Comments on: Follow your intuition to fluency

By: niamh

niamh — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:02:42 +0000

Great article Sarah! It’s so true that language learning isn’t really about knowing the grammar, it is about letting go. I taught in a primary school for a while (long story!) and those kids had no fear, just babbled in whatever language they were meant to be studying that day. It was great to see. If you could bottle that lack of inhibition and sell it, you would have the most popular language school in the world – and the most successful:)

By: Bo

Bo — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:21:28 +0000

Excellent article Sarah! And as others have previously replied already, I couldn’t agree with you more! I have found nearly the exact same response from my students, in that the more keen language learners are feeling out the language and grabbing the big picture first instead of concentrating on each individual word.
This is also how I have learned, and am still in the process of learning, the Thai and Laos languages.
Lots of head nodding and partial understanding, but remaining steadfast to follow my intuition to induce meaning.
again, great article, and thanks for sharing1
Cheers,
Bo

By: Ryukyu Mike

Ryukyu Mike — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:36:57 +0000

When you find yourself automatically thinking Japanese when you dial a Japanese number, English dialing an American and Spanish when you dial in Mexico, you’re getting there. When an American asks me for a Japanese person’s phone number I get confused trying to remember it in English.
Oops, showing signs of age: anyone have dial phones these days?

By: Hal

Hal — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:48:29 +0000

Oh, I have embraced the confusion!

Nice piece, Sarah.

By: Shawn

Shawn — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:05:03 +0000

I agree with you, because while learning to speak French it was really confusing, but I am up for far greater challenges when I get off the plane to whatever country my savings take me too after getting out of the United State Army after twelve years of service. Wish me well and thank you so much.

By: Abbie

Abbie — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:14:46 +0000

I totally agree! It’s so much easier to get the gist of something than try to figure out each individual piece! I will definitely keep this in mind when I try to learn another language.

By: Shreya

Shreya — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:25:59 +0000

“You’ve got to be confident enough to make a solid attempt at understanding and acting on that understanding, and yet you’ve got to be humble and perceptive enough to pick up on the speaker’s intentions.” Bingo!

Lovely article, thanks.

By: Tim Patterson

Tim Patterson — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:40:07 +0000

Argentina? Sweet! You’ll be fine. Just remember this: dos media lunas y cafe con leche por favor.

Will you be in BsAs?

By: Tanya

Tanya — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:56:02 +0000

Sarah, I couldn’t agree with you more. Thank you for putting into words the thing I could never quite put my finger on that helped me become fluent in French. The best tip for learning a language in my opinion? Move to a country where it’s spoken!

By: Colin Wright

Colin Wright — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:17:06 +0000

Very good ideas to keep in mind! I’m already dreading the feeling I’m going to have when I step foot into Argentina, with my muy terible grasp of Spanish, but I think that learning this way will gel well with my desire to learn conversational Spanish quickly and relatively painlessly.