A lot of people think that as adults they can’t learn a new language, or that they can’t learn it as well as a child can.  And a lot of adults would like to learn a language for reasons as varied as needing it for business or travel, for personal enrichment, and because research shows that learning another language is one of the best ways to keep your brain working well.  The good news is that adults can learn new languages, and they can do it as well as children, given the right learning conditions.  Watch the this video, Adults Learn Language Better Than Children, to learn more about this topic.

I recently celebrated a birthday, and as I look back, year by year, and decade after decade, I can see the inevitable march of time.  I am not the same person, either physically or mentally, as I was 10 or 20 or 30 years ago.

The good news is that each decade adds experience and a body of knowledge that helps me think better, more deeply, and in many ways, more innovatively.

The bad news is that, by and large, each decade sees me less able physically.  I don’t run anymore (knees!), I can’t swim as fast, and I wouldn’t even think of playing softball or volleyball with a 30 year old.  Last summer I tried wake surfing, but couldn’t even get up on the damn board! (I will try again this summer!).

LEARNING DISTINCTIONS

For me, however, skiing has been a notable exception.  I’ve skied all my life, a lot.  When I was young, and at my physical peak, I was not a very good skier.  I resisted instruction.  I just wanted to “do.”  I didn’t want to think about how to “do” it.  I can remember watching really beautiful skiers, and wishing I could ski like that, but I never noticed what they were doing that made them so good.  So, I just went along skiing at a mediocre level for years.

When I was 40 that changed.  In order to have a good excuse to ski more, I joined the Master’s Ski Program at our local resort, Diamond Peak.  I don’t recall actually thinking I was going to ski better.  I was just going to ski more and meet some nice people.

What I didn’t bargain for was my coach, Josee LaCasse.  Josee actually wanted me to be a great skier.  Even though I was old.  She taught me how to think about skiing.  She taught me the distinctions of skiing.

And, guess what?  I began to get better, for the first time in many years.  Now, in spite of age, I get physically better at skiing every single year.  I’m not great yet (sorry, Josee, and also my other great coach, Wayne Wong), but, damn, I’m pretty good for a 56 year old.  And I’m better than I was as a 55 year old.

How did I get there, since I no longer have Josee coaching me twice a week, and I’m 15 years older?  Well, I learned the distinctions of skiing, and I think about them every day that I am on the snow.  I think about my knees, my shoulders, where my center of gravity is.  I notice what happens when I do one thing versus another.  I watch other skiers constantly, and analyze what they are doing or not doing, and then try to do or not do myself.

I make distinctions.  When I was young and mediocre, I had no distinctions beyond fun and not fun.  Now, the more distinctions I make, the better I get.

So, how does this apply to the Lake Tahoe Institute of English, and to learning English, or any language?

ACTIVE LEARNING

What I have noticed is that some clients come just wanting to talk more.  OK.  And some come wanting to learn about how to talk.  They are active learners and listeners, wanting to use me and Kim as their coaches, wanting to learn the distinctions of English.

Learning a language is not a spectator sport.  It is not easy.  You can learn some, and get by, just by listening and talking a bit.  But to be good in another language, you have to become an active learner.  You have to learn to look for the distinctions of language.  You have to pay attention to how a language is spoken, to how you are speaking, to the music of the language, and how you can duplicate it.  You have to actively take charge of getting better.

If not, you’ll just be another traveler mangling the language.  Accomplishment takes work!

In the last 2 posts, I’ve talked about pronunciation as a function of the position of the mouth when speaking English. There is, of course, more to it than that, although I believe mouth position makes the biggest difference in speaking English clearly and understandably.

But, it is not the only thing. Also very important is where the stress is placed in a word, and the music, or intonation of the language. Today I’m going to give you the bad news about word stress in English, and the best way to cope with it.

Bad Habits

English, Russian and Greek have the same bad habits when it comes to word stress. That is, just like most else in English, it is irregular. Which syllables are stressed varies from word to word. There are no rules. This is very difficult for speakers of other languages to understand, since most languages have very specific rules about stress, with few exceptions.

For example, in French, the last syllable is stressed. In Spanish, it is normally the next to last syllable. In German, it is the first syllable, with some exceptions, and in Japanese, the stress is even.

One of the things that makes speakers of English as a foreign language difficult to understand (but also what makes their accents so charming) is that they continually stress the wrong syllables in a pattern familiar to them. In English, the syllables in a single word can be stressed in a number of different ways, with each way having a different meaning. So, it is very important to stress the syllables correctly.

