How to learn a foreign language without the pain Part 2

The same goes for skill development: if you learn to Express your thoughts in a foreign language, do not attempt to master complex, high vocabulary and intricate grammatical constructions. Model the skill gradually: first, learn to formulate simple sentences, and then gradually complicate the grammar and move on to more complicated topics will require knowledge of specialized vocabulary. You don’t expect a two year old child that he speaks of run-on sentences in the style of Leo Tolstoy? When you learn a foreign language from scratch, you are in a similar situation, so should not demand too much of yourself.

Hint: if you still want to learn to speak Spanish like Cervantes — read Cervantes. In the original, of course. Please don’t forget to specify which words and structures are already radically out of date, and will be expressed as an investigator from the novel by John “Allred”, who spoke in Polish, the language of the Bible: “Verily, for the supper was good will among men thou the sand of the sea?”.

Don’t become a fish: something about the speech intent

Before moving on to tips on how to facilitate the process of language learning is one very important point. When you speak a language, whether native or foreign — you always have a certain speech intention, the meaning that you put in the phrase and in accordance with which selected words.

Imagine that you are on the plane during lunch offer a selection of meat and fish. What would you say? “I’m a fish” — implying that you want to eat a fish dish. To translate this sentence in any foreign language, you need to know not how to say “I”, “be” and “fish”, and how to Express in the target language the desire to eat a certain dish (and the name of this dish).

Otherwise you risk to tell the flight attendant that in the future are going to be a fish that could put him in a light stupor.

In addition to sustainable structures in other languages there are idioms and homonyms, and they can confuse the situation even more. Hence the rule: when you learn a new language, not translate the words separately and their meaning. If you train yourself to look for the translation is not of words but of meanings, your speech will become much more natural and easier for other people. By the way, learning to distinguish the meanings and intentions of language in the phrases, you’ll automatically improve communication skills in the native language: if you are used to keep track of what you want to say and what you want to say to the interlocutor, to speak to you it will be much easier. This is especially valuable in conflict situations.

So you have decided why you need a language, and chose a textbook and methodology — but even with all this you still have to sit down and start practicing, because the language itself is not learned. Textbooks same grammar, can induce in the reader a Holy awe impressive lists of rules and exceptions, diagrams, tables and confusing explanations. How to storm the fortress?

Focus on the syntax

Remember the famous phrase about “Gokuu cusku”: not one word in it is impossible to understand, but the General meaning is when you read this — because the phrase is governed by the laws of the language. If you learn to analyze the structure of sentences of the target language, you can easily translate phrases, even those that do not know one word: relationships between words you are clear, and will only learn of them.

It is helpful to look at Wikipedia and see for languages what type is your: analytical (in which grammatical relationships among words are transmitted mostly through prepositions and fixed word order) or synthetic (in which grammatical meaning of a word depends on its shape). This theoretical training will help you to understand the grammar of the language.

Identify the patterns of language you are working with

Structural linguists have proven that any language has an internal system, structure — so why not use them? If you are too lazy to learn the rules, wrap laziness to their advantage: structure your material and try to understand the system. Anyone who has ever studied French, remembers the terrible table of the sequence of tenses. Not to be mistaken with the grammar in the transmission of indirect speech, along with the times of the “plan date” I had to learn all the time “plan last time,” Yes, and not to forget how they relate to each other.

However, if you look at each of these times carefully, you may find that the time plan of the elapsed time is the same time the plan of the present, with only one shared change.

Will be able to see and remember this pattern — you cannot cram education times plan last time and the match table, so that errors in the sequence of tenses in this case, you will do much less. Of course, even with this simplification, you still have to learn the basic tenses and understand this pattern — but it’s still better than cramming all the material. So find a system and try to organize their knowledge.