REFLECTION 8

Clues for Learning New languages

            We meet foreign languages in our lives every day. They are critical point of our lives. The article of this week is how people can learn new languages more easily and efficiently. The article is written by John-Erik Jordan by giving some advises from a guy who speaks nine languages. This is funny and helpful article. Firstly, I want to mention about why we are learning new languages. I think that new languages broaden our horizon all the time. They show us new cultures, traditions or facts. For instance, when we are reading one of the Shakespeare dramas like Hamlet, we prefer the original text if we know English very well. Reading the original provides an advantage for us because we can understand the real feelings or ideas of the text. Otherwise, Turkish version cannot be meaningful enough to comment the text. Also, knowing a language is helpful to learn the culture or traditions easily. Secondly, learning new languages is necessary to communicate different nations of people. The more we can learn new languages, the more we can talk to people. In addition, we can catch up the developments of all around the world. When we look at the article, in order to learn new languages effectively, there are some clues about this.

In the article, the writer states ‘Find a partner’. For this point, I want to mention that my friend came from Montenegro for Erasmus in this semester. Especially, in the beginning I cannot talk to her fluently or I think how to say something. Thanks to talking every day, I can express my ideas more easily. This is a practical and useful clue. S/he states ‘Act like a child’. Sometimes, we are thinking about our languages words or phrases and translating foreign languages. This is a wrong path; on the other hand, we should act like a child and think simpler for the sentences or phrases. Therefore, we can use new languages actively in our daily lives not just academic lives. To sum up, there are a lot of clues or assistance of learning new languages. I think that the important point is which one is suitable for us. We can try all of the methods and choose the best one or ones. However, we should not forget that foreign languages are getting importance day by day.