There are books about language training for teachers . These are helpful for educators out there who want to learn and teach multiple languages. Many people see the ability to speak two or more languages as a sign of intellect. This has its merits. If you are interested, here are some things that you need to know:
Start Simple
Learning a new language takes a lot of time and effort. Not only will you have to contend with how the words are pronounced, but there are others that require new to learn a new set of characters. Japan has different sets of characters: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. The first one features curvy characters and is usually used for reading materials for children. Katakana is used to spell out words phonetically. Kanji has much more ornate characters and is used for more complex words and phrases.
If you try to memorize all these, kanji itself has 2,000 characters. If that is not enough, the Chinese have more than 50,000 . But about 2,000 to 3,000 are the most used ones. Imagine the time needed to memorize these in addition to practicing by talking to a native speaker.
So with that, if you are an English speaker, it’s best if you start learning a language that also uses the alphabet. Since many English words are derived from some European languages such as Spanish and French, starting with those would be a good idea. They use the alphabet with a few little differences, like putting some accents on the letters.
Watch Movies
A good way to prepare yourself before studying a new language is by immersing yourself in movies. Turn on the subtitles on a Spanish movie on DVD. Even if you don’t know anything yet, do it long enough, and you will start to notice its syntax. You can also read dictionaries while watching so that you can find out how they pronounce their syllables. Expose yourself to as much of the language as possible to condition your mind and make it curious as to what it is seeing or hearing. You will long to find out words’ meanings.
What Are the Benefits?
After preparing yourself, you should be ready to go to class. This will be a long process. If you have a high level of interest in the language, you will learn it quickly. Knowing another language opens up your world to more possibilities. You will enjoy more books and movies. You don’t need to turn on your subtitles anymore, and you can focus more on watching instead of reading.
You can interact with more people. Traveling will be more enjoyable if you know you can converse in different languages. An effect of this is that you have more or better job opportunities. You may find jobs that pay higher. You can also look for work outside the country if you prefer that.
The more languages you can speak, the more you can open up the world to you. You will be able to cross borders and communication barriers. You can be proud to say that you are a citizen of the world.
