Showing posts with label learn your new language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learn your new language. Show all posts

Wednesday 10 October 2018

Learning with Joy



A great teacher

Learn a new language!

We all remember the time we spent at school and I am convinced that we all have a favorite teacher in our hearts. A long time ago, as a young, eager student, we might all have said that a great teacher is someone who provides entertainment in the classroom and does very little homework. After many years of experience as a primary school teacher and hundreds of hours of language teaching for adults, I can say that my perspective has changed. And my current position gives me the opportunity to convey what I have learned with current and future teachers about what it means to be a great teacher.
Teaching is hard work and some teachers never grow to be anything better than mediocre. They do the bare minimum required and very little more. The great teachers, however, work tirelessly to create a challenging, nurturing environment for their students. Great teaching seems to have less to do with our knowledge and skills than with our attitude toward our students, our subject, and our work. Although this list is certainly not all-inclusive, I have narrowed down the many characteristics of a great teacher to those I have found to be the most essential, regardless of the age of the learner:



1. A great teacher respects students. In a great teacher’s classroom, each person’s ideas and opinions are valued. Students feel safe to express their feelings and learn to respect and listen to others. This teacher creates a welcoming learning environment for all students.


2. A great teacher creates a sense of community and belonging in the classroom. The mutual respect in this teacher’s classroom provides a supportive, collaborative environment. In this small community, there are rules to follow and jobs to be done and each student is aware that he or she is an important, integral part of the group. A great teacher lets students know that they can depend not only on her, but also on the entire class. This teacher shows that teamwork is very important and faster than doing everything alone. Plus when the students have learned the concept of teamwork, there will most likely be no bullying.


3. A great teacher is warm, accessible, enthusiastic and caring. This person is approachable, not only to students, but to everyone on campus. This is the teacher to whom students know they can go with any problems or concerns or even to share a funny story. He tries to be a person who you can trust, he knows every single student as an individual. Great teachers possess good listening skills and take time out of their way-too-busy schedules for anyone who needs them. If this teacher is having a bad day, no one ever knows—the teacher leaves personal baggage outside the school doors.


4. A great teacher sets high expectations for all students. This teacher realizes that the expectations she has for her students greatly affect their achievement; she knows that students generally give to teachers as much or as little as is expected of them. In classes with these kind of teachers, there are no students that are no students that are either under challenged or overwhelmed.


5. A great teacher has his own love of learning and inspires students with his passion for education and for the course material. He constantly renews himself as a professional on his quest to provide students with the highest quality of education possible. This teacher has no fear of learning new teaching strategies or incorporating new technologies into lessons, and always seems to be the one who is willing to share what he’s learned with colleagues.


6. A great teacher is a skilled leader. Different from administrative leaders, effective teachers focus on shared decision-making and teamwork, as well as on community building. This great teacher conveys this sense of leadership to students by providing opportunities for each of them to assume leadership roles. And if the teacher is the leader, everybody respects and obeys him, so there will not be any students that don't listen to him and do whatever they like.


7. A great teacher can “shift-gears” and is flexible when a lesson isn’t working. This teacher assesses his teaching throughout the lessons and finds new ways to present material to make sure that every student understands the key concepts. Also when the class sees very different perspectives of the same thing, you will find it more interesting.


8. A great teacher collaborates with colleagues on an ongoing basis. Rather than thinking of herself as weak because she asks for suggestions or help, this teacher views collaboration as a way to learn from a fellow professional. A great teacher uses constructive criticism and advice as an opportunity to grow as an educator. He always does the best, he can.

9. A great teacher maintains professionalism in all areas
—from personal appearance to organizational skills and preparedness for each day. Her communication skills are exemplary, whether she is speaking with an administrator, one of her students or a colleague. The respect that the great teacher receives because of her professional manner is obvious to those around her.


While teaching is a gift that comes quite naturally for some, others have to work overtime to achieve great teacher status. Yet the pay-off is enormous — for both you and your students. Imagine students thinking of you when they remember that great teacher they had!

This strikes me as a list of necessary but not sufficient conditions for being a great teacher. What makes a teacher great is reaching to present difficult content, ideas, debates, issues in a lucid, compelling way, time after time. A great teacher works hard to prepare, to think freshly about the material he's teaching, and to find current examples that will grab her students' interest. A great teacher makes the classroom magic happen, regularly. She or he elicits her students' best efforts and engages their minds, so that they leave class still alive with ideas and comments, and they talk about what went on in class with their friends, room-mates, family when they get home too.


A teacher is human and one of the best role modelling strategies we can impart on our students is to learn from our mistakes. If you, as a great teacher, are wrong - 'fess up and fix it! We expect nothing less from our students. I think this is a subset of high expectations and accountability, yes? And nobody is perfect, so we can always get better by learning from our mistakes.






Tuesday 9 October 2018

It's never too late to learn a new language


When is it too late to learn a new language?


Many of my readers write that they are afraid being too old to learn a new language. And I can understand this fear, at some point everything has become routine and you do not have the habit of learning anything anymore.
The first good news: learning can be learned.
And here are some more things I've noticed over the years :

There is not the perfect age to learn a new language

Adults and language learning fits

At worst, language education at school looks like this:
Overcrowded classrooms, many written exercises, sometimes mechanical conversational drills, little or badly educated teacher with little to no experience, courses once a week, which is far too little to be efficient ...
Nevertheless, some students may still be able to pack their "language suitcases" full of grammar, important verbs and vocabulary under these circumstances.
The other students will often say that they have always been bad at languages anyway, until the end of their lives. What a pity!
Although there may be one or the other more appropriate time to learn languages, one thing is true:
There is no age limit to learn a new language! That means: It is never too late.
So if you're wondering you may be too old to learn Luxembourgish, German or French, the answer is: NO, you're never too old to learn Luxembourgish, German or French as your new language!
If you are ready to learn Luxembourgish, German or French, or any other new language then nothing stands in your way!
There is not THE perfect age to learn a new language.
It is very often wrongly believed that learning a foreign language has to be done at a young age so that you can speak fluently and without accentuation.
That is not quite true. Nothing prevents adults from learning new foreign languages - provided they use the right methods.


