7 Common Misconceptions About Language Learning
by Steve Kaufmann

There are over 6,000 languages in the world. Some are more important than others, not better or more advanced, just more important. Why? Because they are spoken by more people, in more countries. That does not mean that Finnish is not important to the Finns, and Maori is not important to the Maoris. It is just that these languages are not so important to the rest of us.

 

On the other hand, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by over one billion people. Chinese origin words account for 60% of Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese vocabulary. Knowing Chinese will help you learn these languages too. It helped me. Chinese culture has influenced the world for thousands of years with its art, philosophy, technology, food, medicine and performing arts. Today China’s economy is booming. Chinese seems well worth learning.

 

Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese are essentially dialects of the same language. If you learn one, you can learn the others. I did. If you learn Spanish, you open the door to the culture, music, history and possible business dealings with 800 million people in 60 countries, including the US and Canada.

 

If you get ambitious you could try Russian, as I have been doing for the last two years. Once you have Russian you can probably communicate with other Slav speakers.

 

But hold it here! Before getting carried away, let’s look at the present situation of language teaching. According to one Canadian survey, after 12 years of daily French classes, only one high school graduate out of 147 (0.68%) achieved “intermediate” proficiency. Another survey of immigrants learning English in the US showed that “classroom instructional hours” had little impact on progress.

 

If we cannot teach our own official languages in North America, what hope is there for other languages like Chinese or Spanish, let alone Russian, Arabic or Hindi?
As a speaker of 10 languages I know the benefits of speaking more than one language. We simply have to change the way we go about teaching languages. To start with we need to dispel seven common misconceptions about language learning.

1. Language learning is difficult
It is only difficult to learn a language if you don’t want to. Learning a language takes time, but is not difficult. You mostly need to listen and read. Believe me, it is that simple. I have done it many times. Soon you feel the satisfaction of understanding another language. Before you know it you start speaking. It is the way languages are usually taught that makes language learning hard to like.

 

2. You have to have a gift for learning languages
No you don’t. Anyone who wants to, can learn. In Sweden and Holland most people speak more than one language. They can’t just all be gifted at languages. Foreign athletes in North America usually learn to speak English faster than people in more formal learning environments. In language learning it is attitude, not aptitude, that determines success.

 

3. You have to live where the language is spoken
Some immigrants to North America never learn to speak more than halting English. Yet we meet people in other countries who speak flawless English. In 1968, I learned to speak Mandarin fluently while living in Hong Kong, where few people spoke it. With the Internet, language content is available to anyone with a computer, and you can download it to your iPod and listen. Where you live is not an obstacle.

 

4. Only children can learn to speak another language well
Recent brain research has demonstrated that our brains remain plastic well into old age. Adults who lose their eyesight have to learn a new language, braille, for example. Adults have a wide vocabulary in their own language and are better language learners than children. I have learned 4 languages since the age of 55. Adults only need the child’s willingness to experiment and desire to communicate, without the fear of ridicule.

 

5. To learn a language you need formal classroom instruction
This is the crux of the problem. Classrooms may be economical to run and a great place to meet others. They have the weight of history and tradition behind them. Unfortunately, a classroom is an inefficient place to learn a language. The more students in the class, the more inefficient it is. Languages cannot be taught, they can only be learned. Theoretical grammatical explanations are hard to understand, hard to remember, and even harder to use. Drills and exercises are annoying to most people. A majority of school kids graduate unable to communicate in languages that they study for 10 or more years.

 

6. You need to speak in order to learn (and I have nobody to speak to)
Speaking the language is usually the goal of language learning, but speaking can wait. Once you have acquired the language, you will find the opportunity to speak. When you are learning the language it is more important to listen. Trying to just pick up a few “handy” phrases to say is likely to just get you into trouble. If you meet a native speaker, you will inevitably spend most of your time listening unless you already know the language. You do not need to speak in order to learn, you need to learn in order to speak.

 

7. I would love to learn but I don’t have the time
How about the time you spend waiting in line, commuting, doing things around the house, going for a walk? Why not use that time to listen to a language on your iPod? Once you get started, even 10 or 15 minutes a day will soon grow to 30 minutes a day, or one hour. If you believe you will achieve significant results, and if you enjoy doing it, as I do, you will find the time.

