“You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.”
Czech proverb
My dear peers,
I would like to tell you about opportunities which I have today to learn English.
People always were curious
about our world. They wanted to discover it, to get knowledge,to communicate
with people from
other tribes and then from other countries. Unfortunately, they
could speak only their mother tongue.
Moreover, some people even didn't know how to write or read on their first language. Despite this fact
humanity found a solution to language problem. Someone thought that people
were in need of education. Government began to open schools for common
people where they could speak
their mind and study. The
world got new geniuses who set one of the most important facts in our
society. I will write it according to Flora Lewis' words: “Learning
another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but
learning another way to think about things.” That's why people started to
learn official languages of other countries. Progress
didn't stand still.
The generation of modern people have a lot of
opportunities for development. Frankly speaking, even 20-30 years ago you didn't have so vast diversity of methods and means of learning languages
as we have (generation of technologies). You were out of touch with new information or
new inventions.
It's 2014 now. I'm a student and I study
Romance and Germanic languages. Nowadays it is easier to do it because I have
accessing to the Internet. I can chat
to people from different
countries and I shouldn't make real effort to do it. It's easier than to write a letter to your friend, send it and have been
waiting the answer for weeks. There are a lot of interesting sites in the
Internet which can help you to learn new language. I would like to provide you
with information about them. It will help us to talk non-stop foreign
language.
It is
important to use all kind of your memory as you know. For instance, you can remember the
meaning of words and collocations with them when you make a word map.
Firstly, when I knew about
this opportunity I had been glaring at picture for a few minutes. I
couldn't even say a word! I was
so excited! When I had a meeting
with my friends we talked about
benefits and disadvantages of it and we made the conclusion that we would like to
use that option. Of course, I need to practice a lot in order to speak like a native speaker, but if I will use
this way of learning and the next one, I will remember better. So, I would
like to tell you about the next option. Here I can create a word cloud.
What is it? I have to write any word (for example, yawn,
clap, weep, whisper) and I will get
different word combinations.
Also if I'm not
aware of using a particular word or collocation, I can look at it in the context.
For instance, I will take the collocation "tell the difference between"
with help of fraze.it I'll
find a text with this phrase. For
example, "I'll
give Booker the benefit of the doubt and assume he
is aware that energy is neither created nor destroyed. If so, this must mean he is talking about useful energy, and that "produces" means converting energy we cannot use into energy we can use. A wind turbine
turns the energy of wind into electricity. But a boiler does not produce energy, even in the sense that Booker
appears to mean. It uses energy. The energy is contained in the oil it burns, which it converts into heat. Booker, it seems, cannot
tell the difference between production and consumption."
Although I can bump into a foreigner in a street, smile at him or her, ask excuses and start to
speak. Also I can go abroad and come
into contact with native
speakers. As I said, I have a lot of opportunities for learning another
language. So, modern people only need to have a desire to do it.
Always keep in mind words of Frank Smith:"Language
is not a genetic gift, it is a social gift. Learning a new language is
becoming a member of the club - the community of speakers of that language.”
