I'm just wondering what everyone's experiences were, or are, in learning a foreign language.
I often think back to how I was taught at school - we had French and German and now when I read teaching methodologies, or ideas from other teachers on how to make language learning relevant, fun, dynamic I'm quite saddened that I only have memories of chanting verb tables or copying out passages from text books.

On a more positive note, a few years ago I took beginners Japanese at evening class and the (Japanese) teacher we had was an inspiration. She used flashcards, pictures, realia, songs, foods... anything to make the words real. I wonder if I hadn't had her as a teacher I wouldn't have been enthused about teaching as a career.

I believe I had the same high school French teacher! I can't remember her name and I can't remember doing anything fun.

I look around and wonder sometimes if I'm killing myself for no reason

I studied Japanese pretty hard for 2 years. I met once a week with a teacher but the treacher just went over the drills with me, corrected my pronounciation and asked me questions about the reading. It was one-on-one so maybe that made it a little more low key.

A friend of mine at university was teaching Japanese and I auditted the course in college. She tried hard to bring things to life a little. She used puppets for introduction and to add 'fun' to the class. Looking back, it seems like good effort.


I'm just kidding. I know the effort put into making the language fun, interesting and/or real has more effect than just on the immediate language acquisition. It can help build positive attitudes and positive learners. Some people who say they hate English when they start my classes say they hate English less once they're finished.

I studied English from the age of 10. My first language is Spanish. My English teachers did not compromise by using Spanish. It was 100%English. I had a hard time at first but I was forced to get involved. Ny environment was all-English. I think that as long as the teacher has a reasonable goal of what is to be taught and then developes an environment that supports it could learning beginning. Flash cards, games, songs are great but I think that support from parents and the community really helps establish a positive attitude for learning rather than spoon-feeding.

We had three German professors in college. The first one like to sit in a circle and chat, and when we made mistakes, he simply and quite gently repeated our sentence in the correct form ... he never frustrated us. The second was a good-hearted fellow who often let us lazy-out and talk English. He sometimes even let us answer questions on our exams in English, as long as the answer was correct. Both of these guys' classes were well-attended, and if you were willing to put in a little effort yourself, it was rewarding. Alas, no puppets, no flash cards, no games.
Language lab was repetitive, but I sat next to a monk (who loved to talk) and who inventively played with the phrases we were supposed to be practicing, but changing them constantly. It was a riot, and the teachers tolerated our creativity.
Suddenly a third professor stepped in when our regular left for a semester. What a bear! She was a hard-core driller who batted our spirits every single time we chose the wrong word, and within a month, out of nearly 25 kids, only 5 or so remained. The others had fled.
I may be wrong, but the impression which took root is that it is better to let the students play with a language, let them make their mistakes, let them gesture, let them be as creative as they need to be in order to communicate. Who cares about the piddly blunders. If they decide to become professors, then they'll eventually polish up the language.

I had German in HS and college.

I can barely remember one of my HS teachers. Nice lady, but nothing special. My senior yr teacher, however, was amazing. She spent a lot of time teaching us how to read a foreign language...reading with/for context, focusing on what you know, then going back to pick out the pieces you don't understand. She also taught us how to use dictionaries properly...always check the translation both ways to find the meaning that you're really looking for. I can't say that I learned a lot of German, but I wasn't particularly bothered at the time. The skills that I learned are still valuable, however, and allow me to study and learn new languages on my own.

