{"id":1291,"date":"2013-07-29T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T13:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=1291"},"modified":"2020-10-02T14:06:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T18:06:11","slug":"just-ask-alex-july-2013-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2013\/07\/29\/just-ask-alex-july-2013-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Ask Alex: July 2013 Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"alexbud\"<\/a>If you’re new here, let us introduce Alex Rawlings, a 21-year-old language enthusiast, who has taught himself more languages than we can count on our fingers! Impressed? You should visit his blog<\/a>! Want to know more? You should keep visiting our blog, too! On the last Monday of every month, Alex will be answering YOUR language learning questions. Have a question for Alex? Tweet us @TLILanguages<\/a> or connect with us on Facebook<\/a> using #JustAskAlex.<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/youtu.be\/iDKwSK83A7g<\/a><\/p>\n

1. What are the first things that you should learn in a language?<\/b><\/p>\n

Languages are about confidence, and that couldn\u2019t be more true than in the early stages. The best way to feel confident about your new language is to start being able to use what you\u2019re learning as quickly as possible. To do that, you need to learn all of the important things first.<\/p>\n

Your first port of call with your new language is the \u201cidle chit-chat\u201d stage. This is the \u2018pleases\u2019, the \u2018thank yous\u2019, the \u2018good mornings\u2019 and the \u2018how are yous?\u2019 These basic courtesy phrases will show people that you\u2019re trying to learn their language and start some conversations. Because they\u2019re quite easy you might even pick up some compliments and some easy confidence points.<\/p>\n

Having mastered that, you\u2019ll want to move on. Before you plunge in too deep, though, let\u2019s concentrate on mastering the basics first<\/strong>. Your next focus should be on being able to describe your surroundings and the things that you can see: a town, a house, the rooms of a house, things in nature, transport, and other things that you can see. There are two reasons why this is useful: firstly, learning a lot of vocabulary will give you a chance to practise your pronunciation and ear, and secondly you\u2019ll be able to walk to the shops or work or wherever and look around you and practise what you\u2019ve learnt by trying to remember what everything is. This is a great opportunity to make use of your dead time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re going to want to start joining everything up that you\u2019ve learnt, and at this point you should take a look at verbs. Even if you only learn ten verbs like \u2018to be\u2019, \u2018to want\u2019, \u2018to go\u2019, \u2018to like\u2019, \u2018to speak\u2019, \u2018to understand\u2019, \u2018to learn\u2019, \u2018to eat\u2019, \u2018to drink\u2019, and \u2018to live\u2019, think how many sentences you can already form just with those when you combine them with the vocabulary you\u2019ve already learnt!<\/p>\n

To finally feel like you have a strong grounding in your new language, complement everything you\u2019ve learnt with lots of \u2018connecting\u2019 words<\/strong>. These are aren\u2019t necessarily<\/i> essential for making yourself understood, but they often add important information and will help join up the sentences that you already can form. This includes being able to tell the time, numbers, colours, phrases that express your opinion, directions, and so on until you find yourself being able to quite confidently hold basic conversations.<\/p>\n

Once you have enough vocabulary to form a variety of (interesting) sentences, it\u2019s time to focus more on grammar: different tenses, conditional phrases, and all of that fun stuff. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. What should you do when you really can\u2019t travel to your target country?<\/b><\/p>\n

I am a big advocate of visiting the country where your new language is spoken, but that doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s impossible to learn a language without doing so. To be honest the \u2018language pilgrimage\u2019 trip is not just educational, it\u2019s really just a nice reward for all the hard work you\u2019ve put in.<\/p>\n

Your ability to travel should not impose limits on your language learning prospects. If your target country is just too far away or you really can\u2019t make the trip, don\u2019t despair! You can<\/i> learn a language just as well at home.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was learning Afrikaans in London there was no prospect of me ever visiting South Africa. The tickets were just far too expensive. I knew this, but I didn\u2019t let it put me off. Instead I sought immersion in other ways, and through the internet this was entirely possible.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019d get home I\u2019d find a South African radio station<\/strong> online and put it on. I listened every day. I used to love the traffic reports from Johannesburg and the heated debates about domestic issues that you\u2019d hear nothing about in the UK. I found Afrikaans music bands<\/strong> that I liked and I listened to them everywhere I went. When one eventually came to London on a tour, I got tickets and knew all of the words, had the best night of my life chatting with all the ex-pats!<\/p>\n

I started reading Afrikaans news websites, downloading podcasts<\/strong>, and eventually ordering Afrikaans novels<\/strong> through the internet. It was hard to read them at first, but eventually the new vocabulary that I\u2019d been writing up started reoccurring, and everything became easier to read. I made my way through quite a lot of different authors, all of which helped me sustain the virtual South African cultural bubble that I\u2019d created around myself.<\/p>\n

Even though I was on the other side of the world, I made sure that I was living and breathing the language day in day out. I started thinking in it, and because I was working so much on it I even began dreaming in Afrikaans regularly!<\/p>\n

I know that this paid off because although I\u2019d never set foot in the southern hemisphere, everything became so much easier to understand, such as the news reports and books that I was reading and the conversations that I was listening to on the radio. When I\u2019d meet a native speaker I was so eager to talk that I\u2019d keep them for hours, trying to pursue any topic possible!<\/p>\n

Several years later when by some miracle I got the chance to go to South Africa, Afrikaans was already one of my strongest languages, and I noticed that the moment that I stepped off the plane.<\/p>\n

So that goes to show: just with patience, consistence and determination, nothing is impossible!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

If you’re new here, let us introduce Alex Rawlings, a 21-year-old language enthusiast, who has taught himself more languages than we can count on our fingers! Impressed? You should visit his blog! Want to know more? You should keep visiting our blog, too! On the last Monday of every month, Alex will be answering YOUR…<\/p>\n

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