Here are some examples of words that look like they would be pronounced the same, but are not:

noble: honorable, distinguished, aristocratic
Nobel: a prestigious award of achievement

invalid: a sick or disabled person
invalid: not valid, void

personal: individual, private
personnel: a group of people employed in an organization or place of work

pronouns: parts of speech that subsititute for nouns, such as he and she
pronounce: to say words

advantages: benefits or gain
advantageous: beneficial, useful

content: subject matter of a book, speech, etc.
content: satisfied and happy

So, you can see how important it is to stress the correct syllables in order to convey the correct meaning.

As Ususal, Listen!

As usual, the best thing you can do is listen and listen and listen to spoken English. You can memorize some pronunciations, but with enough listening, the correct pronunciation will sound right intuitively. Soon, it will become habit.

Also, it is very helpful if you become aware of the stress rules in your own native language. Once you are aware, then you can guard against using your habitual stress rules to pronounce English words while you word to make the correct stresses habit.

You know, it’s one thing to speak another language, and it is entirely another to speak another language so that it can be understood by others. I know that sounds pretty obvious, but you would be surprised how many people don’t pay any attention to speaking clearly and understandably. And that, really, is the most important part of communicating. Well, of course! You can have the largest vocabulary in the world, but if I can’t understand what the heck you are saying, you have wasted your breath.

What really drives me crazy are all those pronunciation diagrams that are out there which supposedly show you where your tongue is supposed to be in your mouth when you are speaking. Maybe it’s just me, but I can never figure out what they’re showing. And even if I could figure it out, how could I put it into action? I can’t see what I am doing and match it to the side-view drawing. And how could I possibly remember that, when I am in the middle of talking, anyway? It’s like learning grammar – fairly useless as a practical exercise to help learn to speak another language.

Mouth Position is Critical

I think the best way to start working on pronunciation is to get your mouth position right. Every language requires its speakers to hold their lips, mouth, tongue, and jaw in a different position. The proper sounds cannot be made unless the mouth is held properly. Mouth position is critical.

So, first notice how you hold your mouth when you speak. Is your jaw relaxed or tense? How about the muscles at the corners of your mouth? Tight or relaxed? Your lips? Are they relaxed against the teeth, or do they push forward a bit when you talk?

And where does it feel like you are making the sound in your mouth, approximately? Forward, middle, high, low, back? Each of these positions makes a big difference in the sounds that are created. This point in your mouth is called the point of articulation, and creates the point of resonance. It is difficult to scientifically analyze these points of articulation and resonance, but, with practice, it is easy to feel them.

Imitate Accents

So, don’t spend time learning exact rules for mouth positions. Pretend you are an actor, learning to do an accent for a film. Imitate the sounds that an actor makes. In your native language, imitate someone who speaks your language with an English accent. Can you feel how you have to hold your mouth to speak with an English accent? That is how you have to hold your mouth when you speak English. Only it won’t be funny when you’re actually speaking English!

Speak From the Middle of the Mouth

In general, American English is spoken from the middle of the mouth. A hollow is almost created with the tongue, which is held in the middle of the mouth. The tongue bounces off the ridge of gums directly above the front teeth, not so much the teeth themselves. The lips are back and relaxed against the teeth. The jaw is fairly relaxed and loose, and the muscles at the corner of the mouth are relaxed.

For now, pay attention when you are speaking to how you hold your mouth. Pay attention when you are watching television to how speakers of your native language hold their mouth as compared to those speaking English. Try to get a feel for what it looks and feels like.

In my next post, I will explore this topic some more, and give some suggestions as to how you can learn to speak with a better American English Accent.

Maria Joao and Boni

Worksheets:  A Sigh of Relief

Maria Joao, from Portugal, and I were discussing how best to learn a language the other day.  She was remarking that she rationally understands that immersion learning is the best, and the fastest, way to learn English, but that she sometimes just really wants to have a worksheet in front of her.  As you know, we hardly ever use them, but on the rare ocasion that we do, she says she breathes a sigh of relief when she sees one in my hand!

That’s interesting, because virtually all of our clients claim to hate worksheets.  They find them tedious, boring, and generally not so beneficial.  They can learn the lessons on the worksheets, but find they don’t use the lessons in practice.  Yet, sometimes, as with Maria Joao, you can almost feel their relief when we hand a worksheet to them.

