An alien in Colombia - Learning a new language in a different country

Most people know that living in a different country is the best way to learn a new language. We all know someone who lived in London for a year and came back to Colombia speaking excellent English. Yes they studied while they were there, but many people also study here in Colombia too but never reach that level of English. So how or why do these people learn so much better? Here I will outline 4 points why learning a language in a different country is better than learning at home. These are things I learned while learning Spanish in Colombia and they have helped me a lot. Go to TheNativeNetwrok.com to learn more.

1. Signs. Yes street signs are everywhere. We see thousands of street signs every day and we don´t even notice them, but when you live in a foreign country, the signs become your teacher. You may not understand the words at first, but after some time, and some natural intuition and deciphering, the brain will eventually be able to understand what they mean. Familiarity is the key. When we see the same thing many times every day, we can imagine what it means. First we guess. Then we realise that maybe we were wrong. And finally when we see that we have the right meaning, our brains keep that information forever. We learn vocabulary and grammar this way. It is very natural and exactly how we learn languages when we are children.

2. Listening. When we are babies, in the first few months of our life, our ears are still forming. We can recognise any sound. A baby from China responds to the same sounds as a baby from Germany, but after a few months of hearing the dominant language of their environment, experiments show that babies respond best to the sounds of that language. For example, a baby in an English speaking house will respond to ´r´ ´s´ ´t´sounds because they are dominant in the English language.  A Chinese baby will respond to different sounds. So when we are adults our ears are formed to respond to different sounds and to recognise different patterns. The only way to really change that is by exposure to different languages. This happens on the bus, on the train, when you have the radio on at work, when you go to buy milk. Our subconscious absorbs the sounds and our ears begin to adapt.

3. Separation from your mother tongue. When we are learning a new language, very often we learn it from someone who speaks our mother language. This has advantages because that person probably learned the target language and understands the difficulties and problems involved, but the disadvantage is when we ask for translations. This is a quick way to learn new words but it is not exactly the best way to remember for a long time.  When we don´t have someone to ask for a translation we must guess the meaning of words. For example, if I hear a word that I dont understand, I can guess the meaning from the context. Then i try to use the word and when it is obvious that I used it in the wrong context, then I know that I was wrong so I adjust my guess. The second time I use it, might be the right way, so I use it again, and again and again. This way the meaning is put in my brain permanently. This way we have full responsibility for understanding the words and we remember them better.

4. Culture. We all have an idea about different countries and people. In Colombia, the image of countries is very different to the reality. English people are reserved and quiet, French are cochinos, Americans are rich, Chinese are even more cochinos. Of course, until you visit a country and really understand the smaller parts of their culture, you can never really understand the language. After 2 years of living in Colombia, now I know that if someone calls me a ´buñuela¨ while I am driving, they don´t want to call me baked food. If I learned Spanish somewhere else, I would never understand that. These are things that cannot be learned in a class room. If you go to Dublin in Ireland you will learn a rich English that is influenced by the native Irish language.  Likewise, in Australia you will learn phrases that will only be understood in Australia. This may not be necessary for communication but it will help to develop your understanding of where words come from.

Language is a beautiful thing and we should all be proud of it and remember, you cannot value another language until you value yours.

Go to TheNativeNetwrok.com to learn more.

The Three Circles of English

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

George Eliot (1819-1880) British writer.

Language is a communication tool. We use it principally to convey our emotions, negotiate and achieve what we desire in human relationships. Grammatical accuracy is not necessarily the most important aspect of language. If we can communicate what we feel, we are 95% of the way on the journey to mastering a language.

In business this is more clear than in regular life where humour, emotional expression and colloquialisms play an important part. In business, communication is the key that unlocks successful interactions. Most interactions in English worldwide are not between native speakers of English but between speakers in the second and third circles of the English speaking world as described by Kachru. 

Here is an explanation of the three circles of English. Which circle are you in? 

The spread of English around the world is often discussed in terms of three distinct groups of users, where English is used respectively as:

1.    a native language (ENL); the primary language of the majority population of a country, such as in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

2.    a second language (ESL); an additional language for intranational as well as international communication in communities that are multilingual, such as in India, Nigeria, and Singapore.

3.    a foreign language (EFL); used almost exclusively for international communication, such as in Japan and Germany.

Most of these Englishes developed as a result of colonial imposition of the language in various parts of the world.

Kachru's Three Circles of English

The most influential model of the spread of English is Braj Kachru's model of World Englishes. In this model the diffusion of English is captured in terms of three Concentric Circles of the language: The Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle.

The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread across the world in the first diaspora. In this transplantation of English, speakers from England carried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America. The Inner Circle thus represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions where it is now used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Malta, anglophone Canada and South Africa, and some of Caribbean territories. English is the native languageor mother tongue of most people in these countries. The total number of English speakers in the inner circle is as high as 380 million, of whom some 120 million are outside the United States.

The Outer Circle of English was produced by the second diaspora of English, which spread the language through the colonization by Great Britain in Asia and Africa. In these regions, English is not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua franca between ethnic and language groups. Higher education, the legislature and judiciary, national commerce and so on may all be carried out predominantly in English. This circle includes India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, non-Anglophone South Africa and others. The total number of English speakers in the outer circle is estimated to range from 150 million to 300 million.

Finally, the Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no historical or governmental role, but where it is nevertheless widely used as a medium of international communication. This includes much of the rest of the world's population not categorised above: China, Russia, Japan, most of Europe, Korea, Egypt, Indonesia, etc. The total in this expanding circle is the most difficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed for specific, limited purposes, usually business English. The estimates of these users range from 100 million to one billion.

The inner circle (UK, US etc.) is 'norm-providing'; that means that English language norms are developed in these countries. The outer circle (mainly New Commonwealth countries) is 'norm-developing'. The expanding circle (which includes much of the rest of the world) is 'norm-dependent', because it relies on the standards set by native speakers in the inner circle.