Well, this is going to take some time. I was born in Romania so I speak Romanian. German I picked up by being sent to a German nursery school and later to a German Primary School and German Junior High School.
At school we started being taught English when we were 10. THe in thing in those times was the audio lingual method so we did a lot of oral drills, followed by reading and writing. We also did quite some memorising. We had to be able to tell the lesson for the next time, that is if the lesson in the book had a story we were supposed to be able to tell that story next time. THis retelling implied a lot of transformations. If the story had an I narrator we were supposed to change it to "she" or "he" and change all the possessive pronouns, the verbs had to be changed to the third person etc. After four years, the books, which had been written by Romanian authors btw, had excerpts from literature, e.g. "The Cloud" by SHelley, "White Fang" etc so the teacher dictated to us some facts about the biography of the author and some literary analysis of the text and we were supposed to be able to tell those things for the next time. We also learnt quite a few traditional songs. I also read books in English in my spare time and listened to the Beatles. By the end of those 8 school years, three hours a week, I took the entrance exam to the University to study English and German Literature and the thing I had to write about at the entrance exam was " A parallel between Byron and Shelley". I couldn't do it now, but then I wrote quite well and was able to quote poetry in my paper too.
Greek I picked up in Greece. French I had 4 years of traditional grammar translation method in high school, supported by reading detective stories translated from English into French (they make easier reading). I can't speak French fluently but could get by when I visited Paris.

Ugh. Yes. High school Spanish. I learned grammar grammar grammar, some talking, some reading, some writing. Mostly grammar. I could conjugate just about any verb you put in front of me in a verb table, but could I speak and understand the language?

Not until I got to college and then studied abroad.

I was in French immersion right from the get go. Starting in kindergarten, I did almost all of my subjects in French until High School, where I took just History/Geography in French, and French itself.

I don't really remember much before high school, probably because it didn't seem like a big deal. I'm glad that I was able to learn it that way, because it was easy at the time (in comparison), and now that I live in France, I'm glad I have the background. I am however, surprised at how quickly I lost it. After high school, I never spoke French again until we moved here, almost 10 years later. It took me a couple of months of living here to feel completely comfortable, and I still don't think my writing is very good.

I was never taught any foreign language at school

I had the option but didn't take it

Hi,I learned English at the school where I teach now, it has its own method where grammar plays a very important role. I was 19 years old and I studied for 1 year and a couple of months and that is how I learned it. I have never lived in the US,England nor Canada but I have taken English courses now and I took the Cambridge test some years ago. There was a lot of conversation involved in class.

kiwione .... that's interesting. do you find it difficult to relate to your students who are learning a 2nd language?

I started to learn English when I was 12. I can't remember my teacher speaking a word in english! She used the so called grammar translation method. What a shame! Though, I consider this method is not really useful I must recognise I learned "some" English.
Then, at the university I learned to write in English but not to speak in English.

By the way! What do you think about this grammar-translation method? Do you use other methods apart from the communicative approach?

Well, I think you don't have to look back and see how you were taught a second language. That was another era although some of the "chanted verbs" we used to sing were really useful. In my opinion I think you should see how you learnt your mother tongue!! Since we are babies ,we have been exposed to the language for at least two years before start speaking, and that is because we have had a lot of input. The second language needs to be more like the child's acquisition of his native language, although there may be some limits on the language he/she hears, he is never consciously "taught". For me, 100% of the class has to be totally in English and always using limited language, like our mothers used to do with us when being babies so we could more or less understand.

I don't know if I made myself clear. This is my opinion.
Bye

Osmosis was my method of learning Japanese while living in Japan. I listened and listened and then tried speaking - generally just blurting things out. Kind people I worked with would patiently correct me and we went from there. Consequently I tried books to learn from but it took a while to find ones that suited me. Wish I had been more strongly encouraged (forced) to learn a language when younger.

I 'learned' French for 4 years at school between the ages of 12-16, I maybe know around 100 words in French and couldn't say more than 'My name is...' In my class at least, no-one saw it as relevant.

When I moved to a Chinese speaking country, I didn't know one word, now I can get by and understand most things, basically because I had to learn, it was necessary. And one of the things I find hardest as a teacher of young teenagers is making the language seem relevant to them when they can't imagine a situation outside of the classroom where they MUST use English - many of them see English not as a facilitator of communication, but as something they need so that they can pass tests to get into a good university.

Of course, any suggestions to help change this attitude is appreciated!