How do you determine what the best way to learn a language (or languages) is?
Two obvious approaches:
- See how the best language learners are doing it, and take a leaf out of their book (a leaf that you save).
- See how the worst language learners are doing, take a leaf out of their book . . . and do the opposite (i.e. you throw that leaf away).
I've been exposed to both ways in Japan these last few years.
I've been researching into the techniques that polyglots use, so as to apply them myself to learning Japanese. I've observed how the Japanese try to learn English (and realized that I share some of their less than ideal whatchamacallits).
They study seriously. They waste a lot of energy. They do it formally. They analyze ad infinitum (until the cows come home). They try never to make mistakes. They use shaming techniques on each other. Their humbleness becomes negative self-talk. All sorts of things like this are going on here.
And as I say, I share some of those tendencies. I may have picked them up from them to some extent, but I had many of them before I came here, to be fair.
So anyway, if things aren't going all that well, try doing the opposite. You may well end up in a better place!
To me, it's a no-brainer to enjoy what you do when you learn a new language. I mean, why not? What's the point of the exercise, if you don't?
If you enjoy the activities you've chosen, you'll spend more time on them, thereby getting more of the exposure to the language that you need in order to internalize it.
Also, being in a positive state of mind is conducive to learning.
Try it, you'll like it!
80% of learning an language is psychology. Only 20% is to do with method. (Where exactly I got that, I forget, but I believe it.)
That figure is the average. For some cultures--Japanese, for example--the psychological issue is even greater. And it depends on the individual as well. Me, for example. I've had a HUGE psychological language-learning issue with Japanese.
I won't go into that here.
But you know yourself the issue that you had with French. You felt it sounded feminine. You and your mates called it a "poofy" language. To a lesser extent you had an issue with Latin too. You'd heard it was a 'dead' language. And you were frustrated by the fact that even after learning its grammar rules it would behave like a 'proper' subject such as Maths or Science.
Bringing such an attitude to any language guarantees that you'll never learn it.
Listen, you first try your hand at Japanese (in 1993) you'll make very little progress for 20 years. Then, when you finally change your attitude, you'll streak ahead and feel comfortable with it in a year or two. Simple as that.
Moral of the story: Deal with your attitude first!
