It’s time to dispel all myths and excuses about language learning!
Many people complain that they can’t master their chosen foreign language. Let’s see how justified these complaints are.
As for me, I studied French at the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology at a provincial university in the 1990s.
Textbooks were extremely hard to find.
Even in the regional library, foreign language books were scarce. While you could still find some interesting literature in English, the choice of books in less common languages, even such as French and German, was much poorer.
Audio recordings were worth their weight in gold. The professors at our faculty copied French audio courses on cassettes from each other and shared them with us students.
No one had computers back then, no internet either.
It was difficult to meet foreigners in our city; we couldn’t communicate with native speakers.
I communicated with foreigners through correspondence. A letter took a month to reach its destination, and another month to get a reply.
The only thing that allowed me to master French despite these difficulties was that I was studying at a language faculty.
Now let’s return to our time.
Today, everything is available for language learning:
- Free online courses from leading world universities
- Language apps (Duolingo, Babbel, Busuu)
- Online conversation clubs
- Video chats with native speakers
- Streaming services with movies in any language
- Podcasts for all proficiency levels
- E-books and audiobooks
- Social networks for language exchange
The number of foreigners in our city hasn’t increased, but now we have the internet, and you can find both pen pals and friends to communicate with through video or audio calls.
Now you don’t have to wait a whole month for a reply to your letter.
Want to listen to foreign speech? The internet is full of resources: dialogue recordings, podcasts, audiobooks, etc.
Want to watch movies in a foreign language? Go ahead!
Love reading? Tens of thousands of books are available to you!
Need a textbook? Choose from hundreds of learning materials!
Start small:
- 15 minutes a day on a language learning app
- 1 episode of a series per week in the original language
- 2-3 pages of a book before bed
- A podcast during your morning jog
Are you still claiming you can’t learn a foreign language?
You have no excuses!
Language learning is more accessible than ever today. All you need is desire and regular practice. Start right now, and in a year, you’ll be grateful to yourself for this decision!