The secrets of learning a new language.

1 .Answer the questions:

1. How many languages can you speak?
2. Is it a challenge for you to learn a new language? Why/Why not?
3. Is it a good idea to learn two or three languages simultaneously?
4. Is it easy to achieve fluency learning a new language?
5. Who are polyglots? Are you a polyglot?
6. What do polyglots have in common?
7. Where can you meet language lovers?
8. What different approaches to learning languages do you know?
9. Is there a shortcut to learning languages?
10. Is it important to enjoy the language-learning process?

2. W️atch the video, ask some questions using the given words.

1. I love learning foreign languages. In fact, I love it so much that I like to learn a new language every two years, currently working on my eighth one (Does? Why? How often? What language?)
2. They wanted to know why they are spending years trying to learn even one language, never achieving fluency, and here I come, learning one language after another. (What? Why?)
3. The best place to meet a lot of polyglots is an event where hundreds of language lovers meet in one place to practice their languages. (What? Where? Why?)

3. Remember the words and phrases:

to work on
to find sth out about sb
to be honest
to achieve fluency
to make sb wonder
to have sth in common
a travel phrasebook
I don’t mind doing
to figure out
an ingenious method
different approaches to learning languages come to the same result of doing
to keep on doing sth
to talk gibberish
to make sense
to have no shortcut to learning languages
to be willing to do
to be crucial to find enjoyment in the process to plan a bit ahead
to learn in small chunks every day
to take sth into one’s own hands
to give it another try

4.️ Explain different methods of learning languages and comment on them:

1. To start speaking from day one.
2. To add a hundred random native speakers on Skype as friends as to start a conversation.
3. To start by imitating sounds of the language.
4. To learn the 500 most frequent words of the language.
5. To start by reading about the grammar.
6. To learn vocabulary using apps.
7. To write words down on paper and to learn them using their carefully handmade flash cards.
8. To apply the method of self-talk.
9. To listen to podcasts (to get some listening experience).
10. To cook based on recipes in a foreign language.

5. Tell me the speaker’s language experience. How did she learn 7 languages?

6.️ Watch the video again and describe other three main principles that people should apply to achieve fluency in a foreign language (besides finding a perfect place among polyglots and choosing an effective method of learning a new language)?

7. What other languages would you like to learn? Why? What method would you choose?