Author: Mark
Text Reading Level: B2+
When anyone learns a new language, we are often so excited to get started that we make some rather fundamental mistakes. The biggest misunderstanding that many of us have is that languages have to function similarly to each other.
We learn a bit of basic grammar, and then rush to learn as many new words as we can. However, as most students are not linguists and are only users of their native language, it is all too easy to fall into the trap of learning direct translations of these new words and forcing all of these new words into the comfortable grammar of the student’s own language.
This unfortunately does not work.
Each language follows its own set of weird and wonderful rules. Some words make sense together, while others do not. Some words are used because of symbolism and metaphor, others are not. In Arabic, there is a phrase that directly translates to “how digestable” in English. In Arabic, the words are used as a comment on “how beautiful” or “how nice” a person or thing is. In English, however, it makes no sense. The closest meaning it could have is commenting on “how easy to understand” something is, but even then it sounds a bit odd.
Different cultures think differently and build their languages differently, so as learners we have to take a very scary step and leave our own languages behind while we learn. We cannot just rely on “Phrasebook” learning, where you try to use your own languages’ familiar sentence structures and just plug in the new words you learn.
Instead you must learn the unfamiliar rules of how words work in the new language you are studying, and see grammar as a toolbox for dealing with communication problems.
With this we can help! We have created our Pre-IELTS course specifically to help students learn essential grammar, not as a memorised classroom exercise but as tools to use to solve specific problems.
