How to learn English? In modern society, such a question has long been not uncommon. More and more people in the world are beginning to realize that it becomes more difficult to achieve success in many areas of life without knowing at least one foreign language.
And then one day we wake up with the thought: “That's it! Solved! I will perfectly learn English (German, Spanish, Chinese) and then ... ” By the way, in fact, what will happen then?
1. Talk about goals.
Experts generally do not recommend starting the study if you have not yet decided on the purpose. Very often, as a person who speaks several foreign languages, they turn to me for advice. I always try to find out why the interlocutor needs this kind of knowledge. And if I get something unintelligible in response, like: “Well, that's cool! Friends at the parties will be envious! ”, And I want to answer:“ Do not waste time and channel your energy in some other direction! ”.
Do you know how the right question sounds? Well, for example, like this: “How do I learn English? “I really need it, because I have been trying to change jobs for so long, and this is such an advantage!” It is immediately clear that a person has a specific goal and motivation, which means that he is already approaching success.
Although the goals can, of course, be very diverse. I will give some examples:
- Travel or any tourist trip. I think that you already know that in order to get acquainted with a particular country there are few stories of professional guides and the types of windows of the sightseeing bus. A place will reveal its secrets to you only if you find the courage to immerse yourself in it yourself. But in this case, as a rule, the question arises of how to quickly learn English, because we rarely plan trips in advance, at best, we will have a couple of months to study (between booking a tour and buying a plane ticket).
- Studying at one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
- Girls often dream of marriage with a foreigner.
- Athletes tend to play in a foreign, say, football club.
- Work abroad or in an international company in your country.
2. How to learn English: modern teaching technologies. Should they be trusted?
Of course, I cannot but support modern technologies in the field of education. It seems to me that video and audio recordings, interactive lessons and online seminars will surely help those who want to find the answer to the question of how to learn English on their own. They will help at least virtually immerse themselves in a foreign environment, from the very beginning they will teach you to pronounce words correctly and not to forget about intonation.
But at the same time, remember, if some kind of manual promises that you will be fluent in English (German, French, Chinese) in a month, or even in two weeks, do not believe it, most likely, you just want to impose the next set waste paper. Why? Let's figure it out together. Do you agree that knowledge of one or several languages gives a person a beneficial advantage? If in practice it was possible to gain knowledge in any two weeks, already every third person on the planet would speak 10-15 languages. Well, that would be great: two weeks into one language, 52 weeks in a year, divide 52 into 2, 26 out. That is, in a year you can master 26 languages ???
Unfortunately, such a plan does not happen. Even a child who lives and constantly rotates in his native language environment needs 7-10 years to speak beautifully and thoroughly argue his point of view.
Just do not be scared! This process will take you much less time, because adults acquire new knowledge consciously and meaningfully. If you work with full dedication, then after a year you can bring your vocabulary closer to the average Englishman.
3. How to learn English: where to start?
Contrary to popular belief, I would recommend starting from the very beginning, namely from the alphabet.
Now, it seems, I even hear the grunts of some readers about the fact that how much you can learn this alphabet, we passed it at school. Gone ... By, I would say, gone ... Perhaps some can now pull themselves up and do not hesitate to list in turn all the letters of the English alphabet from A to Z. But if you dig deeper, how many are able to say how each is called separately taken letter? Difficult? That's it! But without knowing this, you can’t even dictate your own name when booking a hotel room. But I will not even talk about reading abbreviations and using the dictionary.
Have you mastered the alphabet? Now we can move on to reading and elementary grammar. And so gradually, day after day, you will begin to realize that the very question of how to learn English is becoming less and less relevant. Why? Yes, because a new one will appear: “So ... Since I already know English, what other language should I choose to study?”