On Teaching and Language Learning

I've been asked a couple of times to teach people to speak English, and there are a few curious things I noticed in that regard. So, before I waste my time, I sort of put them to a test. I just point out some simple starting points and what usually happens is, they go like this: "Yeah, yeah, no that sounds like so much work ... Couldn't you just teach me?" Interesting idea of teaching they have, don't they? I mean, how do they think this is going to go down? I do all the work, perform some kind of magical dance and beam the knowledge from my brain to theirs?

Where does this conviction come from that with just the right teacher they would magically learn what they should, and of course the counter conclusion that if they don't, it's obviously the teacher's fault, not their own? Don't get me wrong I think there are some lousy teachers out there - hell knows I've had my fair share of those, but you can't blame it all on them. In the end nobody's going to care about how bad your teacher was. They're going to care about whether or not you know what you are supposed to know and if you don't, that's your own fault. If you've got a bad teacher, well tough luck, that means you're gonna have to put in some more effort, not sit back and blame it all on them. All the information is out there and you don't even have to pay a fortune to get it, if you only know where to look. That's the beauty of the Internet.

But even if you've got a good teacher, you're still gonna have to put in some effort. Or have you ever seen someone learn to walk just by watching other people walk? No, because the muscles have to practice this movement themselves and so does your brain - especially when it comes to language learning. The teacher's job, in my humble opinion, is just to show you how and where to start, guide you while you go, and correct you when you make a mistake. That sort of thing.

The first thing I would advise any language learner to do though, would be to get some good motivation. Because if you don't know what you're doing this for, you're gonna fall off the wagon as soon as the road gets a little bumpy. They all do. Now, that motivation better be something a little more feasible than saying you always wanted to learn another language, because you want people to think you're smarter or something along those lines. Good motivations are the person you really want to be able to communicate with or the book that is going to take months to be available in translation. Those are motivation, practice and reward all in one package. Once you've got that kind of motivation, you just stick to it and practice. That's all there is to it.