To learn English it doesn't always have to mean sitting in the classroom of an institute offering spoken English course and cramming grammar. It is possible to improve your understanding of the language without doing any course also.
Let me help you! Do you remember how did you catch on your mother tongue Hindi? Did you do any course for it? No….…right? You learned it when everybody around you spoke in Hindi. That's the way we actually learn a new language….through sounds, by listening and not by cramming up grammar or through translated sentences.
When you were just 2 or 3 years old, the sounds of the language simply fell upon your ears (and mind it your brain was also not completely developed at that time as it is now) and you kept on picking and relating it with the sights that you saw. For example, everybody around you kept on speaking mama…mummy…ma…for the lady who cared about you when you were just a newborn and hence your mind related the sight of this lady with the word that everybody spoke for her and slowly and slowly you caught it and started calling her ma.
Since your vocals were also not fully developed at that time, hence you were not able to pronounce the full word mama…or mummy immediately but you started with only the initial sound.
Next the bottle that was used to feed you was called ‘botal (in Hindi) or ‘bottle' and you started picking the sound and relating it with the sight. Hence you started calling that plastic thing feeding you as …'bobo'…
In the same manner, one can acquire any new language not by learning tenses and subject-predicate but in the manner in which we learn our mother tongue.
Here are the tips to learn English without doing a course –
1) Listen….listen…..and listen the language in all forms and from all corners. When I say, all forms I mean someone else reading to you, someone else speaking to some other person and you reading to yourself (Yes that way also you can listen to the language – by reading something to yourself! Try it out, the only tip is – listen to yourself by closing both your ears with your fingers and speaking loud…try it and you will understand what I mean to say)
2) Now, while you listen to it, don't try to catch full sentences or don't try to remember everything what others are speaking. Rather, simply let the language fall upon your ears. (The way a child does, he never concentrates on tenses when others speak to him). Catch the flow of language, the accent! Let the mind do the rest of the job….of connecting the visuals with words and relating to it.
3) DON'T TRANSLATE…stop your mind from doing that unnecessary job. You don't need to rely on one language in order to acquire another one.
4) Now, without hesitating, start responding in fewer words and smaller sentences (Remember the way a child responds when he newly learns a language)
5) Now, you will realize that you have gathered enough confidence. Carry on with it…start reconstructing your sentences.
6) At this point, break another common notion – the way foreigners do not know perfect Hindi and they tend to make mistakes when they speak our language, in the same manner, it is acceptable if you make slight mistakes here and there…nobody will penalize you for that. In fact, in foreign countries, people accept if you are not able to speak their language very well as they are also not able to do so when they come to your country.
7) Don't read newspapers to master a language. NOT REQUIRED.
8) You don't need to have a great vocabulary to improve your language. Always remember spoken English is comparatively much simpler than the written English and it is acceptable if we express ourselves in smaller sentences. You don't have to know perfect big statements in order to speak better.
9) Finally, even if you don't have anyone to talk to in English (which is a biggest excuse of people when they are asked why you are not able to learn English) speak to yourself, read something to yourself, and speak out loud. (This is another mantra, the louder you are, the better will be your confidence…again, you should try it and know by yourself).
10) Process the language, listen – understand – frame small sentences, speak – keep on gathering more words by listening with concentration – and keep speaking better.
What we have been following till now is this due to which we never got to know English properly -
1) We learnt the alphabets ABCD in nursery.
2) We started writing words and then sentences in the next few classes.
3) Our teachers made us cram some question answers, statements which we used to repeat and remember.
4) And after the class, we hardly spoke to anybody in English.
5) As a result, when we grew up, every now and then we felt the need to join a “SPOKEN ENGLISH COURSE”
Did you learn your mother tongue like this only? No!
You first heard it (in all forms) and complete…there on you picked it…you understood the words, your mind related it with sight that you saw….you spoke broken words…you spoke better words….you connected words…spoke smaller sentences…then bigger…..finally much better and now so much better that even if some one hits you in the middle of night while you are fast asleep, you will speak that cuss word also in ‘shudh Hindi'…..Yes or no?
This is the mantra, the real way to master not only English but any new language.
