Simplified Speech #243 – How we learn our second languages

Hello everyone and welcome to simplified speech the QUOB series which features clear, natural and easy to understand conversations between native speakers and Joining me today to talk about language learning is my co-host Indiana. Hey there Indiana. How is it going? I am good Andrew. It's a quite late my time here. Had a long day, but I'm excited to talk about one of my favorite talk language learning with you, somebody I know also really appreciates this topic. So I can't

wait to get started. Yeah, it's going to be a fun one. This is one of my favorite topics to talk about and for listeners out there who don't know, of course we are English teachers Indiana, but we are also passionate language learners. So just like you guys, you guys are learning English, Indiana and I are learning our own different second languages and we're going to talk

about what we do to study and to improve our language skills in this episode. And maybe you guys can learn something, maybe a new way to approach learning English, or maybe you can share your English learning tips with Indiana and with me on our discord community as well. And we can sort of exchange knowledge with each other and yeah, hopefully at the end of the day we can all take home

something that we can apply to our own language learning situation so that we can improve our skills faster and better than ever. Now, in the end speaking of improving your skills faster and better than ever, guys, we have a helpful study guide and an interactive transcript available for this episode. In the study guide, you will find detailed vocabulary explanations and examples. There's

example conversations that you can study with. There are speaking practice questions, writing practice questions and even quiz. And if you would like to get that interactive transcript and study guide, you have to become a QLift member. But don't worry, you can sign up and become a QLift member for an affordable price on our website, which is QLift.com, or you can just follow the link in the

description for this episode. And when you are a QLift member, you'll also get access to lots of other benefits and bonuses that we have designed to help you improve your English fluency. Maybe the best one is our weekly speaking classes. We hold three speaking classes each and every week for members. One of them is taught by me. One of them is taught by Indiana and one of them

is taught by our other awesome English teacher here at Qlips, Alina and yeah it's a great way to connect with other Qlips listeners who are highly motivated English learners just like you and to practice your speaking skills. So visit the website quibbs.com and sign up and become a member today. And of course a huge thank you to all of the members out there for your support. Guys we really really do

appreciate you. Okay and with that announcement out of the way Indiana let's get into our main topic for today which is studying second languages and how we approach studying second languages and I think listeners will be pretty familiar with my second language situation as a Korean learner. I've talked about it many times on jubes before but I don't think we've talked about your situation too much. So let's start with you and could you give us just a brief background and

explainer about your experience learning different languages? Absolutely. So, um, for going all the way back to school, Most Americans have to take French or Spanish during middle school or high school and I took Spanish during that time and I think I've lost most of it now. But I really loved learning it in school. I would soak up the words like a sponge. I was so into it. I really loved Spanish. And at that time, I also got really interested in Japanese.

Not even really for any good reason, but I just fell in love with the way the language sounded and I was so fascinated by the Kongi, the Chinese characters, and that whole writing system.

So I got really into Japanese and I ended up studying it at university. my undergraduate degree is in Japanese studies and women studies. You may recall from previous conversations. I studied abroad there during my time at university for four months in Osaka.

Yeah, so I've been studying Japanese for a very long time. My speaking is not as good as you used to be when I was in the country. But yeah, I use it a lot in my work. And in addition to Japanese recently,

the past couple years, I've been trying to learn some German. I guess partially for heritage reasons, like my family that lives in Germany. But I don't know.

I'm just somebody who gets sort of attracted to certain languages. Sometimes it's like a quick moment of inspiration that doesn't last very long. Like I learned how to read, hungul, and Korean,

and very basic stuff, and then I just kind of, it fizzled out, or I really like Brazilian music, so one day I was like, oh, I should learn Portuguese, but it did not go anywhere.

So I realized that it should really probably just stick to one or to target languages, so it can really focus on them. So right now, maintaining and improving my Japanese This is my goal and I'm still quite up again or maybe eight to level in German.

So yeah, just trying to work on that. Most days and improve there. Very good. Yeah, I have to totally say that I understand where you're coming from.

Like the grass is always greener on the other side, right? Sometimes when you're in the trenches, learning a language and you've been learning it and studying it for many years, it can get a little bit more or a little bit tedious, or a little bit frustrating.

And so you look to another language. And I felt this temptation before myself, with French and well, I have studied French for a few years, so I got to probably an intermediate level

in French, but also with Japanese. I think Korean and Japanese are similar enough that there's always the temptation to try and study the other one.

So I totally know where you're coming from,