How To Overcome Obstacles When Learning A Language

 

They often say that "we are our worst critics".


Have you heard this before? I am sure that you have. This saying has alot of truth to it although many might not think so. I think that it definitely has its place also when a person wants to learn a language.

Some of the very road blocks or obstacles that learners face sometimes are created by themselves. These obstacles in the learning process are what often hold individuals back from progressing with a language. However, in my opinion, I think obstacles should be viewed as a real challenge. Now what I want you to do now is to consider a few common critical statements, that when used by people often serve as an obstacle in accomplishing their goals.

1) I can't learn because I'm too old...
2) I don't have enough time to learn a language...
3) I don't have the brains to remember things like you do..
4) I will never be able to learn (X language)...because it's too hard..it's too difficult..or even
5) People say that...(riding off of other comments or opinions people make)

These statements represent just a few of the many excuses and exaggerations that many use to get out of learning a language. They even use variations of these to get out learning other things in life. It's just like I mentioned before, we are our worst critics. We can talk can sometimes talk ourselves out something even before giving it try.

How can you overcome these obstacles?

1) Be determined from the beginning that you will succeed at your new venture of learning a language. 
One of the best ways to stay focused and determined is by having goals. Goals keep you on schedule and also motivated not to quit.




2) Avoid making excuses.
My definition of an "excuse" is a "premeditated escape from the truth". We often think hard about something in question and "create" or "invent" a reason to convince ourselves that we can't do something in life. This is simply a quick way to avoid the real truth - that we can achieve it, we just haven't discovered the way yet.

Think about it, if you want to do something, let's say raise money for a vacation or a special event. Although you might not initially count with the resources (possible excuse), you always find a way. Why? Because of its importance to you. This drives you to find a way to raise the money to fulfill that need or goal. The same is for learning a language. Don't make excuses. Focus on your goal and its benefits. Find other methods that will help you to reach your goal.

3) Tell others about your goal to learn a language.
When you tell friends and others, they will likely help you along the way by encouraging you. They also want to know your progress. Natives feel very proud to help others learn their language so why not tell some that you are learning. 

These are just a few things from the very beginning to help you overcome and address certain obstacles that might be presented in the language learning process. By applying these you will learn a language with time and never allow anything nor anybody deter you from achieving your goal!

Tips For Learning A Language: Building Relationships

Here is a simple tip to help you to learn a language. This is a basic tip that applies to any language that you would like to learn, but many forget to apply it in the learning process. The tip is to take time to build relationships.

How will building relationships help you to learn a language? Well, it's quite simple. The more relationships you with natives of different backgrounds and cultures that speak your targeted language will help you to become more immersed in the language. There is something that natives of ANY language can teach you that you will never learn on your own nor from any textbook.

When you build relationships with natives you will be exposed to other ways of expressing the same thing in that language. For example, let's say that you would like to learn French. You can learn from French-speaking natives from Haiti, Senegal, Benin, Canada or even France just name to name a few countries. You can learn various ways to express different things as natives would in their respective countries. The benefit to this is that it will help you to widen out, expand your horizons, and become more proficient in the language. This is also beneficial in the event that later you would like to serve perhaps as an interpreter for the language. Now that have taken the time to learn and study French not only from some "textbook" or "one specific group" of native speakers, you will now be able to translate various idiomatic expressions that are used because you are familiar with them.

This is what really helps to make a person more proficient with a language. It's being exposed to every thing BREATHES speaking the language you want to learn. It's like learning to cook. You learn one way in the beginning. Then you learn from others that can teach other ways to prepare the same dish with a few additional ingredients. By taking the time to build relationships helps to achieve your very objective - to learn a language!

Simple Tips for Learning Languages & Studying Tips

Let's start out by mentioning that it is never good to assume that grammer in your targeted language will be governed by the sames grammatical rules that are followed in the English language. Big mistake! Why? Most languages have their own pronouns and genders attached to nouns along with rules for adjectives that don't exist in the English language. Sometimes you might even notice that the way some words are read are not in the same direction as in English. It could be from back to front as in Hebrew and similar languages.

Another thing to keep present is that with language learning most books are not laid out in a way that promotes quick speaking. Most textbooks focus more on learning vocabulary and expressions. I prefer books that give you vocabulary and expressions, then prompt you to speak to pronounce and practice them with others. One really good book that does this is "Creole Made Easy" by Wally R. Turnbull. This is a great paperback that gets you speaking instantly with the basics of the Haitian Creole language versus procrastinating years with the idea of having to learn everything before trying to speak what you know. You can conduct a search online or even your local bookstores for books that are conducive to quick speaking.

Another great tip for language learning are radio stations. Many times you can streamline radio stations online in your targeted language. This helps to hear the language and fine-tune your ear although the language might not be spoken locally where you live. Another benefit to using these radio stations is that they are free and don't cost you anything. I think that music is one the best ways to learn a language. It helps you to learn and understand more about culture, beliefs, the people, and of course you can learn some slang. Slang is good to learn because most natives use it and it is also something that you will never learn in any textbook. So listening to music in your targeted language is a great way to help you embrace the language and understand how to pronounce words correctly just as natives do.

Reading is also another important element to learning a language. Speaking is good, however reading is also key. One way that you help improve your reading skills is to start with perhaps some kids books. Now wait a minute! Don't frown when you hear "kid's books"! I think that books for kids always use vocabulary that is easy to understand. It's simple and that is what you need in the beginning stages of language learning. Kids learn to express themselves quickly in simple words and always get their point across. You can too. Then later as you go on progressing you can get perhaps some more weightier novels. This way you can get deeper into the language.