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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Cuperzingo23 Newbie United States Joined 4132 days ago 6 posts - 8 votes | Message 1 of 12 15 June 2013 at 8:19pm | IP Logged |
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I'm sure I'm not alone in having a bad experience learning a language. How do you get past your bad
experience and pick the language up agin? For me it was my 6th grade Spanish teacher who barely spoke English leaving me to be confused and disliking the language entirely. I would like to learn Spanish because it seems it's an important language to learn and could be beneficial. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gosiak Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4935 days ago 241 posts - 361 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Norwegian, Welsh | Message 2 of 12 15 June 2013 at 10:00pm | IP Logged |
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You need to find something that you enjoy about the language or culture and it better be good because it has to keep you going. The importance of Spanish and it's being beneficial are extrinsic sources of motivation which often don't suffice. Do you have any positive conotations with that language? You need to forget about that teacher. Do you have any Spanish speaking friends/favourite Spanish artist/Spanish football team?
I had many language teachers throughout my language journey, some of them were brilliant others were annoying.C'est la vie ... You need to counterbalance your bad memories and make a new start. For a start you could listen to a Spanish radio and simply check if you manage to enjoy the sound of the language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Jenne:) Tetraglot Newbie Netherlands polyglotquest.wordpr Joined 4276 days ago 38 posts - 56 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Norwegian | Message 3 of 12 15 June 2013 at 11:20pm | IP Logged |
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One year at secondary school, I had a French teacher who clearly disliked me. She criticised me whenever she could. Once, we had to write an essay on some famous French person. I got a 4/10, based on ridiculous stuff such as "you should not have indicated that it was for French on the title page" (we always had to do this for other classes) and "the ink (of the printer) does not look perfect on one line". We also had to give presentations based on these essays, however, in front of the entire class. Mine had exactly the same content as the essay and I got an 8/10. I still think this is because she could not come up with a good reason to fail me that the whole class would believe. She also became extremely angry when I did not know the meaning of a 'basic' word. As a result, I no longer liked French because I believed I was no good at it. However, other teachers restored my confidence. One even suggested that I should go on to study it at university. I did not do so, but I did take a course this year and the teacher was extremely enthusiastic about my performance :D. Hence, I now love French again. I am lucky I got to meet other teachers after the bad one. Edited by Jenne:) on 15 June 2013 at 11:23pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4637 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 4 of 12 16 June 2013 at 1:57am | IP Logged |
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Biting off more than I could chew (in terms of multiple language courses), and then being
too pig-headed to be honest with myself, and do something about it. I wasted a lot of time and energy that way. Ironically, I thought I was trying to "save time" by doing this - bit like the fable of the tortoise and the hare. EDIT: oh, how do you get past it? In my case, time was a great healer, and eventually I just started again, and tried to do it more slowly and surely. I still made lots of errors, but it was a more worthwhile attempt, even if the goals were more limited. Edited by montmorency on 16 June 2013 at 1:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vogue Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4063 days ago 109 posts - 181 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian | Message 5 of 12 16 June 2013 at 11:12am | IP Logged |
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Interestingly; I've had several bad experiences with Spanish all coming down to the fact that I was never a
good student in it, and even had to withdraw from my first college Spanish class (while living in Spain!). The only reason why I ever learned it was because I needed to in order to converse with people when living in Honduras (I was a teacher, teaching IN Spanish, so that's a motivator). I learned it because I needed to, plain and simple, though now I'm glad I have those skills because I use them semi-regularly. As an aside, I came back and took an advanced Spanish class, by the way, and did very well. I guess what I'm saying is that I personally learned a language past bad experiences because there was no other option. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5071 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 6 of 12 16 June 2013 at 2:04pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome to the forum Cuperzingo23. Bad experiences can keep people from doing a lot of things they may otherwise like and be good at, provided you let them do so. If you let a bad experience from a teacher rule you, stop you from learning a language, then you have let that person "win". That person still controls you because you are allowing him/her to do so. The bad experience had more to do with the teaching than what was being taught.
