I want to talk about this issue because I'm really tired of how people say that some languages are hard to learn, such as Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Polish...etc. Or even some people call all the languages ,including English which is really easy to learn, as hard to learn and they try to learn them for a while and then they leave those languages saying that they haven't got enough memory or even enough talent. However, those aren't a reason not to learn any other languages. There are several kinds of way to do something, it's not just for learning languages, any other thing can has several ways to being done, really.
"Muvaffak-iyet-siz-leş-tir-ici-leş-tir-iver-emeye-bilecek-ler-i-miz-den-miş-siniz-ce-sine"
"As if you were one of those we can not easily/quickly turn into a maker of unsuccessful ones"
I'm sorry because of diving into this issue this fast, but it is really an important issue, it's my first blog anyway. Here is my quote:
"If you want to do something, just do it. Try to do it by using several ways."
Yes, it is also same for drawing something. Except being a language learner, I'm also an artist, so it's not a surprise, no? Anyway, let me tell you about this as well, some people use more detailed drawing types, some of them doesn't use rules, and even some of them cannot draw a human portrait. It's also same for me, my drawing way is of course different from my friend's, she is also an artist. We of course cannot draw as beautiful as Da Vinci or Van Gogh. Also she prefers to draw with a graphic tablet while I prefer to draw with my own pens on a real paper, not on a digital material. It's about your hand, brain, learning type... etc. Well, it would be more true if we already are talking about languages.
Anyway, let's get back to the issue about learning languages...
If you are currently reading this post, you probably cannot learn languages. Or maybe you have some questions about this, maybe you are failed by using some wrong ways. However, it is normal because you don't know "HOW TO LEARN". Without knowing this, you cannot learn of course. I don't mean something bad, but most of the people do this big mistake, just like I did before...
As a native Turkish speaker, I've started to learn English when I was 9 and I'm 16 now, it has been 7 years and I have always been at the top of my school with my English marks. Please don't say "Your teachers ask easy questions.". My teachers always asked questions in exams of course, but while our maths geniuses got 70/100, I got 100/100, also maths was my worst lesson by having scores like 50/100, it was one of my best scores, can you believe it?
Eveyone knows that mathemathics is a really hard lesson, it's not hard but we cannot love it because we cannot do it, we cannot do it because we cannot love it, I also hate maths and I don't need maths in my future career because I'll be studying at "Language&Literature Faculty", that's my own plan anyway.
I cannot memorize several maths formulas even though I've learned those English words, irregularities, rules..etc.
Memorizing gives you nothing, learning is the point, I have never learned English grammar until two years ago, I saw my little mistakes and corrected them without any fears and I'm better now. I'm not trying to say that I'm a genius or something. However I really used this method, learning by natural ways. Just dive into the language itself and force yourself to speak, write, listen, read.
Of course you would also need a dictionary or an online translator in order to understand the words....
!!!HOWEVER!!!
...Before checking out the meaning of those words, read or listen to the whole sentence yet again and try to give a meaning yourself at the first place, just imagine. Let me give you an example in Norwegian.
Jeg har snakket med fetteren min og han sa at liker han ikke faren hans.
Jeg=I
har=have
snakket=spoken
med=with
snakket=spoken
med=with
fetteren=????
min=my
og=and
sa=said
at=that
at=that
liker=likes
han=he
ikke=not
ikke=not
faren=the father
hans=his
Now we only don't know the word "fetteren". In Norwegian, you add "-en, -et, -a" at the end of the nouns in order to explain them as singular articles like "The father (far-en), the egg (egg-et), the girl (jent-a)". It's one of the basics in Norwegian grammar.
Now by looking at the other words, what should we call "fetteren" as?
We have some clues...
-It says "he said that he doesn't like his father.", so that means "fetteren" cannot be a girl like "mother","sister","female cousin","girlfriend","aunt".
-"Fetteren" also says us that it isn't an animal, a plant, an inanimate being, because it talks and says that he doesn't like his father.
-It is a male human being. Also "fetteren" has a relationship with the first speaker, because the first speaker says "my ...." for fetteren. It cannot be father because father means "far" in Norwegian.
-So it can be....
1-A male friend
2-A male cousin
3-A brother
4-A grandfather
5-Other male relatives
So you already at the end, you will see that "fetter-en"->"fetter" means "male cousin" in the dicitonary. It's pretty easy, right? It also trains your brain, your imagination. You don't have to memorize "fetter" anymore because you won't forget it because you had an adventure with it, memorizing vocabulary isn't the true way anyway.
Of course you will LEARN the grammar someday in order to understand more, but do it after learning the language itself without grammar rules. It's very different from MEMORIZING.
Think about yourself, did you learn your native language by memorizing or by speaking and using it itself?
OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T.
How can I memorize that much Turkish grammar and case tables? There are even lots of conjugations. I mean, just look at this, isn't it hard to memorize?
MEANS...
Those little parts that I've seperated are suffixes in Turkish language. How can I understand them all without memorizing? Because I've LEARNED them, NOT MEMORIZED them.
You can use the same method for any other languages such as Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Farsi, Norwegian or any other languages.
I'm currently learning Russian and I've started it by learning the language itself, not by grammar tables.
And guess what? It really works like I did in English and Japanese! My Norwegian studying was such a fail I've studied for 6-7 months and I couldn't talk even a single word.
Learning the grammar was the one who took me away from Norwegian itself.
Whenever I ask people if Russian and Japanese are hard or not and they always say that they are very hard to learn even though they are pretty easy for me.
You would ask that how can I call Russian as an easy language even though it's been a week since I first started to learn it. I know it, because I can seperate the words in loud conversations and I can understand them easily, I can put the words even without thinking the English and Turkish meanings of that language. Whenever I see that word, I can understand it because I DON'T MEMORIZE THE WORDS.
Of course I have many mistakes in a language I've just started to learn, but I'm acting like a child and a child isn't afraid of making mistakes about his/her language, also anyone doesn't correct her/his mistakes because they know that he/she is just a child and she/he will correct his/her own mistakes by herself/himself by the time passes.
However, why do they quickly correct an adult language learner's mistakes saying that he/she has to learn a better grammar? It wouldn't be learning but just memorizing itself, it is a bad thing for adult language learners. For both their psychological situations and learning ways...
Forgive me because of my bad telling. However, those are the truths. I don't correct a foreigner who has just started to learn Turkish and talk with him/her happily because he/she has already started to learn it with happy faces, it wouldn't be a problem as long as you understand the learners.
Also learning mustn't be a hell for you but an enjoyable thing which makes you feel good as if you are in the heaven itself.
These are what I can see for now... See you in another blog post...
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