How to become fluent in a foreign language
Tuesday, 27th April 2010
French and Russian teacher at Cactus, Irina, shares her thoughts on how to achieve fluency in these foreign languages.
Learning a new language is a challenging and exciting task in a world becoming more and more global. Cactus gives both teachers and students the opportunity to blend intercultural exchange with the flexibility needed in our hectic every day life.
What’s the best way of becoming fluent in a foreign language? First of all, ‘the early bird catches the worm’ as they say, so the earlier you start, the better. Family environment and practising a language with parents is the first important stage of language learning.
My interest in languages started thanks to my father, who spoke German to me when I was five years old. This openness towards the world and new horizons in childhood often leads to linguistic achievements later on.
I also agree with people who consider that there is certain predisposition for languages, just as with music, sports, visual arts etc. It takes a certain sensitivity, Sprachgefühl, for words, sounds, syntax structures.
I also read a lot when I was young, which helps acquire vocabulary and cultural references. That’s how I started learning English and French on my own initiative. I was fascinated by French expressions in English and decided to learn French more profoundly. This interest grew into quite a professional activity when I applied for studies in a French university.
The total immersion method of language learning has its positive and negative sides, but we definitely learn quickly when we are under pressure and have no other choice but to embrace life in a new language. I still have very positive memories of French families who helped me discover France’s various every day life aspects, la cuisine francaise, les vacances, l’art de la conversation, as well as my university teachers and fellow students who were always ready to share the most precious treasures such as a new idiom, verb, some refined adjective.
I would definitely advise those who would like to become fluent in French to experience France first-hand, its generous climate, food, lifestyle, people. If you go to France spend as much time as possible communicating with people who are happy to share their language with you. It takes an effort at the beginning but it is also a lot of fun. You should start at home, though, attending a course adapted to your level or learn with a private tutor. Read, listen, write, translate, speak ! These are the keywords of language fans that apply to any language.
Russian has a reputation as a difficult language, since there is the barrier of alphabet and a certain geographical distance from Western Europe, as well as differences in lifestyle and mentality. But it still remains a truly European language with an important vocabulary strata coming from French and English. Once you become familiar with the alphabet and can decipher Cyrillic characters in quite a fluent way it is time to switch to hard work on grammar structures such as declinations (Russian has a set of six cases for nouns) and conjugations (prepare for a battle with perfective and imperfective aspects). Don’t be surprised if you cannot find any articles in this Slavic language.
It is still worth the effort though, as it is spoken by millions of people across Eurasia and also in the EU since the Baltic States have joined the new union. Russian in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is basically the same as in Russia grammar-wise but the native speakers from Russia might come across unknown local cultural references that have created new lexical units standing for political, cultural, religious phenomena of the Baltic region.
Learning a language is truly an exciting adventure as long as learners stay positive, open-minded, motivated and know how to apply problem solving techniques. Fall in love with a person who speaks the language you are learning and you will see that very soon you will become fluent !
Teaching languages is an exciting and honourable task that helps improve communication between people belonging to different cultures, helps fight stereotyping and clichés, finally, making the world a better place. This is the most important aspect of the teaching mission that needs to be multiplied by hours of hard work on grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and conversation practice. Never give up learning a language ! Just five to ten new words a day might make you fluent in one year’s time.
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Tags: english, french, german, culture, learning, france, languages, language, cactus, course, language learning
Posted by Laura Harrison under Attitudes to Language Learning,
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