Staying Motivated

I have had students who became discouraged in learning English because of the grammar and idioms. What should you do when you find learning a language to be a challenge? The answer is... Do what you love! There is something for everyone. 

There are many people who learn a language by picking up a hobby.  Whether that is through reading comic books, listening to music, watching movies or collecting action figures, then it's what works for you.  There are lots of great things that one can do to make learning stimulating, interesting and fun! When you learn in a way that works for you, then grammar, idioms and fixed English expressions will fall into place. 

Learning a New Language Part 2

Learning a new language maybe challenging depending on what your strengths and weaknesses are.  However, one can learn a language effectively by immersing themselves in the language.  What I mean by that is to think in the language that you are learning.  Try to adopt the mentality of the language you are learning.  Therefore, experience, learn and 'try' to understand the culture. Watching movies, reading books and magazines, listening to the music and living among the people are some great ways to achieve that.

Also try to examine the differences in sentence structure from your own. As yourself how it differs and try to understand the speech patterns.  The history of the people or the country is always essential to understanding idioms and/or expressions, and reading is a great way to do so.

Pronunciation is also important when learning to think in a language or in the language you are learning.  This can be improved by speaking more with native speakers or by watching movies and listening to the music in that language. 

Technology has shrunk the world. Now there are no excuses for not being able to practice your language or meeting new people, specifically in the new language you are learning.  You can join clubs online and practice your English or that new language with native speakers.