As much fun as punishing yourself, constantly beating yourself up, and guilt-tripping yourself into believing there is no easy way to fluency, because things are supposed to be naturally hard – we have news for you – there is a perfectly normal explanation why your brain processes language learning the way it does.
It´s not rocket science, in fact, there is a switch in our brains that turns on the correct way of information processes for the language learning to become a walk in the park, and Gabb is here to guide you through it.
THE PERSONALITY SWITCH
Personality can change with the language you speak. A linguist Aneta Pavlenko in her many research efforts has interviewed over a thousand bilinguals, and the results fell into the both empowering and shocking pits of mixed psychological waters. Almost all of the surveyed people confessed they felt like a different person when speaking other language than their native one. The cultural implications, the grammar, the syntax, the colloquialisms – all the categories are wired to work a certain way depending on which language we use. So how do we reprogram our brain to learn a new language efficiently?
- Aligning with a new persona
Learning a new language is the same as embodying a whole new character. The same way actors prepare for a role to capture essence of the character, language enthusiasts ought to dive into their role and become an avatar of some sort – an avatar that speaks their desired language. Know thy enemy, if you will. There is no other way to fluency other than understanding the full potential of a language.
How? Try and emerge yourself in a culture of the desired language, imitate an accent of a native speaker, read about the history of the countries where the language is spoken, do a mini-research on the linguistic background and heritage of the target language. In other words, get your head in the right space for an easy transition to fluency.
- An actual re-wire
No, we´re not asking you to undergo lobotomy. An actual re-wire refers to a set of strategically designed steps to get yourself where you want to go. It takes discipline, but toil and sweat does not automatically equal discipline. It means tricking your physical body and brain into believing you are a native speaker until they really start to believe you are a native speaker before you do.
Listen to podcasts in your target language even if you don´t understand a word they´re saying, (yet) and simulate a situation in which you respond by simply saying to yourself a “yes”. Yes evokes a positive reaction in your brain, and sets positive expectations once you get around to learning the gritty stuff such as grammar.
- Find comfort in finding similarities rather than focusing on the differences
We´re all not that different, correct? We all hate waiting in line, the latest SNL monologues …
It´s a two way road for learning. You think you can´t find a similarity between your origin language and your target language? Think again! They do not have to belong in the same language family necessarily. Look up some Youtube videos from the people who can outline the similarities and give you hope. Those who seek shall find.
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from Salvete | Languagelearning https://ift.tt/368BmUI
via Learn Online English Speaking
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