Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote “The limits of my language are the limits of my world”. Definitely, no one wants to narrow his world. That’s why we always want to be able to speak another language different from our mother tongue. English seems to be the best option for those who don’t have it as their first language since nowadays English becomes more and more popular worldwide.
However, it is not always easy to start learning a new language. English learners have to face several difficulties on their journey.
Don’t know how to start. What is the right method?
To deal with this very first problem you should determine your purpose. Ask yourself a few questions and try to answer them. Why do you want to learn English? What level you are now? How good you want it to be? When do you want to get there?
If you have a clear purpose such as to pass an English test, to travel, or just to be able to communicate, then you are lucky to have a motivation, which is a very good start. If you don’t then you might want get one. While most problems could be easily cured through simple solutions, the lack of purposes or interests can only come from within you.
Without an internal desire to learn English, no amount of money, resources, and strategies can help you get to the next level. Whatever your goal may be, make sure it excites you!
Once you have a goal, the next step is to locate your English level and the distance you should go through to get there. With a start and an end point, a deadline or a limit of time will help you make a clear plan and how can you obtain it. You can also divide this long run into several phases, which keeps you on track and avoid of being overloaded.
Lack of time
It probably is the most common excuse for those who try to learn English while pursuing their own business and daily life. However, I still believe that once you have a strong motivation, you will definitely find time to fit it in. Fortunately, thanks to the improvement of nowadays technology, there are plenty of English learning programs and apps which commit just take a few minute from your busy schedule while still keeping you up with your study plan.
One-way thinking
Compare to the others, this might be the most frustrating obstacle to get through for every language learner. We have a bad habit of trying to translate every word that into our mother tongue, otherwise we might be frustrated and tend to give up on the reading/listening process. Very often an English learner reach out for a dictionary looking up for every new word. This habit may lead to overwhelming and frustrating since language learning will involve a lot of uncertainty such as rare words or terminology and exceptional grammatical rules. Therefore, it is encouraged to learn English in a natural way which has less involving of our first language. That’s how such English learning apps as Duolingo or Elsa work.
Lack of vocabulary
Definitely, a shortage of vocabulary will lead to inconfidence and the fear of using the language. However, this problem can be overcome by active reading, listening and watching materials at the right level for you. Moreover, the two most important conditions supporting vocabulary learning are spaced repetition and the quality of given attention. Quality is increased by recalling what you have met, making varied recalls and giving deliberate attention. In other words, working hard and working smart can help you overcome this obstacle.
To conclude, starting to learn a new language requires a clear motivation and proper methods to keep you right on track and encourage you keep on going. eJOY ENGLISH app might be the tool could help you solve all these problems. Try it out!
