When you learn a new language, you gain a new soul.

 

Foreign-Language Continuing Education

 

 

 

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO HIT THE BOOKS AGAIN

 

 

Communication and Language

 

Throughout the history of mankind there have been a wide variety of ways of communicating. The Egyptians already used paper and hieroglyphics around 2900 BC in order to collect their thoughts and ideas. The ancient Greeks loved the spoken word, skillfully incorporating it into public speeches, drama and philosophy. The Romans developed a unique way of government that depended on the Roman alphabet.

 

Human language is doubtlessly one of the most significant means of communication, expression and interaction. As a consequence, there are about 6000 languages in the world, and it has become a must to know one or more foreign languages nowadays. Fortunately, linguistic education plays a central role in our educational system, while opportunities and offers in adult education are steadily increasing. The times, when we rigidly started our professional career with the intension of staying in our field of activity, job or even company until we retire, are long left behind us. At that time, once acquired knowledge may have been sufficient to cope with tasks and challenges on the long run. However, today knowledge has become the all-dominant competitive factor; inter alia linguistic knowledge.

 

Has it therefore become inevitable to be fluent in spoken and written in the EU- and universal language English or even in several foreign languages in times of a United Europe? Will our children be raised trilingually? Will our future international business partners greet us perfectly in our own mother tongue while we will be fluently responding in their native language in order to express our appreciation and respect in return?

 

 

English - the “Hyper-Language”

 

Basically, it is normal to know only one language in Europe. Half to one third of the world population however, is bilingual, and an increasing percentage is even multilingual. Also in Europe there is a clear trend towards multilingualism. In the EU over 60% of students learn English as a foreign language, followed by French with 30%.

 

As a matter of fact, English is one of the first and most important foreign languages we learn in Austria. And for a good reason! Although it is mother tongue of only approximately 10% of the world population and of about 15% of Europeans, almost half of the European population learns English as a first or foreign language. Furthermore, approximately one fourth of the total population of the world speaks English; whereas, it is official language in 60 countries and serves as an international lingua franca in economics, politics and science. Consequently, it can be considered as a so-called “hyper-language” showing a high diffusion rate that is becoming more and more popular in times of globalization.

Simultaneously, there is a distinct trend towards dealing intensively with other languages, countries and cultures due to Europe’s internationalization. On the one hand, English serves as a means of communication between people having the most different mother tongues; on the other hand, internationalization also goes hand in hand with an increased learning of national languages and therefore with stronger feelings of identity, affiliation and connection.

 

 

Your Benefit from Language Ability

 

Each and every language we learn bears an enormous potential and therefore a personal and professional benefit for us. As a “fundamental foreign language” we should learn English. It serves as a basis for learning other foreign languages and is a good introduction to linguistic education, partly due to its structural simplicity. Nevertheless, we should not forget all the other useful languages that are of great intercultural importance, such as French, Spanish, Italian and currently Eastern European languages.

 

Apart from the educational factor, learning or brushing up a language is also a personal advancement. Due to the fact that the highly complex linguistic learning process influences our cognitive thinking, new perspectives open up. Thereby, we gain a more cosmopolitan world view. Moreover, our adaptability and our ability to deal with new situations increase. Ongoing test have shown, that learning a language considerably lowers the risks of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. To put it in a nutshell, linguistic knowledge gives your personality a kick and widens your horizon.        

 

Continuous qualification as well as education and continuing education are crucial cornerstones of the knowledge- and information-based society. Consequently, it is of essential professional and economic advantage to know foreign languages nowadays. They are not only a competitive advantage with a positive impact on interviewing options and opportunities for advancement; but they also guarantee a profitable communication and negotiation basis with international customers. In times of international mergers and EU expatriates there is a particular focus on adapting ourselves effectively to foreign working life. A smooth interaction and fruitful communication with the new surroundings requires the necessary linguistic background. As soon as the initial “timidity” has been overcome, it is an incomparable experience to go out there and apply the acquired knowledge.            

 

 

10 Points to your Success

 

From my experience as a language coach, I have noticed that students, who possess linguistic previous knowledge in a foreign language, usually have more passive than active knowledge. Thus, it is effective to enhance a renewed and intensive identification with the language, for example by the use of every-day and company-specific role plays. In order to provide a structured approach to language, it is also significant to establish a grammatical basis. The most elementary “secret of success” however, is patience, will power and consistency.

 

The abovementioned continuity admittedly bears the most common sources of errors: students often tend to want to learn a foreign language in very short time and push themselves by trying to study too fast. As a consequence, this unstructured approach may sometimes cause confusion and a loss of motivation and learning pleasure. Therefore, it is of great importance to set oneself a realistic target and to stick to a linguistic consistency after the initial enthusiasm. Nonetheless, this statement is not to question the efficiency of intensive courses, by the use of which one can certainly obtain relatively extensive knowledge in respectively little time. – Additionally, I would like to point out that languages are alive and need to be spoken and practiced.

 

Thoroughly considering my own experiences when it comes to learning languages on the one hand and those made with my students on the other hand, I have developed a customizable course program. What is special about this approach is that it gives you the opportunity to choose the points you are interested in and thereby create your own tailor-made language training. Furthermore, it is suitable for beginners as well as for intermediate or advanced learners as well as for those, who simply want to brush up or master their skills. Due to the fact that there is no predetermined order to this program, it is possible to get started with all points simultaneously or work through your selection step by step.

 

The basis of my course program is point one. For beginners it is an introduction and the prerequisite to learn further points. If you would like to brush up or master your language skills, point one also serves as the basis but may be immediately combined with all other points of your choice. The advantage of point one is that is has been explicitly designed for German native speakers. Students instructed by native speakers, who usually do not speak a word of the student’s mother tongue, often complained about endless grammatical definitions in the target language. This complication failed to enhance their overall comprehension. It is not possible to learn grammar, if it is exclusively taught in the target language itself. Having completed my studies abroad, I also qualify as a “native speaker” since foreign languages were my educational languages. Nonetheless, I highly emphasize teaching grammar in the students’ native language, because it is not about memorizing foreign-language definitions but about understanding and applying their meaning.

 

In concluding, I would like to point out that my course program provides an optimum learning approach by giving students the choice to select their own individual lesson plan based on their favorite combination of points. Apart from the diversity of its content, this program is variably applicable to different speaking and learning types on different levels. In other words, the student can select between systematic training methods such as one-on-one or group training, main focus on conversation or grammar, other existent foreign languages, intensity, preferred approach to learning, et cetera. The main emphasize is placed on finding and preserving the joy in learning. Languages connect and integrate. They bring about security, new friends and customers. Languages are overall advancement, a key to success and an ongoing challenge. – A challenge it is never too late to meet! In concluding, I would like to quote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,