I know this Polish girl personally.  Let’s call her Pani “A”. She use to brag that she learned Polish (a very hard language to learn) when she moved to Poland.  She speaks Polish like a native Polish speaker.  Many people were impressed and she just ate it all up. She said she had a gift for languages. And would tell people she has a gift to learn languages, and again people were impressed and told others. And so another ridiculous language story was circulated.

I dug into the story of this language learning genius

Like so many language learning stories there is more to the story.  Pani “A” story was  born in Poland and lived here until she was eight years old. She was a native Polish language speaker.  She moved to Australia where she spoke English then as a teenager returned to Poland and this is where she claimed she learned Polish.  When I found out about this fact she said, but oh I forgot Polish in the seven years in Australia and had to relearn it.  That being so, by age eight you are a native speaker and it is more just refreshing the grammar, not learning a language like an American who never herd the language.

The Scottish language learning genius

I meet an Irish guy who claimed he picked up Polish because he was a language genius. Girls where so impressed. I was not. I looked into the story.  This language genius neglected to say he has a Phd in Russian,a Slavic language scholar for twelve years and lived in Poland for six years. To me that is not just picking up Polish because it was in the air. His Polish was ok not perfect mind you.

French Polish actress telling language stories?

No confirmation on this language learning story but I was watching Polish TV this weekend and I saw the actress Elisabeth Duda (from France), she claimed she learned Polish in Poland as a foreigner.  Well her mother was Polish and she speaks such a perfect Polish I find it hard to believe she did not have reasonable exposure to Polish before she came to Poland.

African language genuis story

I meet an African guy who spoke Polish claiming his only exposure was a Polish girl friend for 3 months while living in France.  I do not believe it.  That means he would have to had learned about 300 words a day, locked in his brain,with grammar and pronunciation in 90 days based his level of Polish.  No way.  It was another ridiculous language learning story. His Polish was good but he did not seem like ‘the sharpest tool in the shed’ and to learn that much Polish so fast and so well, I think it was more of a story.

Boston language genius story

Meet a ‘girl genius‘ in Boston who said she picked up English but her friend who liked me confessed the girl in question studied English for 10 years to the University level, she did not just pick it up.  The girl in question said that does not count as her teachers were just ok.  But still 10 years of study must count towards something. What a ridiculous language story.

Before you believe a story about a lagnauge genius

Remember extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof

So before you believe that people can just pick up a language because it is ‘in the air’ or they are a genius, do not. Its just a story.  I have taught and learned languages for years, thousands of students and never meet a language genius, only people who study with passion and those who complain.  So consider these language learning stories and know learning a language is blood sweat and tears.

What style of teacher is better for learning a language? In my opinion as a teacher. Someone who is full of energy and demonstrates is 100% better than a teacher who explains.  Americans make good foreign language teachers as they tend to be very animated and dynamic.  I think this is much more important than  knowing grammar rules. I think most people want to get off the ground when trying to learn a language.  The additional grammar work they can do themselves at home. Motivation is a huge part of language learning and if the teacher is doing back flips for you, this is the best. I have been in classes where teachers are low energy and monotone, boring. You tell your self maybe they are good teachers.  No they are not. Teaching to be effective must make some emotional and motivational impact on the student. The downside of teaching with energy is it wipes out the teacher. So if you do learn a language at a school, try not to think, which school to pick, as many of the language schools share teachers, as trying to find the right teacher for you.

Beyond a doubt the hardest thing about learning a language is over coming the belief that you are not good with languages, self doubt and laziness.  I guess this would all come under the category of motivation.  I think learning a language is about how motivated you are. I taught countless people languages. I think that it is 90% motivation maybe 10 % talent.  Really. I do not even know if its 10% talent, maybe less but no more.  I see how people are. I see what they do during the week between lessons. I see their excuses and complaints.  I see how they prepare and do not prepare.  The people who are into it, learn their target language, the people who are not do not learn. Learning a language is blood, sweat and tears.  The hardest thing about learning a language is motivation. If you find you why in life the how is easy.

Hands down systematic language learning is more effective than unsystematic or chaotic learning.  Picking a language up because it is ‘in the air’, in theory can happen. However, my personal observation teaching students over the years is this, my students that study languages with a system succed.  In fact, perhaps the characteristic that correlates with their success in learning their target foreign language, is not their ‘gift’ for languages, but rather how systematic and motivated they are in learning a language. That does not mean you have to enroll in a language school, on the contrary I think the self motivated systematic people do the better than people who go to school. The people who go to schools, often enroll because they are under the cognitive illusion that the school will give them all the motivation and structure they need for success, all they have to do is pay and they will come our speaking their target lagnuage.  I think the people who develop a plan, and work mostly on their own will do the best. They can learn say, 20 words a day, every day and a little grammar for example. Or for more advanced students they will read every day 10 pages of a book in a foreign language. These people will do much better than those who take an unsystematic approach to language learning or looking for external motivation.  I am developing my mp3 program and software with this in mind. For people who want to work on their own in a systematic way to learn a language. This is the way I learned Polish.

My parents spoke Polish and Ukrainian. However, they did not teach these languages to me when I grew up. In the 1960s it was not in vogue to be anything than a WASP. I and my parents have often regretted the fact that I did not simply acquire these languages when I was a child, I would have been a native speaker in 3 languages and could have bridged this to other languages.

