The Beginning..




    Like  I  say, if  you  can  imagine  It, you  can  speak  It. When  it  comes  to  learning  a  foreign  language, there  are  many  obstacles  that  present  themselves. But  the  most  debilitating  ones  are  found  in  our  minds, and  this  is  where  the  battle  has  first  to be  won. By  believing  in  your  ability  to  accomplish  the  task. I’m  writing  this  from  a  position  of  strength, because  at  one  time, I  was  that  person  facing  those  very  obstacles  but  I  was  able  to  overcome  them. And  so  can  you. I’m  fluent  in  five  languages (both written and spoken forms), these  include  Spanish  and  French. These  two  languages, that  is  Spanish  and  French, I  learnt  as  an  adult. I  started  from  point  zero  to  fluency, and  my  competence  is  good  enough  that  I  have  been  able  to  make  a  living  from  them. On  this  introductory  part  that  I  call ‘Take  Off, or  beginning, I  will  start  of  by  discussing  some  of  the  challenges  that  people  face  and  that  prevent  them  from  pursuing  their  passion. In  this  case, a  foreign  language.

-        The  biggest  obstacle  that  people  always  cite is ‘it  is  too  late  to  learn a  foreign  language  as  an  adult’.

-      The  second  obstacle  that’s  usually  mentioned  has  to  do  with  time. Many  people  say  that  learning  a  foreign  language  is  too  time  consuming. They  believe  that  one  has  to  dedicate  much  more  time  to  learning  a  language  as  compared  to  any  other  endeavor.

-      The  other  argument  that’s  presented  as  an  obstacle  is  the  question  of  whether  the  resources  they  will  dedicate  to  the  effort, that  is  time  and  money  are  worth  it. They  wonder  if  the  returns  will  be  worth  it.

-     Another  obstacle, or  argument  that  people  present  is  that  the  field  of  foreign  languages  is  saturated  with  people. They  argue  that  this  sector  has  too  many  people  in  it  already  and  that  the  competition  is  cutthroat  for  someone  to  be  able  to  reap  any  meaningful  rewards.

    All  these  obstacles, and  others  that  I  will  discuss  as  we  move  along  were  things  that  I  faced  and  had  to  navigate. As  we  go  along, I  will  be  sharing  with  you  some  of  the  approaches  that  I  used  and  how  they  helped  me. Even  to  this  day, I  still  go  back  to  some  of  those  tools  as  I  seek  to  maintain  and  improve  my  competence. One  thing  that  you  have  to  understand  is  that  there  is  never  an  end  point  to  learning  a  language. Languages  are  always  growing  and  evolving  as  new  words  are ‘born’  and  others  are  borrowed  from  other  existing  languages. And  this  is  why  one  needs  to  stay  current. Please, come  back  for  my  next  posting  as  I break  these  obstacles  down  one  by  one.




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