Priorities in learning a language

I’ve met several students who really wanted to learn English in the quickest possible way. Many decided to take many hours of study every week and/or buy a self-study grammar and go over it surprisingly fast.

I'm not saying that you shouldn’t do many hours a week. If you have the availability and are willing to invest, I’d say go for it. Not saying to avoid buying grammar books either. Not at all, I find them very useful, in fact.

But think with me. Why do languages exist? For communication, right? So, do you think you will learn a language if you don’t use it for its purpose. You might, but I’d say the process could be rather long and unpleasant.

Then I’ll give some examples of extraordinary people who speak English as a second language without ever setting foot in a language school. And I will not be mentioning those whose parents spoke English at home or who studied in bilingual schools.

The first one is the wife of a friend of mine. He’s American, she’s Braziliam, and they met playing online games. She says that at first she was a bit self-conscious about playing online with other people because the language barrier was a big problem. But eventually she tried groups in which she could type to other members. This gave her enough time to put everything on Google Translator before submitting her lines. English then became a natural necessity, she knew she had to make it to the groups in which she would have to speak and listen to her co-gamers. She gave it a shot, and felt the pain of not understanding a thing. Speeding things up, she now speaks perfect English, and many take her for a native.

The second person I’ll mention is a former student of mine. When he came to take his placement test, I put him at an advanced level. I was quite surprised when he told me that he had learnt English through programming computer softwares and watching TV. The association of sounds and spelling complemented each other as good sources of language.

I can even mention myself. I did attend a language school, and for a very long time (8 to 9 years, I’d say). But I can’t remember doing my homework or studying that much. In fact, my interest was to get the pronunciation right so that I could sing some songs while playing the guitar. Getting to understand what I was saying was the next natural need.

So what do all these examples have in common? All these people, including myself, had an objective that was more important than the language itself. The need was to use and communicate in English. To one, communicating in an online game was a priority, whereas to the second, software programming language came before English. To me, music came first, and English was the way to get there.

So, if you want to learn fast, here’s my suggestion: think about something you love. Your favourite free time activity might do the job. If its the cinema, maybe start reading or trying to write reviews. If its music, why not learning how to play an instrument? How about Reading? And what about, technology, painting or Cooking? (yes, cooking! What about trying some international recipes?)