subject: How To Meet The Linguistic Challenges Of Working Abroad [print this page] Native English-speakers are increasingly exhorted to learn foreign languages to play a more effective role in globalization. However, we tend not to learn foreign languages for three very valid reasons.
Many other peoples in the world are not just exhorted to learn English, they are required to do so. Thus, you can find English virtually everywhere you go.
The grammar of most other languages, certainly most European languages, is much more complex than English. Thus, native anglophones often view language learning as a daunting, and even demoralising task.
Most native anglophones, especially in North America, live in almost exclusively English-speaking environments. We virtually never hear other languages spoken live, on radio or television, and virtually never see them written in newspapers, magazines, books, etc. This is hardly motivating.
The fact is, the world conspires against anglophones learning other languages. So if you speak only English, you have no reason to be ashamed.
Nevertheless, whilst these factors explain why so few anglophones know other languages, they are not valid excuses for not learning them when the situation calls for it. For example, you are sent to open or manage a foreign subsidiary, you are assigned to negotiate or maintain working relationships with a foreign partner, etc.
How should you go about learning a foreign language with the least pain and most gain? In my personal experience, the secret lies in changing your mindset.
Some Useful Psychology
Learning to speak a language is the easiest part of the job.
I know you may have thought that speaking would be the most difficult part. However, I would argue that most people, with minimal effort, can learn to speak a foreign language reasonably well really quite quickly.
Writing a language is very a different story. French, for example, is one of the most complex written languages in the world. In fact, written French and spoken French are almost two separate languages. Therefore, if your objective is to speak, concentrate on the spoken language and leave the written language to come along later.
I know this may sound like heresy, because the majority of language courses try to teach both at the same time, particularly in public schools. They spend a demoralizing amount of time making you write a language; although this is the last thing you really need to know.
When I say that speaking is the easiest part of the job, I am not advocating "total immersion". Few of us have the luxury of spending a week, or preferably several weeks, totally concentrating on learning a language. What I am advocating is doing things in the proper psychological order.
Most people can master enough of the fundamentals to be able to speak, and to understand what is being said to them, within only 2 - 3 months. The trick is to recognize that the major obstacle to acquiring a foreign language is not grammar. Its vocabulary.
If you dont know the verb you need, it doesnt matter that you know how to conjugate verbs; you still cannot speak. If you dont know the adjective you need, it doesnt matter that you know how to decline adjectives; you still cannot speak. And so on.
Therefore in my opinion, the most effective order for learning a language would be:
Basic grammar
Basic vocabulary
Speaking the language
This is the time to consider a language school or a personal tutor. With the foundation of what you will have already learned by yourself, you will certainly progress more easily and rapidly than if you had leapt into formal language instruction at the very beginning.
Writing the language
You will almost certainly never need to do much writing. And what you do write will certainly need to be revised and corrected by a native speaker.
Since vocabulary is crucial, then the largely unrecognized key to mastering another language is: Learn to read it.
There is nothing like being able to sit down with a newspaper, magazine, or even a novel in the language to reinforce both grammar and vocabulary. The more you read, the more your vocabulary will expand. And the more some of the languages apparently bizarre ways of doing things will become increasingly familiar.
For best results, the novel should contain a maximum of dialogue and a minimum of description. With dialogue, you can frequently anticipate and interpret what the characters are saying; with description you havent a clue.
The purpose of reading in the language is to learn vocabulary automatically. Constantly looking up unfamiliar words will break your reading rhythm and damage your enjoyment. Consequently, keep use of a dictionary to an absolute minimum.
It isnt heresy to say this, just common sense.
In fiction, very few words are crucial for understanding the story line. Do you really need to know precisely what a room looks like? Its enough to know that is large and elegantly furnished. Do you really need to know precisely what a landscape looks like? It is enough to know that it is isolated and windy.
Moreover, words repeat. You will certainly see an unfamiliar word many more times throughout the text. At least one of those times, the way it is used will tell you exactly what it means, with no effort at all.
As a rule of thumb, if you are using a dictionary more than 2 - 3 times a page, you are probably being too fastidious. Stop it. Just read and enjoy!
Once you arrive on site where the language is spoken, all the grammar and vocabulary you have stored up in this way will rapidly show its worth.
Different languages have different ways of doing things, some of which will seem quite absurd. It is useless to keep moaning: "Why do they speak in this ridiculous way when it is so much easier to do it the way we do it in English?"
Whatever it is you find so annoying: Dont fight it; accept it.
This is how children learn languages. They dont constantly question grammatical structures, because it would just never occur to them to do so. And we all know how much more easily and rapidly "naive" children learn languages than do we "sophisticated" adults!
In French, and many other languages, you simply use the infinitive: Marcher est bon pour les poumons. You can do the same thing in English: To walk is good for the lungs. However, the preferred form is: Walking is good for the lungs. To anglophone ears, "walking" is more dynamic than "to walk", i.e. it seems to give a better picture of what is happening.
This may very well be the case - in English. But there is no such distinction in French. So once again, there is no way of making a mistake!
Admittedly, learning another language is never easy; it takes time, energy and dedication. However, as we have seen, there are three powerful strategies you can use to make the job considerably easier.
Focus on the simplicities of the other language rather than on its complexities.
Channel your energies according to the best psychological order:
Basic grammar
Basic vocabulary
Speaking the language
Writing the language
Concentrate on reading the language to comfortably and automatically master its grammar and vocabulary
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