How to Learn a Language

Hina and Ali were two students who had recently arrived in Canada.  They had studied English a bit in their home countries (Japan and Saudi Arabia), but one of the reasons they came to Canada was so that they could improve their English, and use it in their work in the future.  How did they go about learning English?  What strategies did they find the most useful?

Hina was interested in Hollywood movies and music and books.  There was a TV in her home stay, so after school, she would bring a dictionary and notebook, and watch a show, trying to figure out what the characters were saying.  Some of the words came pretty fast, but she did her best to write them down, and maybe ask someone later about words she was unsure of.  If she watched the same movie again, she often found it easier to understand the second time.

Ali loved to play soccer, so he found a group that played on a local field, and would go once a week to play soccer with some other locals.

One of Hina's classmates pointed out that there were language exchanges both online and in the city she was staying.  She went to the website Meetup, found one of these exchanges, and went to check it out.  She also noticed that there was some English language cafes back in her home country.

Hina met a Canadian woman, Olivia, at her first exchange.  Olivia asked Hina what countries she'd been to, what her hobbies were, if she knew another woman who also came to the exchange.  It turned out that both Hina and Olivia had been to the United States, so they talked about that for a while.  Olivia liked books too, and she recommended that Hina try reading Harry Potter.  Hina hadn't met the other woman, so Olivia introduced the two of them.  After the exchange, they all went out for a coffee, to get to know each other better.  When Hina got home she told her host family about the coffee shop, and they said they'd been there too, and recommended the latte's.

Ali spent a lot of time listening to the people at school, his soccer buddies, his room mates.  He was trying to develop a feel for what sounds natural in English.  When he learned a new phrase he would note it down in his memo app, and then tried it out on his teachers at school or room mates.  Sometimes they'd smile, surprised he knew such things.

Hina had studied a lot about English grammar and translation in school in her home country, but now that she was in Canada, she was having to think, and respond quickly in order to keep up in the conversations she got into.  She told Ali that sometimes she felt nervous, meeting new people.  He replied that he understood how she felt, but the more they practiced speaking and listening, the easier it would become.

One of their classmates, Maria, told them about a Taylor Swift song, "Shake it off."

"What does that mean?" Hina asked.

"It means you should believe in yourself.  You don't need to worry about people who criticize or disrespect you.  Haters gonna hate.  That's their problem not yours."

"I think that's a good message.  Stay positive.  Do your best."

Hina and Ali weren't sure what 'haters gonna hate' meant at first, but just from the context, they guessed it meant that people like that are going to do what they want, and we shouldn't worry about them.

Ali sometimes had trouble understanding one of the guys at his soccer games.  That guy spoke quickly, and used a lot of slang.  He started asking,

"Could you say that again?  What does that mean?"

Eventually, the guy slowed down, and explained more.  Ali was grateful.

Meanwhile, Hina started getting more serious about taking notes.  She started watching lectures on Youtube, and after the lecture was over she'd try to type out a summary of what she'd learned.  She'd sometimes have to go back, and check, but it slowly got easier.

Every once in a while, Hina would go back through her notes, looking for phrases she could use more at school or in her conversations with her host family or people at the exchange.  She always tried to keep the things she was learning fresh in her mind.  She would sometimes organize her notes by topic making them easier to find.

She got to talking with Ali about "gonna."

"I think it means 'are going to.'  Haters are going to hate.  It's talking about the future."

"Or is it like a generalization?" 

"Yeah, maybe.  Same kind of thing."

She got out her grammar book from school, and looked up verb tenses and the future, and that helped her understand better.

"What do you think your weakest area is?" she asked Ali.

"I guess listening, especially like the news or lectures and stuff."

"I started watching lectures on Youtube."

"Ah good idea."

"What do you want to do when our course finishes?"

"I think I want to study some other subject using English.  Like computers or business."

"Oh that's a good idea."

When you learn a language, do you use any of the strategies that Hina and Ali use?