On Learning A New Language - Part 1 of 3
A HEADACHE for SOME? #
It could be. I would not deny it. #
Quick Background Info I’m Mauritian and my mother tongue is Mauritian Creole. I speak French and English at near native level, but this is changing. Learnt Mandarin Chinese for a few years, with several informal short-term immersions during my travels to the Mainland of China. Learnt Portuguese as well. So, Mandarin Chinese and Portuguese are basics only. However, I am moving faster on Portuguese, which I chose over Mandarin Chinese, as my focus for the next 6 months. After which, I will review and make a decision whether to persist with Portuguese or to focus on Mandarin Chinese.
3 Key Personal Challenges #
(1) Practicing
This is a definite common problem. Whether it is to speak or to write, we need to practice. As a long-time language learner, I am guilty of not regularly practicing the language which I am “aiming” to get better at.
For me, it has been partially because of the falling motivation as the days go by and partially because I tend to be bored easily with “traditional study materials”.
To practice requires time, motivation, energy and a medium to practice. I could listen/watch movies in Chinese with subtitles. But goes back to the lack of motivation. I could find a language buddy (I know a lot of chinese people) but found out it was a burden to ask friend(s) to commit to helping me. Again, the motivation would fall further.
(2) Lack of focus
It is self-explanatory point. Formal language tend to be lasting for 2-3 hours per session and I possess a very short attention span. On the other hand, self-study is affected a lot by distractions (phone calls/messages/just checking facebook).
In general, I think it tend to be due to natural temptations and bad habits of multi-tasking.
I will talk about language hacking in another post #stay tune
(3) Context & Drivers
Contextually, I used to learn Mandarin Chinese for the sake of learning the language (You know, there’s over a billion of Mandarin speakers, mostly concentrated in Asia). But in university, I took Chinese as a side language for scoring better grades given that I had the basics secured already.
In short, I didn’t bother to learn it because I truly wanted to do so.
My driver’s were better grade, not mastery of the language.
As for Portuguese, the context is pretty simple again. Over 200 millions speakers mostly concentrated in Brazil. However, I will be based in Portugal (approx 10 million speakers) where the basic knowledge of Portuguese would be highly appreciated. Hence, I have an extrinsic motivation to learn it properly for the short-term.