By now you probably know that I’m almost obsessed by communication … or rather miscommunication. Internet and social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Viber, Threema …) can help us to share our opinions, but it is not always advisable to respond instantly to everything we don’t agree with. We don’t know the person/people at the other end. This applies also for the circle of our friends.
Learning languages is – InMyHumbleOpinion – one way to improve our communication skills. Writing this blog I often switch between my native Czech and English. Although I lived also in Germany (1992-96) I don’t use German. It is well hidden in my brain so I can only use it with patient people, who are willing to wait while I express myself. I guess everyone learning a new language as adult would agree.
However the advantage of learning later in the life is, that we can do it for fun and not for the marks in school. There is even a method reminiscent of learning as little children. First we listen several years, then we try sounds, words, sentences …
It is brain friendly approach by Vera F.Birkenbihl.
I didn’t know this method when I started to learn languages. In school learning was about grammar and memorising the vocabulary, so for me the most important thing abroad was to forget the “don’t open the mouth without having grammatically correct sentence in your mind” block. Now I’m happy I can spend my time having fun improving my communication skills. After all already Jan Amos Komenský, nicknamed the teacher of nations, claimed that learning should be fun.