Most Adults Love Structure

I think that some of this has to do with our need for structure.  Adults, especially, like order, rules and structure.  Even when we say we don’t like it, I think that sometimes having structure forced upon us allows us to relax a bit.

We don’t have to think quite so hard with imposed structure.  Sometimes it is really nice to be told what to do.  It gets very tiring to be using all of our senses, thinking, working, trying to figure out what someone is saying, how to respond to them, how to generate a question. 

How lovely to fill in a blank on a worksheet!  It gives us a degree of security to know that all we need is one simple word to fill in a blank, and then we will be right.  We will have demonstrated that we have mastery over a tiny bit of the frustrating English language.

So, on occasion, to give our clients a break, we do a worksheet or two.  It is reassuring.  It is restful.  It allows them to stop thinking in English, and allows them to think about English.  It becomes an intellectual exercise instead of an intuitive exercise.

Feeling Good

A word of caution, though.  I think it is good to have a sense of the formal structure of the English language.  It gives you something to hang your hat on.  When all else fails, you can think about the language.  You won’t be speaking fluently, but you can stop, think, refer to a lesson, or a point of grammar, and then continue on.  It makes you feel good.

Feeling Better

What makes you feel better, though, is actually speaking English and understanding English.  This is only accomplished with many hours of practice listening to real English being spoken, and of speaking real English with a native English speaker. 

Feeling Best

There is really no short cut.  You just have to dive in, and listen and speak, and listen and speak, and listen and speak, until you think you can’t do it any more.  Then you have to do it some more.  And the more you do at one time, the faster you will learn.

So, use the occasional worksheet if you need to. We do here at the Lake Tahoe Institute of English.  But, focus the majority of your time on listening and speaking.  You will be a far better speaker of English if you do.

But, truth be told, everything I complain about is my own fault. I could do this a really simple way. I could only have my kids over. That would cut down on expense, plus, I don’t care if they see the house less than spotlessly clean. So I wouldn’t have to clean the house. And, I could just buy some frozen pies, a frozen green-bean casserole with those nasty french fried onion rings on top, get the canned cranberry sauce, whip up some boxed mashed potatoes, some Stove Top Stuffin Mix, buy a turkey injected with sodium, water and a pop-up timer, and call it a day. That wouldn’t be nearly as much effort, and not nearly as expensive.

I can’t do that, though. It just misses the entire point of Thanksgiving, in my opinion. To me, first of all, this is a celebration of family and friends, who come together near the end of the year to celebrate that we are all still here, for better or for worse. We’re here, you can count us, and count on us, we’re still standing, and celebrating having made it this far.

It is also a celebration of food. After all, it is the celebration of the pilgrim’s first successful harvest, the one that kept them alive, that kept them putting one foot in front of the other to build life on this new continent. It is a celebration of bounty, of the delicious nourishment that was brought forth through their own efforts, by their own hands. And it was no easy task!

So for me, to limit the number of people that join our family would be antithetical to the meaning of Thanksgiving, and to the meaning our family has chosen to give to our lives. In the same way, for me to take the short cuts, and buy frozen, prepared foods, would not be honoring the meaning of Thanksgiving.

I know that I am probably an obsessive cook. I like to use fresh, quality ingredients. They taste the best. They also take money and time. But today, in particular, it is worth it. It is my gift to family and friends to prepare a meal with my own hands, to prepare a bounteous feast, of homemade, incredibly delicious food. It is worth the time, the effort, and the expense, because it keeps me mindful of the gift of being alive, of being able to share an abundant meal with a large family and many friends. It keeps me aware of my good fortune to still be alive, to be eating, to be celebrating, to be putting one foot in front of the other.

Today, the guests will soon be arriving. Family, of course, from near and far, plus friends, plus we’re sharing our holiday with some students from Italy who are studying at our local college. We are so happy to introduce them to our celebration of being alive.

Today, I think, I have done my last complaining. It demeans the gift I have to give, and demeans the value of family and friendship. No more. I am happy to be here, with people that I love, and new friends. Two days spent cooking splendiferously is hardly sufficient to express the bounty of my life.

Salud! Salute! Sante! Saude! Prost! To Your Health!

Passive Listening

Here is a simple idea that really helps.  Just have someone speaking English in the background of your daily life.  Keep the television or radio tuned to an English-speaking channel while you go about what you would normally do.  Don’t try to focus on what you are listening to.  Just let the sounds of the language wash over you and inhabit your brain.