Practical tips to learn a language as an adult

When you learn a foreign language from early age, the brain distinguishes the mother tongue and the second language right from the beginning. Distinguishing languages one from the other does not change the fact that both languages can be spoken fluently!
Unfortunately, simply memorizing lists strengthen word power or conjugation tables will not take you one step further if you want to be ready to eventually speak fluent Luxembourgish, German or French as your new language.
To speak and to use a language it is absolutely indispensable to use it. Nothing works without language practice, as well as you may know by heart the irregular verbs or any other grammar rule.
Because otherwise it takes much longer to really speak Luxembourgish or French.
But it does not always have to be dry grammar. You can read books that are on your level of skills in that language, and you can watch TV-shows with the subtitles or where they speak the language you're learning. You definitely should assure that the Material fits your respective level. But really make sure that you do it on your level, you could otherwise get very fustrated or annoyed.
However, every once in a while a little "homework" has to be, in order to consolidate the corresponding automatism in grammar and conjugation.
Finally, you should work on your accent, so that more and more disappears.

In any case, it has nothing to do with your age, 
whether you speak successfully Luxembourgish or French, 
but rather with your motivation and your personal commitment.



Friday 5 October 2018

Reasons to learn a new language


  Seven Reasons to start learning a new language



I am often asked about how I came to learn each of the 4 languages I speak fluently and the 2 more I am an intermediate/ beginner at. And I am sure you can imagine that language learning and speaking has had a huge impact on my life. 

Like everybody going to school in Luxembourg I learned Luxembourgish, German and French. And I learned English in High School. As my fathers' origin I learned Italian in addition, in the top of that I am learning Russian as an adult. 

Although digital platforms can enhance the language learning process in a certain limited way, learning in a classroom together with mates still has advantages. 

Whether you decide on one option or the other, here are seven main reasons for learning a new language.



1) To get that dream job … or the same job somewhere else


Speaking more than one language can improve your job prospects even if you don’t work in the areas of teaching and training, translating and interpreting, or proofreading and editing.

For every highly specialized language expert, there are hundreds of non-experts using a second language on a daily basis at work. While the ability to express oneself is certainly desirable, there’s room to improve one’s language skills on the job when grammatical and lexical exactitude isn’t a necessity.

This means you can do the same old 9-to-5, but in the infinitely more stimulating environment of a foreign workplace. 
Furthermore, the acquisition of a foreign language makes you a more rounded and employable candidate wherever in the world you end up planting roots.


2) Learning a language is fun — and enormously fulfilling


Fun was the first reason I ever learned a language. I started learning Italian at the age of six. What reason does a six-year-old have for doing anything?
I figure it either comes down to fun or obligation, and one normally cancels out the other.

I decided to learn Italian on the beach during the holiday with my sister. Learning together with her and people’s joyous reactions to our attempts were all we needed to convince me it was fun.

And the rest is history!


3) To get more out of that next vacation


The realization that one can get so much more out of vacations has been a huge motivator for me ever since. I remember buying, together with my sister, ice cream on the beach in Italy.

Yes, you’re less likely to miss the ferry or end up paying to much for souvenirs, the most striking difference, however, is you’ll recognize that you feel comfortable in new environments. Everything may seem unfamiliar, but you’ll be able to find your way around with help from the best guide there is — human interaction.

Language learners will have wonderful experiences when they are abroad.

You’ll be met with appreciation by locals, as well as varying levels of surprise depending on the obscurity of your language combination: you’re English and learning French? Wow! Have a tea on the house! Packing a few words of the native language in your suitcase before setting off on a trip always pays off.
That is the reason why there is student exchange.


4) To discover a new side of yourself


Multilingual people often report feeling different — even to the point of having distinct personalities — in different languages.
This can even happen when you come to a language later in life.

Let’s take the example of humour, which can surely be considered a pillar of personality (especially for Brits!).

Humour is one of the hardest things to convey when you’re not fluent in a language. Language acquisition constitutes a genuine journey of self-discovery.


5) To understand the world around you better


The languages we speak shape the way that we see the world.

Not only does a new language bestow new perspectives, but it also enables you to reflect on your own language and understand how it works. Some languages have the same origine, so they may share the same grammar rules or the same words.

This is one of the things that makes acquiring further languages significantly easier.


6) To stay sharp and lead a lifetime of learning


Even if you now have your dream job in a foreign country surrounded by palm trees and happiness, it doesn’t necessarily mean you want to stop learning. 
Even people who have accomplished their goals and feel confident in their jobs feel the need to keep challenging their minds. Language learning is a common way to do this. Why?

Besides the obvious utility, it can provide those all-important mini-motivations to keep you hurtling towards new goals: for example the first time you correctly conjugate a verb in French without thinking.

Also people will admire you and your language skills.


7) To be groovy


During his stand-up performance Dress To Kill the British comedian Eddie Izzard delivered one of my favourite justifications for learning a language — to be groovy! 

Since that performance, Eddie learned German from scratch and gave a performance in German every evening for six weeks in Berlin. Given his surreal brand of comedy, many of his sentences had likely never before been said in German. He now plans to do shows in Spanish, Russian and Arabic. Now that’s groovy. You can find his show on YouTube! So, do yourself a favour and have a look at it.

Asked why he was learning languages, he answered “because it is a lot of fun.”  Reasons to learn a new language.