England
As I described before, I finished my language course with an elementary level and with that level I arrived in England in September 2009. It was very difficult for me, because I did not understand most of what I heard and I had difficulty expressing myself in most situations, even easy ones. After a month of living in England, I improved my English only a little bit through speaking with people. At that time, I realised what it was that I wanted and that I would do my best in order to do it. I realised shortly after arriving in England that my goal had always been learning languages, especially English, and in acheiving that goal I had always been a failure.
Usually, when I had wanted to achieve a goal, I generally accomplished it. So why was I not able to master English? I started to research articles in English on the Internet. I have read many articles about people around the world who struggle with learning languages just myself . I found a method called the “Effortless English”
system which is based on deep listening. The founder of the method is American and I could understand him very clearly even with my low level of English. I became motivated. I bought his courses – the original “Effortless English” system and “Real English,” and I listened to the recordings all the time, as he recommended--10 to 15 hours a day! My listening comprehension began getting better and better. I understood natives more and more and I got better at expressing myself. It was amazing. I kept
going on listening to those courses over and over again. One of the recordings was about a guy who can speak 11 languages who has his own system for learning languages--the “LingQ” system. I looked for the web page on the internet and registered there. This system was something completely new for me. I must mention that I have come across many language systems on the internet and that I haven’t found one which comes close to being this good. At lingQ, I could do everything :
• I can pick a lesson which I want to listen to or read,
• I can have a conversation with a tutor I pick (American, British or
Canadian),
• I can submit my writing for correction.
After a month of using the LingQ system I realised that a lot of things I had previously been taught about learning foreign languages was not at all suited to my style of learning. I have found, for example, that:
a. I must learn languages independently, otherwise my mind tends to
wander; and
b. I can't be driven by anyone, and I can't work on a lesson which I don’t like. I must always pick something that I enjoy.
At LingQ I could do that. I started reading and listening to podcasts about learning methods and about different approaches. I read a book, “The Linguist - A Personal Guide to Language Learning” written by the founder of the LingQ system, Steve Kaufmann. I did not think about learning for its own sake; I read and I really enjoyed it. It was interesting to read a language learning adventure by someone who was so successful at it in his own life. I have improved a lot by both reading and listening to that book.
I must mention that I had never liked reading--maybe because of school. I have read a lot of uninteresting books at school in order to pass my exams, and as a consequence I did not like reading. I always became tired after reading a couple of pages, or even paragraphs. At lingQ, there is a unique system which is very useful. I was always afraid of reading texts and books in English because there were so many words that I did not know. By using LingQ, in a few months I was able to read advanced articles , and now I can read almost everything in English. It is really an amazing and very powerful tool. I have become addicted to this system!
I have heard many times that language learning is about community, so I started reading forums at LingQ in order to get to know what was new and what type of members were on LingQ. I was amazed at finding out about people there who can speak many languages and who learn more than one language at once. The articles on forums are so interesting and have helped me a lot as I embarked on my own program of learning languages. I wanted to participate in these forums more and more when I realised the
power of LingQ's language community. This has also helped me a lot to improve my English, since I really wanted to understand what people were talking about there. Personally, I think that it is beneficial when learning languages to participate in forums and read articles in and about your target language.
I was so influenced by members of LingQ that I started brushing up my German, which was not good at all when I took it up again. I had forgotten almost everything I had previously learned, but now, armed with LingQ, I know that I can master German. I don’t care about making an effort in order to do it. I have always made an effort anyway so it is nothing new for me. But now, with the right method, the method that works for me, I know I can learn as many languages as I want.
I did not mention my previous experience with Spanish. It happened a long time ago during my childhood, but it's a really nice story. I wanted to learn Spanish because of a singer/actress from Uruguay. I learnt her songs and sang them out loud. I was in love with her. I studied Spanish for three months back then but I remember it even more than German- which I later studied for 11 years! A few weeks ago I listened to her songs again and I still really like them. I wanted to understand them properly, so I found the texts of her songs on the Internet, put them into LingQ and started learning it by using the unique lingQ method for linking each word. Then I picked a couple of Spanish lessons at LingQ , and it was not too bad. I was still able to understand a lot even though I learnt Spanish for only 3 months 15 years ago! I now
have another goal of mastering Spanish. I have really a strong passion for
it.
I have even tried to learn a bit Polish, since it is quite similar to Czech. I have read a couple of articles written by a Polish member and I understood them . It would not take a long time to learn it. Maybe when it will be added in LingQ in the future, I will learn it properly since I have now become a big language lover.