Every language has unique sounds which are unfamiliar to other languages.  Every language has its own rhythm and flow that is unique to itself.  By passively listening to a language being spoken in the background of your life, you are training your brain to recognize distinct sounds made in the pronunciation of words themselves, and also in the speaking of an entire language system.

It will enable you, when you are actively engaged in learning, to better pronounce sounds, and to better mimic the flow of English.  You won’t learn to speak English just by listening to it in the background, but, having made a practice of passively listening to English, you will learn English more quickly when you bring your attention to it.

Active Listening

This is listening in order to learn.  Understanding normally spoken English is at the heart of really learning to speak the language.  The greatest problem virtually all of our clients have is in understanding what is being spoken to them directly or indirectly. 

Real, spoken English does not at all resemble phony dialogues in language books, or practice sentences spoken by teachers in classrooms.  The way to learn to understand real, spoken English is to listen to real, spoken English.  And, to listen to it over and over and over again. 

Some Resources for Listening

We’ve found at the Institute that a great way to practice listening is to find something very engaging to listen to.  We like to download podcasts from the educational section of  YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/edu, and Ted, http://www.ted.com/.  We also love podcasts from NPR (National Public Radio). 

You can download literally millions of free podcasts through iTunes onto an iPod or MP3 player.  Then you can listen to your heart’s content.  You can search for something that is interesting to you from a collection on virtually any topic you find interesting.  If it is interesting to you, it will be far easier for you to pay attention to the podcast.

With our clients, we often begin with Steve Jobs Commencement Speech at Stanford University, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc.  It is a very inspiring speech that is fairly easy to understand.  All of our business clients really enjoy listening to Jobs. 

How to Do It

What you want to do is listen to it over and over and over again, until you begin to understand 80 to 90 percent of what is being said.  You can listen all at once, or you can listen in little bite-sized pieces.  Listen on your way to work in the morning, listen when you are coming home, listen while you are exercising, but keep listening. 

Make sure you are listening to something you are interested in.  Listen to the same podcast for a week, or for two weeks, and then find another to take on.  You will be amazed at how quickly your understanding of real, spoken English will improve.

I know I’ve talked about Malcolm Gladwell’s books often with my clients.  Many of you have already read them, and put some of his ideas and observations to use in your businesses.  I read his book, “Outliers,” this past summer, and found it, once again, to be very thought provoking.  If you have not yet read it, I highly recommend it.

One of Gladwell’s assertions in this book is that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to gain mastery of it.  Of course, people have different levels of natural talent for things, and different abilities to learn, but, essentially, he asserts that anyone who spends 10,000 hours doing anything will gain a superior mastery of whatever it is.

Mastery of a Second Language

I started thinking about how this applies to learning a second language.  Of course, if any of us had 10,000 hours to devote exclusively to learning another language, we could all be fluent.  But, who among us has that kind of time?  We’re busy becoming masters at our professions, or other things.  Still, it is obvious that the more time spent with a language, the greater the learning.

One of the benefits of immersion learning is that it increases the hour count of exposure to a language.  If you take a class 2 hours a week, in a year you have only gained 104 hours of exposure to a language.  And, that exposure is probably 50% or more nullified by the amount that is forgotten over the week, and also by the lack of real listening and speaking that occurs in a classroom situation. 

In the typical immersion program, students are exposed to 12 to 20 hours of language instruction per week.  Again, assuming that a student studies for a month, he or she will have been exposed to only around 80 hours of language.  Better, but far from 10,000 hours.

It can safely be said that after 1,000 hours of immersion language instruction, a person could expect to speak and understand a language really well, nearly fluently.  At a normal school, studying 2 hours per week, that means you would have to study 500 weeks (assuming each 2 hours was full immersion, which it can’t be), or nearly 10 years! 

At a typical immersion school, you would have to study over a year to achieve 1000 hours.  At our school, the Lake Tahoe Institute of English, you would have to study for 10 weeks with no breaks.  Far better, but rarely practical for a working adult. 

There has to be another way to accelerate the learning.  And, of course there is.  See my next post to read about my ideas on how to gain 1,000 hours of immersion.

Trees on the upper Flume Trail

Exercise on Birdie Way

My Favorite Tree

Tahoe is a place of quickly changing and highly variable weather.  It can snow in the middle of summer, it can rain in the middle of winter.  We have more sun than is probably decent, with accompanying indecently blue skies.  Sometimes it just takes your breath away to look up into the deep, deep blue.  It is a very happy place.  But a changeable place.

