215 pages
English language
Published Feb. 24, 2008 by TESL-EJ.
Very interesting book concerning language learning with a lot of helpful tips and linguistic-related stories. Nonetheless, the book is an old one and thus there's some certain outdated facts and opinions. Of course, the book was about how the author learn languages, which probably doesn't apply for other learners. I would recommend this book for enthusiasts, however.
Very interesting book concerning language learning with a lot of helpful tips and linguistic-related stories. Nonetheless, the book is an old one and thus there's some certain outdated facts and opinions. Of course, the book was about how the author learn languages, which probably doesn't apply for other learners. I would recommend this book for enthusiasts, however.
Don't expect too much from this book that the author would tell you how she learnt 16 languages. There is only one chapter about it. Actually, there is only half of a chapter about it because she even dedicated another half of the chapter talking about the differences between men and women when they learn languages...
Anyway, I think the key idea of how she mastered 16 languages is that she always tried to grasp the meaning of the words and the grammars by herself before she asked the help of a dictionary. She made her own glossary and formed her own understanding of the languages. In this way, learning languages is more motivated and more fun.
So the rule is forgetting about what the teachers and the textbooks told us about what we should do while learning language. Just find some ways we really like to use the language …
Don't expect too much from this book that the author would tell you how she learnt 16 languages. There is only one chapter about it. Actually, there is only half of a chapter about it because she even dedicated another half of the chapter talking about the differences between men and women when they learn languages...
Anyway, I think the key idea of how she mastered 16 languages is that she always tried to grasp the meaning of the words and the grammars by herself before she asked the help of a dictionary. She made her own glossary and formed her own understanding of the languages. In this way, learning languages is more motivated and more fun.
So the rule is forgetting about what the teachers and the textbooks told us about what we should do while learning language. Just find some ways we really like to use the language as often as possible.
Very interesting stuff. I've always been interested in languages and would like to learn several (at least!). Ms. Lomb presents a very intriguing and practical method of attacking a foreign language.
My only qualm with the book is that it seems to take her a long time to get around to actually describing her learning method. Much of the book is fraught with personal and hearsay anecdotes that, while interesting, are more fluff than substance.
That said, it's a quick read and worth scanning through if you are looking to learn a new language in an efficient manner.