 

 

外語學習中的7種常見誤區

簡介
大部分人在學習外語的過程中都會存在著一些錯誤的想法，這篇文章舉出了其中最常見的7種誤區。

在這個地球上大約有著超過6000種不同的語言。其中的一些語言往往要比其他的語言更為重要，這并不是因為它們是一種更高級的語言。為什么？因為相比其他的語言，這些語言有著更廣泛的使用人群。當然，這并不是說芬蘭語對芬蘭人來說不重要、毛利語對毛利人來說不重要。只是因為這些語言對于地球上其他的人們來說，它們并不是那么重要。

另一方面來說，地球上有超過10億人在使用中國普通話。在日語、韓語和越南語的詞匯中，有60%都是來自于漢語。因此學習漢語對于你學習這幾種語言也是有幫助的。中國文化通過藝術、哲學、科技、食物、醫學已經影響整個世界幾千年了。當今的中國經濟正在持續發展，這樣看起來漢語是很值得我們去學習的一門外語。

從本質上來說，西班牙語、法語、意大利語和葡萄牙語屬于同一語系。如果你學會了其中的一種，那么剩下的對你來說也很簡單。至少對我來說是這樣子。學習西班牙語等于你打開了一扇門，在門的另一面是分布在60個不同國家中的8億西班牙語使用者，其中包括美國和加拿大。

如果你很有抱負的話你可以試著學習下俄語，正如我過去的兩年中所做的一樣。當你學會了俄語之后，也許可以與其他的使用斯拉夫語言的人們交流。

但是這里要打斷一下！在你進入狀態之前，讓我們先來看看目前的語言教學形勢。一個加拿大人的調查表明，在經歷了12年的日常法語課程教學之后，一所高中里只有147人（約0.68%）能夠達到“中等”水平。另一個有關美國外來移民學習英語的調查表明，“課堂教學”對語言學習的提高并沒有太大作用。

如果我們連自己的官方語言教學都搞不好的話，那么對于別的語言來說希望在哪里？譬如漢語或者西班牙語，更別提俄語、阿拉伯語或者印度語了。

作為一名掌握了10種語言的語言學習者，我很清楚學會更多的語言所帶來的好處。但是我們應該改變一下目前的語言教學方式。開始之前我們需要先驅除有關語言學習的7種常見誤區。

誤區1、學習外語是一件很困難的事情
只有當你不想去學的時候它才會成為一件困難的事情。學習外語并不困難，它只是需要時間。大部分時間你需要做的是聽和讀。相信我，就是這么簡單。我已經這樣做了很多次。不久之后你就會因為理解了另一種語言而感到滿足。

誤區2、你必須要有學習外語的天賦
不。不需要天賦。只要你想學，你就沒問題。在瑞典和荷蘭，大部分人都至少掌握了2種語言。他們不可能每個人都具有語言天賦吧？與那些在常規學習環境下學習英語的人們相比，從國外來到北美的運動員學習英語的速度更快。態度決定一切，在語言學習中也是如此。

誤區3、你必須生活在使用那種語言的地方
我們可以看到，一些來到北美的移民在居住很久之后依然說著蹩腳的英語，而在另一些非英語國家卻有人說著流利的英語。1968年，我在香港學會了一口標準的普通話，雖然在那里很少有人講普通話。通過互聯網你可以下載到很多聽力資源進行練習。不管你住在哪里，這都不會成為你學習語言的障礙。

誤區4、只有兒童才能很好的掌握一門外語
最近一個有關大腦的研究表明，即使在我們年紀很大的時候，我們的大腦依然保持著它的可塑性。譬如，那些在成年后失去視力的人們必須要學習一種新的語言：盲文。與兒童相比，成年人有著更大詞匯量，他們是更好的語言學習者。在我55歲之后我又掌握了4門外語。在外語學習中，成年人所需要的是兒童那種對溝通的渴望，自發的嘗試，以及對嘲笑的免疫。

誤區5、你需要通過正規的課堂教學來學習一門外語
這個就是問題的關鍵。在課堂上你可以輕裝上陣，這里也是一個認識別人的好地方。不幸的是，課堂教學并不是一種有效的語言學習方式。教室里的學生越多，學習的效率越低。語言不是被“教”會的，它們只能被“學“會。語法的種種理論讓人難以理解，難以記憶，甚至難以使用。絕大多數人都不會喜歡那些課后練習題。有很大一部分學生，學習一種語言10年或者更久的時間，但是當他們畢業之后卻無法使用這種語言與人溝通交流。

誤區6、學習外語你必須要注重口語練習（而我卻是一個人，沒有人陪我練習口語）
說外語通常外語學習的主要目的，但是這個目標可以先緩緩。一旦你學會了這門語言，你就會很容易找到說這門語言的機會。當你學習一門外語的時候，”聽“的重要性要更高一些。如果你遇到一個說這門外語的人，很有可能在你們的交流過程中你的大部分時間都是在”聽“，除非你已經掌握了這門外語。你沒有必要為了學外語而去”說“外語，你應該是為了更好的”說“而去學外語。

誤區7、我很想去學一門外語但是我沒有時間
你花費在排隊、上下班、散步上的時間有多少？為什么不在這些時間里聽聽你IPOD里的聽力練習。一旦你開始，從最初的每天10分鐘或者15分鐘，很快就會變成每天30分鐘，或者1個小時。如果你相信你會得到一些有意義的收獲，或者你能從中得到快樂，就像我一樣，那么你肯定能擠出時間來學習外語。

本文來自：逍遙右腦記憶 /waiyu/yingyuxuexi/13302.html

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