Brave Language Learning: Why and How Becoming Multilingual Must Happen Your Way

By Wiktor Kostrzewski

You are capable of learning and using any foreign language you choose.
You have the power to pick and choose your method, to hire and fire your teachers, to access any tool or resource.
And most importantly - you are about to enjoy it all a lot more with this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483547985

Book preview

Introduction

What is this book for?

This book is a positive voice. It is a voice speaking for those who want to learn their language their way. It is an appreciation of low-budget, high-intensity, low-pressure learning. It is a voice in favour of learning that doesn't need to make economical sense - of multilingualism that transcends the holiday conversation boundaries - and in favour of using language for more than a series of predetermined paths.

This book is also a voice of defiance. It is speaking against those who would reduce the world's languages to series of words. It is against those who would equate language learning with speaking on holiday. And it is very strongly against the pressure to spend time, money and effort on limiting, constrained and pre-packaged language learning solutions.

This book is here to show you that a different route is not only possible, but also more rewarding and much more enjoyable. It may lack the glamour and commercial pizzazz of the mass-marketed frontal assault language learning - but it will enable you to find yourself in language, to take what you need from it, and to contribute to the multilingual landscape in a way that's less explored.

Who is this book for?

It is for you, if you want to think a bit more creatively about learning a foreign language. It is for people who fall in love with all the language all the time - and whose motivation for becoming multilingual is the sheer pleasure of having a whole new world in their heads, ears, lungs, and on their tongue.

It is for you, it you're keen to learn a language your way. The book was written by a person who learned, taught, published and managed language education for over 20 years - you don't even need 10% of this time to develop your taste for languages, your budget and your way of learning. If you're determined to have a great time using your new language - then this book will help you do that.

Finally - this book is for you if you're a bit let down by what foreign language learning has to offer. There's that great scene at the beginning of Winnie the Pooh: the Bear is being dragged down the stairs by Christopher Robin, bonking his head on every step. He has that nagging thought that there must be another way of making that journey, and if he could just stop bonking his head on steps, he'd come up with what it was…Well, this book is putting a stop to bonking your head on language-learning steps. This is your chance to look around you, see what's worth your time and money - and what could be replaced by other sources. It would be self-defeating to try to sell you a new way of language learning: this would be just another step to bonk your head on. But I will sell you good questions and demand good answers. And that's enough to point you to your own way down those stairs.

How does this book work?

The first part of the book deals with the why - it's a bird's eye view on language learning and teaching. The second part is the how - these are shorter, practical reviews of several popular and effective methods of achieving multilingual life.

You can start and finish anywhere you please - you don't need the first part to pick and choose useful bits from the second section.

The bonus chapters are available online from a password-protected page. Head on to the end of the book for instructions on how to access those!

Wishing you many polyglot adventures - 

Wiktor

SECTION 1: The WHY

McLanguage: Here's what I did with folks like you in language schools

Your ideas for learning a new language would probably, at some point at least, involve signing up for a course in a language school. This is how it's done, right? Those people know what to do and they've been helping others learn a language. It's bound to work for you as well.

This is true in many cases and false - disappointingly, jaw-droppingly false - in others. I've been through several language schools, in several roles: as a learner, a teacher, a manager of other teachers, and an education consultant. Let me take you on a quick tour of some of those. Just like the ghost of language schools past, I'll show you a bit of a cautionary tale here.

Let's say you were one of my students and I was one of your language teachers. I may still be able to recognize your face, but probably not your name. There were a lot of other people in your class, and a lot of other classes I had to teach. The course may have been an intensive, short-term affair, or a year-long evening experience. This, in the end, mattered less than we both would think.

Do you think I had a lot of influence over what was taught? Not really. The syllabus was given out in advance: by the end of your course, you should be able to do this-and-that, using those grammar structures and those words. I, in turn, should deliver a given amount of tests, check