Fall is a great time of year around here.  The nights are cold, but the days are plenty warm to play.  you might still need a sweater, and you won’t be going in the water, but still, it is generally very pleasant to be outdoors.  We’ve had 3 snows already this year, so maybe it will be an early winter.  It is common, though, to have the occasional snow between September and December, when winter really sets in.

Yesterday, Kim and I walked the nature loop up in the meadows, which many of you are familiar with.  Everything is shades of gold, from the grass to the trees.  There is plenty of water in the streams and marshy areas, so all is lush and beautiful. 

As we walked around the upper end of the loop, we startled a herd of deer grazing in the meadow.  They took off at a run, crossing the trail directly in front of us.  I wish I had had my camera, so that I could share it with you.

This month is prime bicycling month, too.  Not too hot, not too cold, and breathtaking views.  Today Kim is riding the upper Flume Trail with our son, Cole.  I’ll get a full report later.  Why am I sitting here working?

Now, at the beginning of November, I am sitting in my office looking out the window.  The sky is that lovely, deep blue.  The aspen trees are bright gold, and are shimmering in the breeze.  It looks like a wonderful day.

But wait!  As I am looking out, I see flakes of something in the air.  I can’t believe it.  It’s snowing!  And it’s sunny!  And it’s 30 degrees!  Only in Tahoe!  I’d better put on a pot of coffee for when the boys return.  They’re going to need it!

As they say around here:  “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes.  It will change.”

I’ve been terrified of learning another language for a very long time.  It started with my first trip to Europe, after having studied French in high school.  As I traveled throughout France with my friend, who had a French grandmother, and so was fluent in French, I could not understand a single word of real spoken French.  I knew language wasn’t my strong suit, but, after all that study, this was ridiculous.

I could see how much richer an experience my friend had as we traveled, because she could talk to people, and understand everything that was going on around her.  I, on the other hand, had to rely on her interpretation, or remain in ignorance.  I was very, very frustrated, but was determined to learn the language, so that I could participate fully in my own travels.

So, I studied French in college, even getting a minor degree in it.  I knew lots of grammar, and could read and write it very well.  The trouble was, I still couldn’t speak it.  And, as I now had entered the working world, I didn’t have the opportunity to travel to France again for a long time. 

Too Old???

Given my situtation, I thought I would try to learn Spanish.  After all, even if I couldn’t go to Europe, I could easily get to Mexico, where I could practice.  Of course by then, I was pretty old.  I was 35, I think.  They say if you’re not a kid, you can’t learn another language. 

Not to be deterred by age, I went back to school and studied Spanish, taking two full years of language courses.  I could, once again, read and write, but couldn’t speak.  We did speak in class, but that isn’t real speaking.  Anytime I was confronted with someone speaking Spanish, I would just freeze.  I couldn’t understand it, and I couldn’t even think how to reply.  I felt that I would never be able to learn.

New Language Learning Theories

The newest second language learning theories say I learned all wrong.  Grammar, drills, worksheets, vocabulary lists to memorize – the theory is now that none of this will teach you to understand and speak a language.  It isn’t at all about age, it’s about the type of learning.

Well, duh!  I could have told them that.  It is completely intuitive that being immersed in a language is the best way to learn it.  That’s how we learn our first language as children, and that is also the best way to learn a second language.  Learning grammar and vocabulary teaches us about a language, but it doesn’t teach us to think in a language, or to speak a language.

The problem is that most people don’t have the opportunity to be immersed in a language, and most schools don’t have the facilities to immerse people in it.  Usually, schools have an hour a day, or maybe several hours at a time once or twice a week.  It is just too difficult, and too outside the box of traditional learning, to do much more than teach grammar and provide worksheets and drills.  And, all too often, the instructors don’t really speak the second language well.

Total Immersion is Best

If you are really determined to learn English, and it is at all possible for you, the best way to speed your language learning , and learn English well, is to totally immerse yourself in it.  Not a few hours a day, or 20 or 30 hours a week, but fully immerse yourself.  Be completely surrounded by English, and be prepared to speak and learn.  Remove all opportunities to speak your native language.  You need to eat, drink, sleep and breathe in English.

At the Lake Tahoe Institute of English, we have turbo charged all the latest techniques for learning a second language.  Total immersion in the language, in a secure and safe environment, makes it possible for adults to learn to understand and speak English quickly.  Plus, we teach you exactly the English you want to know, and we have fun while doing it.  No anxiety, just learning.