Job Discussion Forums

[Dr.J]

Have you found the language of your 'host' country to be difficult or easy to pick up?

If you have been to many countries, which languages have you found the easiest or hardest to pick up from scratch, being a native speaker of English?

What are your best tips and tricks for learning the local language? (dammit, not really obvious rubbish like 'make friends with local people').

What is the minimum level EFL teachers should reach in the host country's language before trying to teach there?

All and any comments welcome.

[khmerhit]

Dr J said

Quote:

What are your best tips and tricks for learning the local language? (dammit, not really obvious rubbish like 'make friends with local people').

I'm sorry Dr, but it really is that obvious. The sleeping dictionary works -- if not the best -- then most satisfactorily. I'm not speaking from experience, though, sadly. It's what I was told by others, and definitely noticed.

[Dr.J]

When I said "tips and tricks" I was contrasting it to "surefire methods" (I accept making friends is a surefire method).

Something like; "put sticky notes with the matching word on household items" ...but not as lame.

[dandan]

You could combine the two and try making friends with local people and then put sticky notes on them with things like 'arm' 'head' etc.

Not quite sure how well that would go down though.

[Dave Kessel]

This is what I do:

Buy a book with a title such as Introduction to French, or Basic Thai, or Basic Japanese, etc. It should be a book that has the basic grammar rules. I study that. Then I buy a second book like that and finish it, too- time frame? Two months.

Concurrently with that I buy a phrase book with all the useful phrases and information for every situation- in the hotel, at the pharmacy, etc. I finish that one. Then I buy a dictionary and set out to copy it by hand- basically I rewrite it by writing out all the words that I would be most likely to use. i do not mean a 1000- page dictionary but a 150 page one would do.

All this while I go out and try to converse with the natives at the same time.

After 6 months you are speaking the basics and after a year you should be OK.

[Roger]

For a NET, the incentive to acquire his or her host country's national language(s) should not be related to job performance; rather it is driven by social forces.
And, once you float on the currents that propel the local populace too you have enough motivation to learn the local tongue by hook and by crook!
But I can't imagine an easy way, learning it while you sleep and dream!
It is hard work - as hard as the work done by our best students!

[nomadder]

I always found it sadly ironic to be teaching a foreign language and expecting(hoping) students to become fluent when I myself was surrounded by their language and did not reach the fluency level. Nonetheless I feel studying other languages does help with teaching. It's good to see things from that point of view.

[dduck]

[MonkeyKing]

This is a little off topic, but I was really poor at languages at school (French), was convinced I had no talent for them, and thus hated every minute of it. But later, when I eventually lived abroad for an extended period, found I could pick them up up fairly quickly (Korean and Chinese, at least). Actually putting stuff into practice made a world of difference to me. Gave me something to think about as an EFL teacher anyway, different learning styles and all that...

[denise]

[Wolf]

[richard ame]

Hi Dr J
Two points really ,when I first arrived here I was in a total immersion situation my wife and I were the only two English speakers in the area and the local teachers were not around all the time so we had to learn as a matter of day to day necessity.Sadly when we left that place after about a year and ventured into the city everyone spoke English and my new boss stressed that fluency in the local tongue was not a job requirement we were only expected to use English in the classroom,so why do you think you need to have fluency in the host country's tongue in order to teach ,sorry am I missing something??

[Dr.J]

Well, I was asking about the minimum level. Do you think the minimum level is 0?

To me, it makes it easier to understand why students have certain problems with English, and it helps you to understand their culture, and therefore what motivates them. It also makes your life less stressful outside of the classroom.

[Cleopatra]

Richard,

Of course you don't have to be fluent in the local language in order to be able to teach.

However, I do believe that anyone who is teaching a language - even their own language - should at some point have studied a foreign language. They don't have to be fluent in it, and it doesn't have to be the local langauge, but it helps if it is because it gives you a great insight into the mistakes and "false friends" your ss are likely to come up with. It's just that knowing what language learning entails, amkes it much easier to 'put yourself in your ss shoes".

To me, a teacher who has never studies another language is almost like a driving instructor who has never learnt to drive!

[richard ame]

Hi
Thanks Cleo your point is well taken and received naturally any experience in learning another language is helpful in our situation as foreign language teachers the only point I was making was it being a job requirement which is what the orginal posting implied just wanted to clear that one up .