Speaking

How often do you SPEAK?

In any language, you learn how to READ, WRITE, SPEAK and LISTEN. Personally, one of the best ways to tackle and master a language is by learning how to speak.

Think about when you were a toddler or a child and you are just beginning to make sense of the world. From your memory, does your parent give you a pen and paper or a textbook to read as soon as you started to walk? No, of course not.  After toddlers  learn how to crawl and walk...they begin to learn how to speak.

I believe the same concept apply to learning a language. Let me explain and give you an example from my personal experience. 

My native language is Thai. English is the second language I speak and I have been learning English since I was 8 years old. English was a compulsory subject during high school but we weren’t taught much on speaking. In fact, it was very little to none. Most of the time, we were learning how to read and write. As a result, when it comes to watching an English movie or speaking to an English native speaker...we just go blank. Our brain does not process as quickly as it should when speaking because we are too concentrated on how to structure the sentence right in our head by applying what we learn in the textbook. Sometimes, it doesn't work like that...we need practice.

However, Mandarin to me..is very different. I was taught Mandarin verbally. I do know very little on how to read and write but my speaking is at a much higher level. I cannot quite explain how I form sentences together but I just know where the verb, adjectives, noun or sentence structures are meant to be. In other word, I know how to form a sentence together. On the other hand, I studied Japanese for 3 years during high school and I do not remember much from it. I could still read and write (very slowly) but my speaking is poor. Reason being is because I have not had any practice.

Being a multilingual certainly gives you a competitive advantage. Not only you learn how to speak more than one language but you can also learn from the culture.

Do you speak just one language and want to improve your English? Come study with us! www.etc.ac.nz