A mind map of what the course touched upon

A very useful  contribution by  Mr. Andres Felipe Pino.

“How to Master Succesfully Any Language of the World”. Dmitriv Slomov

Book review

There are as many languages as a variety of courses to learn and master them in the world.  It is my intention to provide my own thoughts and views based on the the book: “ How to Master Successfully Any Language of the World”. Firstly, the author poses three questions which I consider crucial when the apprentice desires to learn a second language:

     1. Why do you need to learn the language ?

     2. How are you going to use the language you have learnt?

     3. You have learned the language, what happens next?

It is of the foremost importance to ask oneself  the above questions; therefore by answering each one, and be satisfied with the responses then the learning becomes meaningful and the motivation will be the engine to maintain and reach the intended objective. Secondly, I do consider that the strategies (techniques) that the author suggested to learn a language are sound, and adequate for the process, though, I would like to focus on three of them which seem to me important enough to comment on each one:

 1.     Practice: as the author accordingly mentions it: “You get what you practice”.“Language is not a science, it is a skill and like any other skill to be developed, it should  be practiced”.   No doubt about that,  without a constant practice of the target language it will not only  take longer to master it, but the motivation could at the same time decrease.  Therefore, it is an aspect that cannot be overlooked.

2.     Memorizing: It is quite worrisome that nowadays,  language teachers and language texts do not emphasize the need to memorize words or phrases in the target language, they certainly do omit the important role that this exercise does in learning a second language.  On the contrary, the author in this text does recommend to memorize certain words in second language especially those which tend to be similar in our native language (true cognates)

3.      Culture:  The cultural component may not be left aside and the author certainly does not. The learning of a language must include a vast knowledge of the culture, expressions, costumes, idioms and the like that reflect a particular society.

To sum up, I dare to say that text is worthwhile and consistent for  the purpose  of learning a language.  I do recommend it to anyone interested in this field.

By: Jorge Enrique Arango C.