Years latter I learned Polish and my next language will be Ukrainian of course. Even though I do not speak Polish perfectly without an accent like a native, I speak Polish. Further I moved to Poland.

Now here is the advantage of learning a language instead of having it bestowed upon you as a child (my children I hope will be bilingual). When I moved to Poland I was special. I was a foreigner who spoke Polish. If I was a native people would treat me just like they treat any other guy on the street.
But now a complete American (I am very American), experienced what I would call the hollywood effect. Think of how women in the States or UK often go for some exotic guy with an accent. Accents can be sexy. And apparently in Polish I have one.

I was a star. I foreigner who did not simply assume the whole world spoke English. Of course it was hard to learn the language, but it was good for my brain.

What if you are already bilingual? No problem, learn a third or forth language.

A friend of mine from Ukraine came to the USA. He paid $1000 dollars for a three month course to learn English. He also got unlimited access to mp3 recordings of English in a language lab. He studied for 12 hours a day for 3 months. After 3 months he spoke English. But he was in that language lab for 12 hours a day listening to mp3 recordings. Now, he has the rest of his life ahead of him to use and enjoy English. 3 months is not a lot of time to learn a language. I am not saying you have this discipline to learn a language in 3 months, but it can be done if you want to learn a language.

One of my students started to learn English about five months ago. Now he speaks English fairly well. How did you learn this language? He studied several hours a day, listing to mp3s and doing exercises in his book. Each one three times. He copied over page by page dialogues by hand. I know this is hard, but in a few months he learned a language.

There are three types of expats when it comes to language learning. I have been an expat for years in Poland, as well as traveling quite a bit. My observation is based on real people regarding expats and language learning. How fast expats learn a language is connected to their level of self confidence and aggressiveness in immersing themselves. However, also the amount of time they need to secure an income in their new country.

Three types of expats language learners

1. Those who do not care about income at first and simply aggressively have a ‘take no prisoners’ or ‘fight to the last man’ attitude towards learning their target language. They play to win. All or nothing. They make this a priority and do not care how stupid they sound or feel. Further they do not engage in thinking such as ‘I am not smart enough’. They do not allow themselves to get shackled by the bonds of excessive thought. They just cram and learn and they treat it more like fun. Usually I see these language learners do it on their own rather than in schools. They talk with mostly or only people in their target language. They generally have a 100% success rate regardless of their intelligence.

2. Those who are smart and ambiguous but because of economics or they are on some other mission in their expat country, therefore, they can not focus on learning the language seriously. My friends who are in this group start to learn the language seriously after about 4 years. They say, ‘I think its about time’. They have had many stop and go language attempts but after about 4 years they begin to learn. These guys have about 50% success rate.

3. Those who lake self confidence. They tell themselves they do not have the gift of language. They are often the smartest of all but for some reason think they are not great with languages. They compare themselves to a person someone knew who picked up Chinese, Russian and Arabic in three months, without studying. Let me tell you I have taught languages for years and I have never meet a true prodigy, only people that work. This last group has a 100% failure rate as they do not feel good about immersing themselves in their target language. Even after taking classes they simply say they can not learn a language. The truth is nobody can teach you a language. You have to do it yourself with a I am going to win attitude.

With language learning, attitude determines altitude.

About a year ago I created a self hypnotic mp3 for myself.  It was more an mp3 full of positive affirmations and motivational statements that encouraged me to study and use my target foreign language I was trying to learn.  Affirmations such as ‘you try to think in a foreign language whenever possible”. The result, whether placebo or not was the postive language learning affirmations seemed to work.

But I got the idea in my mind that somehow I was cheating or rather it was too new agey for me as I am a concrete skeptical thinker. So I stopped. I am curious what other people thing of the idea of creating a motivational mp3 or even self hypnotic mp3 to help motivate you learn a language. Is it too ‘out there’? Did it work for only me or do others have exprience with self hypnosis postive affirmations? Is it something that I should include in my language learning program or will it discredit the seriousness of my efforts? This is more a question than a answer about self hypnosis and positive affirmations for language learning.

From visualization to motivation

Motivation is really the most important key to learn a language.  Techniques are great but I think if you do not have the desire to study you will not learn a language.  How do you bridge the gap between wanting and doing?  Visualization. 

1 minute visualization for language success

If you visualize even for 1 or 2 minutes in the morning it can change everything when it comes to learning a language.  I think the problem why people do not use visualization is they are told they need to do it 20 minutes, two times a day in a relaxed place, with perhaps complicated breathing techniques.  I disagree 100%

How to visualizes for motivation

Close your eyes and imagine yourself studying. See it happening, see yourself happy, while studying. If you are into time, see a time goal achieved. For example a clock’s hands move 1 hour around. If you do this visualization you are making a commitment a mental promise that you will try to study. You could see yourself studying with some inspirational person standing next to you. You could see yourself speaking the language to a beautiful girl. Anything that will put the image of your studying or using the language in your head.

Complex visualization for motivation

You can make your visualization for motivation complex and long if you are into it. You can make it elaborate and perhaps its more effective. But the reality is no one I know has time for this unless you are independently wealthy. So try a 1 minute visualization for language motivation.