Motivation can come from without, as in the case of vogue, or it can come from within. Obviously, you have some motivation to learn a language or you wouldn't be posting on a forum like this. Know that learning a language is a commitment. It takes time, despite what the courses say, to learn a language- especially your first second language. Language learners tend to be open to new ideas because learning a language tend to force one to accept new ways of doing something. For example, in Spanish you don't "like something" it "pleases you- te gusta", "I like apples" = "Me gustan las manzanas". The common mistake of English-speaking beginners is to say "Me gusta las manzanas" when the third person conjugation is needed because the "apples"- plural- they- are what pleases you. Once you grasp the concept of "that's how they do it in Spanish" and accept it, it tends to make you more accepting in general because you can't change the language to suit you. That's how they do it in Spanish. As my profile says, I speak Spanish. It doesn't make me any money but it it is a part of my life now and I like that. I became interested in Spanish as a boy because I was fascinated by hearing what was obviously a baseball game, being broadcast over a crackly radio signal from Cuba, in the middle of winter! After the game the broadcast switched to salsa music. I liked it and wanted to hear more. The next night I heard a speech from Fidel Castro- so demonized in the US at the time. I wanted to know what he was saying. The next day I saw a small article in the newspaper about his speech, just a couple of paragraphs. The word "imperialism" stood out to me. I remembered hearing the word "imperialismo" several times during his speech. That connection made me feel as if I could actually learn to speak and understand Spanish, something that nobody I knew could do. There were no Spanish-speaking immigrants in my upper south town, no Univisión or Telemundo at the time, and no internet. My contact with Spanish was via shortwave radio, my high school Spanish class and the few books I could find in the nearest "big" town. I guess I've just always had a curious mind. If that is the case with you, if you're curious, that curiosity along with aspects of culture that you like can be your internal motivation. The culture comes along with the language. You can't not learn it as you learn the language. Once you get a grasp of the basics you'll start to discover a whole new world that has been all around you the whole time that you never really paid that much attention to before. There's a Czech proverb- "Learn a new language and get a new soul". That's what happened to me and it keeps happening. Do you want to allow a bad experience in sixth grade to keep you from gaining a new soul? The cultures of 350 million Spanish-speakers are waiting for you to discover them. So if you want to learn Spanish on your own, you can. Lots of people have done so. The forum is a good place to find out how best to do so on your own. Check out my, and others' advice in this HTLAL thread on learning Spanish. Have a look at members' Spanish learning logs. You can spend as little or as much money as you want. In fact, you don't even have to spend any money at all beyond your computer expenses if you don't want to do so. It has never been easier to learn a language than it is right now. What are you waiting for! ¡Vaya! Edited by iguanamon on 17 June 2013 at 5:39pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5575 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 12 16 June 2013 at 2:53pm | IP Logged |
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I don't have bad experiences, I have amusing anecdotes.
... at least that's what I strive for. When I was five year old we moved to my hometown, which is close to the French border. Most adults in my social environment spoke some French, so I assumed I would learn it in due time. I decided to take voluntary French classes in my third and fourth year of elementary school, so I could do just that, learn French. We learnt a couple of words and a few nursery rhymes and songs. At the end of the course we went on a day exchange with French students of the same age. They could converse in German. We could say our name and that we like apples in French. In hindsight I understand, and I don't feel that embarrassed anymore. But when I am in a similar situation even now, I want to die of embarrassment whenever I think I could have worked harder, and actually learnt to use the language. Just because I disliked my teacher, because I had something more interesting (or important) to do, because I feel more comfortable using my passive skills ... ... it still means I didn't learn it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4818 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 12 16 June 2013 at 4:50pm | IP Logged |
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Bad experience concerning learning a language? Plenty.
1.Four years of English with a teacher whose favourite method was shouting at people until they learnt the Murphy lessons by themselves. The rest of the classes was mostly spent on learning useless vocab like "oysters" (I have never eaten them and I doubt I ever will. At the age of thirteen I had encountered them only once in an Agatha Christie novel) and listening to stories about her cats. 2.French. Due to the stupid educational system, I was forced to start several times. I hated it. The same lessons again and again. 3.People replying in English even though my French is much better than their English. Still, those didn't drive me off. All those people can kiss my shiny metal ... (anyone else here is fan of the Futurama?) 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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