E12- Interview with Chris from Canada / motivation and obstacles

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Full transcript (without introduction):

Daniel’s questions:

• Where do you come from Chris?
• and what languages are you learning at the moment?
• Do you have any goal in mind or a target?

Chris answer 1:

I am from Toronto, Canada. It’s a very cosmopolitan city with people from all over the world.

There are a lot of languages spoken here and it’s a great city to live in if you like to learn and practice languages.

Right now, I am learning Russian for about two months. I started in June and my goal is to see how much I can learn in three months. At the end of the three months, I hope to speak with a native speaker for fifteen minutes, so that’s my current goal.

And previously, I’ve learnt Spanish and a bit of German.

In Spanish I am roughly a B2 level – which is intermediate.

And in German I did study up to an A2 level but now, I don’t remember many words or phrases, just basic phrases. But I can understand when I read it.

Chris answer 2:

My motivation is different for each language. With Russian –as I mentioned– is to see how much I can learn in three months’ time.

For me learning a language is also about the Sound of the language – whether the language sounds nice. That’s very subjective, for example, a lot of people find German to be harsh. For me, I think it’s a great language.

And another reason is the culture. To learn a language you also learn about the culture of the people and it’s a great way to get to know a country or about people more intimately than just reading about through your own language.

With all my languages I don’t think there has ever been a time where I’ve wanted to give up.

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Where I wanted to give up (demli hit )

(unfortunatelly, I could not understand the sentence)

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Periods of frustration and I think every learner has that.

When you are learning a language at the beginning.

You make a lot of progress initially, you are learning new words you’re discovering the language and then after a while, you get more into the language. It slows down. So, that can be frustrating. Students can get the feeling like they are not learning as much or as fast. There is also times where you think you are better in the language then you actually are, for example, you may learn a few words and phrases then you go speak to a native speaker and they talk really fast and you don’t understand them. That can be frustrating as well.

Another thing is when you reading and you try to understand a book , let’s say if the text is too advanced and you have to look up a lot of words. You’re gonna get frustrated as well. So there were definitely times for me where I have been frustrating.

I think overall, now that I am learning another language I have experience in learning a language.

The main thing is just to take it easy and not push yourself or be hard on yourself and just expose yourself to the language.

You know – Even if you do just like 10 or 15 minutes a day it’s still good because languages learning it’s more about a journey it takes time and it is important to keep at it and just expose yourself to the language as much as possible whether that’s watching a movie or listening to the news or watching youtube videos in your target language or talking to a native speaker or even writing any of those will help you in the long run and it is just great.  I think learning a language it opens you up to new cultures and new experience and you also get to see a country or people for yourself and not through the eyes of your own language and their own interpretation.

Chris answer 2:

Well, I enjoyed listening to podcasts and radio stations especially in target languages.

I think it’s a great way to get into the rhythm of the sounds and the flow of a language, even if you don’t understand any words at all. It’s good to listen to podcasts or radio station from day one. With your podcast, in particular, I think, I mentioned, it’s a very ambitious way to learn a language and I think it’s great what you are doing. I can see you are putting in the effort and I am sure if you continue it will pay off, I’m sure by creating this podcast for yourself, you’re probably learning much faster than you would without it.

So, for that, I think it’s great what you are doing and I wish you the best of luck with your podcast and with your future episodes.

Daniel:

Thank you very much Chris for these kind words. And actually, this is kind of a motivation boost for me. And in a way, it even encourages me to go further with my fluent podcast. So thank you very much Chris.

 

 

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The song in the outro is called “Where the river run” from the band Ketsa