Sunday, 3 February 2008

50. Learn a foreign language myself. (Probably Spanish) STARTED

One of my goals is to learn another language. I learnt French to a certain extent at school, and as kids we went on holiday to France regularly; Mum and Dad encouraged us to speak to the locals, and would send us to the village to buy baguettes and things like that. I could probably pick that up again if I wanted to, but I'm determined to learn a language that's completely new to me. M and I went to Barcelona a few years ago and I loved it there, and also I felt completely overwhelmed because I couldn't speak the language. Apart from the odd 'Hola' and pigeon phrases picked up from the phrase book, I felt like such an 'English person abroad', it was horrible. Also, once people know you're English, they want to practise their English and you end up conversing in your own language, which doesn't help at all really. So my plan is to learn using this language pack, received as a Christmas present from my sis one year. I've converted the first disc to MP3 format and have stuck it on one of my MP3 players.
I've also just ordered this from Amazon for my Nintendo DS. It gets really good reviews as an educational tool for learning the language in a fun and realistic way. You can also record what you're saying to hear your accent.
I plan to do a TESOL course in September and I think it would be a good thing to be able to speak other languages to compliment that. A couple of the classes you do when you do the TESOL course are in a completely unknown language so you can experience what it is like to be a learner of a language delivered exclusively in that language. It would be nice to move to another country one day, one a little warmer and less crowded than Britain, even if it's just for a few years and I'm painfully aware that my language skills are fairly limited.

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