Learning a language

Learning a language can be a long, difficult thing to do. So, why do people do it? Why are people not happy enough to communicate with people in their own languages and let that be enough? There are a number of reasons for this including ambition and necessity. These two reasons are generally two of the most common.

For me personally, I am learning how to speak Spanish because of ambition. I don´t need Spanish for work but I want to learn it because I think that having a second language is a skill that is required these days. In a lot of jobs nowadays you are required to have a second language so I think that having one means that you will find a good job more easily.
I also want to learn Spanish because it is one of the most popular languages in the world and when I go on holidays to places like Spain or South America for example, I can communicate with the local people. I think that when you visit a foreign country you should always try to speak the local language. This shows consideration for other people and the locals really appreciate it when you make an effort, even if it is only with a few words or an expression.

I suppose that these reasons are why you want to learn English. When I ask a student why they are learning English the answer is usually either that they need it for work or that they want it for communication with other people.
Learning English grammar I feel is easier than learning grammar of other languages. It is less complicated because there are only two conjugations for the present simple, for example I have, he has. For the third person singular we add ´s´ but for the other persons we use the same word. In other languages there can be different conjugations for each different person. This is why I think that it is easier to learn English grammar than the grammar of other languages like Spanish or Catalan.

However, learning English in general is not easy. The English language has many phrasal verbs. A phrasal verb is usually two or three words together that have the meaning of a verb. For example the phrasal verb ´call on´ uses the verb call and the word on. The meaning of a phrasal verb can be difficult because the words that are used to form the phrasal verb don´t necessarily have a relation to the meaning of the phrasal verb so it can be difficult to understand them. I always students that they shouldn’t think too much about why a phrasal verb means what it means, but instead they should just accept that it means what it means and move on.

Another difficulty with the English language is that it isn’t a phonetic language. This means that a word doesn’t always sound as it looks. Spanish is easier in this context because it is phonetic. So, you have to learn the pronunciation of each English word by practicing it because you won´t pronounce it correctly all the time if you say it as you see it on the page.
If you are learning English or any other language I think that it is important to remain calm, not to worry if you don’t immediately understand something and not think too much about every little detail because you get frustrated when you do this and this will not help your learning.

Enjoy learning English and practise as much as you can.

G. Harman