Emily's Interview With Steve
Question 1: Since I started new languages, I got very busy and I still have that feeling that I need to learn many things. So what was your daily routine when you started to learn languages?
Answer 1: OK so you are seeing when it started new language, of course when you start a new language, the first part is quite difficult, you don't understand all the words are new, difficult to remember and it sounds just like a noise you know a new language. So I find that I for an initial period I have to listen a lot, I listen a lot to the same sort of lesson. So may be one minute or less short lessons, may be five of them. I listen to the lesson number one over and over so don't understand. And then listen to two and three and four and the of course I read them right. So I read it look up words read it again kind a think I know that I listen again I don't understand and so there is that period may be take some month, before this noise actually starts to sound like words. And so in terms of routine I would say I spend most of the time learning, I spend about 70% of my time listening and 30% of my time reading.
Question 2: Do you have a Schedule for your day?
Answer 2: No, I tell you I get up and make my breakfast, before my wife gets up, so the period while I'm preparing get the tea on, get the coffee on make borage or whatever I'm listening. Every time when I'm in the car driving to the office I'm listening. If I have to clean up the garage or something I'm listening, if I go running or do exercise in home I listening , so it's just basically using that time. If I have well I call, a dedicated time, where I can actually sit-down and study, then I will read and link and so typically I have half an hour dedicated time when I'm going to sit-down read and link and then probably during the day I will find another hour, 45 minutes or so where I'm listening but I have no schedule.
Question 3: Before you come here did you just have call with your teacher?
Answer 3: Oh yes now, because I would say for the three or six months I don't speak, I just listen and read but and in Ukrainian, I have been mostly listening and reading almost for two years. Together with Polish and Russian and bit of Korean. Now I'm going to a meeting in Toronto, the Ukrainian, Canadian business conference and so there will be many people from Ukraine there so I want to improve my speaking. So I now speak twice a week with Ukrainian teacher and I also speak and I also speak with a Russian teacher. My motivation in speaking to is if you can find an interesting person, so for example my Russian teacher she is just very interesting person. She is an English teacher in Saint Petersburg and so we talk about lot of stuff about language learning if she is interesting. But, if the tutor is not interesting I can't, you know how are you, how is the weather, what's new into you, you can't after a while. So, now I have, I mean it's three time into a week. Twice in Ukrainian and Once in Russian, I speak via Skype. But that's the small part of the time , I got to spending an hour or half in the day between the listening and reading every day. But three days a week I speak for the hour but that's a bit unusual that now I have to speak three times a week, normally I don't speak too much.
Some people say you should go out and make friends; I'm not going to go find Ukrainians, Vancouver's I can talk to. Now of course I'm going to take advantage of the fact Hanna is here and when I finished with Ukrainians, I want to do some Korean with her.
Question 4: Before you talking to your teacher how do you use her out put ?
Answer 4: You know it's, I don't prepare for the discussions my experience is with enough input, when you start to speak is very difficult, alright it's difficult and so you are looking for words. But in second time it's little better and third time it's even better and eventually if you have good comprehension, if you have colossal vocabulary the speaking comes quite quickly.
So you just get better ?
Yes, I just get better, and then my experience is that reading helps a lot for vocabulary but listening is very good for speaking. And now on link, where I save phrases and we have text to speech so I hear the phrases and I find that also helps me. Because then I noticed the phrases, I noticed the phrases when I listen and then when I speak I start using that phrases.
Question 5: Link is created in 2007 before that how did you started?
Answer 5 : You mean listening and reading, but it was more difficult because we didn't have the Link, so I would look for books where you had the text and you had the audio and then because we had no dictionary, no way of saving words and phrases then I would rely on the word list, like every lesson, like typically in these text books right you have text then you have the word list right the words. The disadvantage of that is that very often the word you don't know is not on their list. And many of the words on their list you know, because they don't know which word you know and you don't and the other thing is on reading here don't know this work, then have to turn the page and look for it. Ok then I go back and read again is very distracting. So I mean link just makes it more efficient that's all. But there is a same principal lot of listening and reading.
Question 6: So before that did you also took notes?
Answer 6: No, I just because you know if you look something out to know in dictionary it takes lot of time as soon as you close the dictionary you forget right away. So that's why I would deliberately find books that have a word list, so at least I don't have to look it up to the dictionary. I just have to turn the page and look for the word and hope that the word that I don't know is on their list, but I don't take notes make it sure that I don't.
Question 7: Most of students take the notes all the time ?
Answer 7: Never take, I found that for example if I'm reading a book and let's I'm reading a book in a language that I know very well so that there are in so many words I don't know, like if I'm at the beginner early intermediate stage I don't read books, because it just too time consuming. Every fifth, sixth word you have to look up in the dictionary you forget it and I find that if you make a list and ever look at that list again. In my experience ok when I read the , lets' say Spanish there are fewer words I don't know may 1 after 15 words that I don't know. I look it up takes a lot of time, I make a list, when I got list of 5o words nothing ever happened with that list. I never look at that list again, jus a waste of time, so I just don't bother with the list. Where I wrote them most, when I was learning Chinese, because characters. So I did lot of writing just to get use to the characters, plus I was at the school we had to write. We were given, we had to write essays. I had to translate from English to Chinese. I had to write and it's good, it is good to write. Now I just don't have to write in exam, so I do what I want, but if I had to write in exam, I would write of course yes.
Question 8: So you were trying to raise your grammar ?
Answer 8: Because in my experience, you just have to get use to how the language works and every time I look at the grammar rules, I think that I'm learning something but in fact I'm not. Because next time I still get it wrong, like it doesn't seek, you forget it. it's kind of may be sometimes, let's put it this way, if you have already noticed something in the language, then you see a grammar rule that explains it, you will say ok so now it explains something that you already know. But if you don't have any experience with this then the grammar explanation is just a waste of time. And there is complicated terms and exceptions I just stopped. I stay away from it. Best grammar book is the smallest grammar book, smaller the better no exercises. I never do exercises I hate them. Very small grammar book with few rules and then examples, examples are good so I can look at examples. Because grammar explanation has to have, some relationship with reality. So to that extent those examples are good. But the exercises I don't like them, because they force me to think and I don't want to think. I just want the language to come at me. I just hate exercises, I hate them.
Question : Is this right that learning the language is more easy when you are younger than learning the language when you are older ?
Answer: Well, you know either that's true or it is not true alright if it's true and you are older then what you suppose to do? Stop learning! To me it's meaning less to say that. If you want to learn the language you should go on and learn it. So If someone says that a six year old kid can learn better then you so what then.
Question 9: I mean you started to learn languages, when you were 17 years old so tell me what is the best time for learning?
Answer 9: I think it's probably true that the people under the age of six learn it faster than any other people 6, 7, 8 they learn very naturally. They don't even try, they just learn it. They are not embarrassed, they are not shy they just communicate. But I don't think there is much difference between someone 15 or 50 or 75. I don't think there is much difference in my experience. If you are a learner and you are 70 years old and you want to learn the language go on and learn it. It's just an argument that some people are more talented than other may be. But it doesn't matter if you are motivated to learn language then go for it. The thing matters most is you motivation.
