{"id":3557,"date":"2013-12-05T17:53:46","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T17:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spontaneousdevelopment.com\/sdnuggets\/?p=3557"},"modified":"2013-12-06T11:53:56","modified_gmt":"2013-12-06T11:53:56","slug":"fun-strategy-for-quickly-improving-language-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/fun-strategy-for-quickly-improving-language-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Strategy for Quickly Improving Language Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning a foreign (or new) language is not easy. I share a strategy developed from my obsession with improving my proficiency in French. It\u2019s so simple, yet effective, that you\u2019ll wonder why you never thought of it before! Career persons<\/a> in paid employment, with interest in language learning, will find this strategy useful.<\/p>\n

What Is This Strategy?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s the habit of deliberately watching movies subtitled in the language you want to learn.<\/p>\n

But you must choose, as often as possible, movies you have already <\/strong>watched in a language you know.<\/p>\n

If you do it right, you will dramatically boost your comprehension, spoken fluency and vocabulary!<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Watching Movies Subtitled in French, Can Help You Learn to Speak Faster & Better<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By better I mean you be able to speak it so well that competent others assume you\u2019re a native speaker!<\/p>\n

I touched on this in my Proven 5 Step Formula for Learning ANY Language In 3 Months or Less<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Since 1999 I\u2019ve been obsessed with the French language. Over the years I noticed a trend.<\/p>\n

Whenever native French speakers talked to me, I struggled to comprehend. But with Francophone Africans (e.g Beninese or Camerounian<\/a> friends or acquaintances), I readily understood what they said.<\/p>\n

When I speak to Francophone Africans, my English accent sometimes get in the way too!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I once wanted to buy a small bottle of medical alcohol. Instead of saying \u201calcool\u201d (pronounced \u201cahl-call), I pronounced it \u201cal-co-hol\u201d \u2013 with the \u201ch\u201d sound very audible, as in English.<\/p>\n

It took my explaining many uses of the item, before the lady understood. She then pointedly told me I'd pronounced it wrongly! <\/em><\/p>\n

This is Why Some Foreign English Drama Series\/Comedies Don\u2019t \u201cClick\u201d With Nigerians<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the same way, a full blooded Briton, visiting Nigeria for the first time, might struggle to understand people speaking English with a local accent (e.g Ijebu, Egba, or Efik etc).<\/p>\n

Seven years working with English, Welsh,Irish and Scottish expatriates, while employed in Guinness Nigeria, opened my eyes to this reality. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I found deliberately watching British\/American movies helped me better comprehend what they said. Especially getting used to their speed. Over time I learnt to make myself better understood by them.<\/p>\n

This inability to comprehend the speech\/conversational mannerisims, of British and American speakers, is why some high profile sitcom\/drama series from those parts, don\u2019t \u201cclick\u201d with Nigerians.<\/em><\/h3>\n

Moumouni Toure, a friend in Calavi, works with a boss who is from France, but runs a chain of mobile phone shops in Benin. Each time I\u2019ve had to converse with the boss, it\u2019s been hard making out his words. And vice versa. Most times we have to take turns explaining ourselves in the other person\u2019s preferred language to ensure s\/he fully comprehends what they other is sayng!<\/p>\n

Moumouni on the other had does not suffer the same handicap \u2013 for obious reasons. You see, he speaks and understands both languages reasonably well. <\/em><\/p>\n

By Watching Movies Subtitled in French, You\u2019ll Pick Up Useful Words, and Expressions for Everyday Conversation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Whenever I want to take a break from my crazily choked work schedule, I don\u2019t just laze around.<\/p>\n

Usually I get myself a big bowl of Cassava flour (known locally as Gari), to which I add sugar and plenty of groundnuts. Then I sit back and watch (on my laptop) movies subtitled in French.<\/p>\n

Like I said earlier, I choose those I\u2019ve watched in English before. And usually, I\u2019m familiar with many of the lines. So, it\u2019s always a thrill to be able to hear those same lines said in French.<\/p>\n

More importantly, you pick up some useful smart phrases you can easily put to use.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One example: <\/strong>Ils ont disparu (They disappeared).<\/p>\n

Another: <\/strong>Ne bouge pas! (Don\u2019t move!)<\/p>\n

It Can Help You Continue Improving Even Without Formal Textbooks or Lessons!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Dale Carnegie noted that learning a foreign language, is similar to learning public speaking: you don\u2019t make progressive improvements.<\/p>\n

Quite often, your progress will come in fits and starts. There will be times when you\u2019ll arrive at a \u201cplateau\u201d, where you don\u2019t\u00a0 seem to be improving.<\/p>\n

Then you\u2019ll have a sudded growth spurt, and wonder at how you manage to progress so much. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The key is to NEVER stop working to improve \u2013 even during the \u201cplateau\u201d phase.<\/p>\n

Especially then!<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you stop, you\u2019ll end up retrogressing. <\/em><\/p>\n

One good way I\u2019ve found is to leave textbooks aside, and watch people making real-life conversation. I encounter useful words and expressions, said by a native (not Francophone) French speaker.<\/p>\n

Final Words<\/strong>: Try It and See!<\/h3>\n

This strategy really works - and it can be applied in other ways too.<\/p>\n

For instance, some months back I gave out rating forms to tasters of my pineapple peel based drink<\/a>. In explaning what I wanted, I said \u201cJe voudrais demander votre point du vu<\/strong>\u201d (\u201cI would like to have your opinion\u201d) \u2026about the drink.<\/p>\n

A friend exclaimed \u201cAh Tayo, your French is really improving!<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

That expression was used by a radio presenter, some days earlier. I simply adapted it for my purposes.<\/p>\n

You too can improve your language skills by doing a similar thing, with movies and TV\/radio shows<\/p>\n

And you\u2019d be having fun at the same time!<\/strong><\/p>\n

NB: <\/em><\/strong>The above may not readily apply to Nigerian Nollywood (or African) movies subtitled in French.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learning a foreign (or new) language is not easy. I share a strategy developed from my obsession with improving my proficiency in French. It\u2019s so simple, yet effective, that you\u2019ll wonder why you never thought of it before! Career persons in paid employment, with interest in language learning, will find this strategy useful. What Is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,266,10],"tags":[904,903,902],"class_list":["post-3557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employeescareer-persons","category-my-dn-travel-news","category-self-development","tag-how-to-have-fun-while-learning-a-language","tag-how-to-improve-your-language-skills","tag-proven-5-step-formula-for-learning-languages"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":3117,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3557"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3564,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3557\/revisions\/3564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}