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When I was in school, teachers told us how important it was to learn a new language (mainly English), my teachers used to talk about how doors would open and job opportunities would come if we learned to speak a language other than Spanish. In a few words this was the way they motivated us to acquire a second language: [Spanish = money] but [Spanish + another language = more money]<o:p></o:p>
Although maybe my teachers were right, that didn’t seem to be a great motivation to learn to speak English or French when I was 11 years old, this is how learning a language became an obligation during my teenage years, instead of an opportunity to know and interact with the world and its different cultures.<o:p></o:p>
Because I didn’t feel that learning a language went beyond the mere reason of obtaining "better job opportunities", I lost interest and I concentrated on fulfilling what it was necessary to not to fail English at school. I don’t know if my teachers really didn’t realize that acquiring a language went beyond "getting a better job position" or if it mattered to them but the mere fact of transmitting theory to our brains from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., because I don’t remember ANY teacher in my school years who told me how much fun, interesting and enriching it is to be able to communicate through a language that is not yours.<o:p></o:p>
It took some time before I decided to improve my English level, and I did it by looking at what really interested me in the English-speaking culture, what attracted me ... I started with music, that was my first approach, I wanted to know what the lyrics of those artists I adored where about (The Cure, Placebo, Arctic Monkeys, The White Stripes, among many others ...), while listening to their songs I learned some pronunciation and with a dictionary in one hand and a copy of their lyrics in the other, I translated all the songs that I liked and hummed ... that's how I not only knew what those songs were saying, but I acquired vocabulary, I learned some grammar and of course I learned bad words (useful in certain occasions by the way). Behind that musical interest, there was also the interest to know what those artists thought about the world, how they lived, what they ate, why they wrote what they wrote, almost like a stalker ... but not the type of stalker who sends messages or strange objects or make unexpected visits , my interests went a little further ... they were linguistic interests. I read almost every article that was on the internet and I watched almost every interview on YouTube, I even bought a couple "Behind the Scenes type of” DVDs, all this not only helped me develop different communication skills (listening, vocabulary, grammar, reading) but I also did it through something I liked, that interested me, that MOTIVATED ME.<o:p></o:p>
Traveling, meeting people, making friends, learning about traditions and different ways of seeing the world are some of the things that motivate me today to learn languages, but I'll talk about that next time. My advice then for those who learn a new language is: Do not learn it because it is an obligation or a requirement of your school, university, parents or teachers, because you will soon lose interest in it, instead, try to find that motivation, that "something" that takes you every day to go one step higher in the linguistic pyramid. It does not matter if we do not speak perfectly, even we natives make mistakes in our own language, the important thing is to be passionate about the language and to be able of communicate our ideas coherently (not perfect) and that is achieved if we obsess about that language whatever the motivation is to learn it.<o:p></o:p>
Now I want to ask you… What is your motivation to take classes in that language that you learn?<o:p></o:p>
I will love reading your answers!<o:p></o:p>
Thanks for your time<o:p></o:p>
Cecilia x<o:p></o:p>
[Continue]
In my current company, every things are in English. So I get more chance to read in English, but I still have less chance to speak English. From last year I decided to improve my English. So I bought lessons in an English training center near my workplace. For the entrance testing, I could understand most of the teachers and I could read much, but I could not speak a lot, also my written English was bad. So my beginning level was A2. One year and a half past, now my English level is B2. I can speak more fluently than before. Yesterday I got a chance to take a job interview in English. I want to improve my English to a higher level C1 in a short time. so everyday I study English hard.
So my motivation in English learning is USEFUL. I find the English is useful in my life, on the other side, if my English is good enough, I can get more opportunities.
For me, learning a language is fun. The learning process itself is half the fun already. You get to explore a culture through language; the language reflects history, ideas, concepts, customs, etc. It gives a much better insight into a country or culture than any guide ever could. And sometimes it changes your way of thinking. You also get to talk to people you would have never had the chance to talk to otherwise.
great post!
For me learning a new language opens up a whole new world and it's a lot of fun.
Similar to you, when I was younger I wasn't motivated very much to learn a new language because
it was something I was forced to do in school (I even asked my Spanish teacher one time "why do I have to
learn Spanish? why can't everyone in the world just learn English?") ha!
I remembered that many years ago I wanted to learn English and I had some English lessons in some training centers, also I bought many English textbooks. But I gave up in the end, because I just could understand some audios which very formal. I disappeared.
When I got my first job after I graduated, we sold some products of an America company. It was the first time that I use English in real life. But I had no chance to speak English, I just read the related products instructions, manuals, and some install guides in English. My English listening was very bad, my spoken English is very very bad. I remembered two things in my work about using English. The first one was that I needed to gave a presentation in a conference in Shanghai which there were about 200 audiences. Actually it was not my presentation. It was another British guy's presentation. Because he couldn't got there on time, so he sent me the related materials and asked me to give the presentation instead of him. I had no choice, because in my tiny company(12 people in total) my English was better than other engineers. Because my poor English, I finished this presentation in 15 minutes which planed about 1 hour. I could not ask any questions, I could felt how disappointed related audience were. And the second one was that I had to work with an American engineer to fix a very important equipment for one of our customers. We worked together for 4 days. during those four days, we spoke less because my spoken English was really bad. Sometimes I needed to write down related on the paper. It was a very terrible experience. At that time, I decided to learn English because I thought English is USEFUL.
Then I got my second job, I worked with several India colleagues for six months. At the beginning, I could not talk with them. In the end, I could speak with them, we could understand each other. But sometimes we still needed to write down related on the paper.
