I have been a student of new languages for life.
I learned English since kindergarten and have been able to communicate it when I turned 13 (but before that not a single English word was uttered from my lips) and became fluent when I became 16 without having to live abroad.
I learned French when I was 15 because I had to. Thai school system had only 2 choices -whether you want to be a scientist or a linguist. I chose the letter. In year 1998, you were only to choose French or German (but today Mandarin and Japanese are added to the curriculum choices). I chose French because there were more people studying (I prefered going with the mainstream. And who was going to know that I am going to date a German). I learned it for 3 years.
When I was in the university, I decided to major in Mandarin because my boyfriend was a Taiwanese. I later switched to English after a year because we broke up.
I learned German once a week for a year when I started working.
I learned Italian because I live in Lugano when people here speak no other language but l' italiano. (notice the tense? oh, I'm taking a break.)
I sound like Goddess of linguistics. Truthfully, I am the failure. I speak none of the above, except for English. I am glad at least I can speak the 'global' language. But it's not likely the greatest feeling in the world when you live in Europe and surrounded by those who speak Italian and hang out with German speaking friends. English is obsolete.
Damn obsolete.
Now I try to re-gain the motivation to learn the language(s)
seriously. By doing that, I need to dig the root problems and factors that affect the ability to communicate a new language. Note that this is a very subjective piece of analysis based on personal experience. The factors are as followed:-
Age:To me, it seems to be the cells in the young brain that absorb new learnings, including the new languages. Notice young kids whose parents speak different languages (e.g. A Swedish dad and a Japanese mom), it seems effortless for them to speak the two languages without being confused. As for me, it could not be so easier to remember the English vocabularies and imitate an American pronounciation when I was 13. But since I could not turn back the clock, let's move on to the next factor.
Learning method:
I remember that learning from the class does not work
for me. It's very difficult to find the right teacher who has time and devotion to customize the lesson to students' needs. My teacher was the Hollywood movies and poppy love song' lyrics. However, they are only the complement to the old thick ugly English grammar books. Later, I learned it from friends who speak the language. Combining studying in the class, learning from everyday life's songs & movies, practicing with your friends by writing and speaking, I guess that was why I was fluent.
Though I don't like studying in the class so much, there's an exception for my very first German classes at Goethe. Their teachers, though Thai, emphasized class participation very much. They encouraged us to speak in the class, reading materials and exercises were relevant to what we were studying. Online forum motivated us to practice writing and so on. I didn't have to struggle so much when I studied by myself at home because I learned so much in the class. I guess it was one of the best class I've ever had.
Exposure & consistency:I have to say, though I am not a successful student, French and Mandarin class were really rich with different experiences to encourage me to speak and try to understand the language. For the 3 years in learning French, I studied at least 2 hours a day and 6 days a week, with 4 Thai teachers who spoke French all the time, 2 French teachers who rarely explained in English and 5 different French teachers at l'Alliance Francaise. There was one time, I promised you this is true, I understood almost 100% of what the teacher said. But that never happened again when I had to give priority to other subjects when I was studying to enter to the university.
Again for Mandarin, I have to say I only studied for one year, but I learned it immensely. Considering the advantage that it is a close language to Thai (in terms of grammar and some vocabularies), it benefited more when I studied 4 hours for 5 days a week and one exam per week (negative incentive). As a result, I dreamt in Mandarin. And still today, Alice, my Chinese friend told me I have good accent in Mandarin. :-)
Seriously, I don't want to repeat the same path and regret that once in my life I was in Europe but oops I don't speak their language. I have to be more determined with my language goals (German and Italian). I live in the town where everyone speaks Italian; I have German boyfriend and friends who speak German; every sign reads both German and Italian (also French). I should start working hard....nowwww..!
