could understand him very clearly even with my low level of English. I became motivated. I bought his courses – the original “Effortless English” system and “Real English,” and I listened to the recordings all the time, as he recommended--10 to 15 hours a day! My listening comprehension began getting better and better. I understood natives more and more and I got better at expressing myself. It was amazing. I kept
going on listening to those courses over and over again. One of the recordings was about a guy who can speak 11 languages who has his own system for learning languages--the “LingQ” system. I looked for the web page on the internet and registered there. This system was something completely new for me. I must mention that I have come across many language systems on the internet and that I haven’t found one which comes close to being this good. At lingQ, I could do everything :
• I can pick a lesson which I want to listen to or read,
• I can have a conversation with a tutor I pick (American, British or
Canadian),
• I can submit my writing for correction.
After a month of using the LingQ system I realised that a lot of things I had previously been taught about learning foreign languages was not at all suited to my style of learning. I have found, for example, that:
a. I must learn languages independently, otherwise my mind tends to
wander; and
b. I can't be driven by anyone, and I can't work on a lesson which I don’t like. I must always pick something that I enjoy.
At LingQ I could do that. I started reading and listening to podcasts about learning methods and about different approaches. I read a book, “The Linguist - A Personal Guide to Language Learning” written by the founder of the LingQ system, Steve Kaufmann. I did not think about learning for its own sake; I read and I really enjoyed it. It was interesting to read a language learning adventure by someone who was so successful at it in his own life. I have improved a lot by both reading and listening to that book.
I must mention that I had never liked reading--maybe because of school. I have read a lot of uninteresting books at school in order to pass my exams, and as a consequence I did not like reading. I always became tired after reading a couple of pages, or even paragraphs. At lingQ, there is a unique system which is very useful. I was always afraid of reading texts and books in English because there were so many words that I did not know. By using LingQ, in a few months I was able to read advanced articles , and now I can read almost everything in English. It is really an amazing and very powerful tool. I have become addicted to this system!
I have heard many times that language learning is about community, so I started reading forums at LingQ in order to get to know what was new and what type of members were on LingQ. I was amazed at finding out about people there who can speak many languages and who learn more than one language at once. The articles on forums are so interesting and have helped me a lot as I embarked on my own program of learning languages. I wanted to participate in these forums more and more when I realised the
power of LingQ's language community. This has also helped me a lot to improve my English, since I really wanted to understand what people were talking about there. Personally, I think that it is beneficial when learning languages to participate in forums and read articles in and about your target language.
I was so influenced by members of LingQ that I started brushing up my German, which was not good at all when I took it up again. I had forgotten almost everything I had previously learned, but now, armed with LingQ, I know that I can master German. I don’t care about making an effort in order to do it. I have always made an effort anyway so it is nothing new for me. But now, with the right method, the method that works for me, I know I can learn as many languages as I want.
I did not mention my previous experience with Spanish. It happened a long time ago during my childhood, but it's a really nice story. I wanted to learn Spanish because of a singer/actress from Uruguay. I learnt her songs and sang them out loud. I was in love with her. I studied Spanish for three months back then but I remember it even more than German- which I later studied for 11 years! A few weeks ago I listened to her songs again and I still really like them. I wanted to understand them properly, so I found the texts of her songs on the Internet, put them into LingQ and started learning it by using the unique lingQ method for linking each word. Then I picked a couple of Spanish lessons at LingQ , and it was not too bad. I was still able to understand a lot even though I learnt Spanish for only 3 months 15 years ago! I now
have another goal of mastering Spanish. I have really a strong passion for
it.
I have even tried to learn a bit Polish, since it is quite similar to Czech. I have read a couple of articles written by a Polish member and I understood them . It would not take a long time to learn it. Maybe when it will be added in LingQ in the future, I will learn it properly since I have now become a big language lover.
Conclusion:
Why was I not successful in learning languages before?
I did not really enjoy the process of learning before. I always had just a short-term goal (usually an exam)– so even though I made an effort in order to reach those goals, it was not enough to master the language. It was only just enough to fulfil the requirements in order to graduate. When I found how enjoyable the learning process itself could become, that's when I started to see the best results. I wanted to get to know people from all over the whole world and learn about different cultures. I finally learned to love the language learning process. I did not complain anymore about how difficult the language was or how it was different from my native
language.
-> I did not enjoy learning languages at all.
When you don’t enjoy doing something, you do it only when you have to (especially in my case). In the past I learnt languages for tests and so on, and I spent a minimum amount of time studying languages at home, as I always felt that there were better things to do. What little time I spent with leaning languages was occupied with memorising words taken from boring textbooks which held little interest for me.
-> I used to use methods which were not effective for me and texts which were not interesting for me.
As I mentioned before, when you don’t enjoy doing something, you do it only when you have to and you do only what is necessary. I did not listen to the languages which I was studying at all. I did not have any podcasts like I do nowadays. I did not even know how powerful a tool they can be. I bought a couple of CD’s which were together with textbooks, but they were really boring.
-> I did not listen to languages which I learnt.
I was thinking about the difficulty of the languages I studied, and not how much fun learning them could be. I had this attitude for many years.
-> I had a bad attitude and a different belief than I do at the moment.
Everything I have experienced so far with learning languages has been very interesting, and I am glad that I finally found my own way to learn languages. There is not one universal method to learning languages. Everyone must find their own way. I have met people who know many languages and who actually like learning grammar rules (why not…as long as it works for them!). But everyone can benefit from being an independent learner. An independent learner learning grammar rules is certainly much
more successful than that learner would be just memorizing grammar rules
at school.
RULES FOR SUCCESSFUL LEARNING:
• If you want to be a successful learner, be an independent learner
• As they say, “Practice makes perfect.” Without practice, you won't be
successful in learning languages.
• Listening is the key; you should listen to your target language as
much as possible .
• In order to increase your vocabulary, you must read. Reading is so
powerful.
• When you feel confident in listening and you know a lot of words, you
should speak as much as possible.
• You should enjoy learning your target language; if you don't enjoy it it
won't stick.
If you are successful in one language, you will want to learn more
languages ;)
