- "You can speak foreign languages?"
- "How do you do it?"
- "Is it even possible to learn a foreign language?"
- "It must've taken to you a whole lifetime to learn!"

These are the words I’ve often heard from different people who don't understand much about languages and live in their "regular monolingual world.”

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For them, learning a foreign language seems like something unbelievable, something unreachable, not possible for regular people. But I must say that it's not like that at all.

I agree, foreign languages are not the easiest thing in the world. There are so many complicated rules: all these conjugations, declensions, articles or their absence, and other scary grammatical terms.

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There are also another struggles:
- difficult sounds,
- sophisticated writing system,
- a lot of tenses or even tones like in Chinese or Thai!
- And what about dialects, colloquial expressions, slang and so on and so forth?

Are you already scared? Yes, it may scare indeed but everything is not so bad as it seems.

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I would like to tell you about one method I use when I learn any foreign language. I call this method "Make a language your friend."

The point is, just like people, all languages are different. There are no absolutely identical people in this world, nor absolutely identical languages.

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Yes, there are twins and they may be very much alike, but there is always something that differentiates them.
The same thing is true with languages. There are similar languages that belong to one family (for example: Russian, Belorussian and Ukranian), but they are still different!

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You should understand that every person has his own peculiariaties. Every person has his voice, particular patterns of behavior, strangeness, way of communicating with people, and many, many things.

So it is with languages; each of them is so wayward!

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Sometimes, someone who is learning a foreign language will get flustered over the numerous grammatical aspects of the English language, the six declensions of Russian nouns, or Chinese characters, for instance.

Yet, those things should not scare a learner away!

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One should just put up with all these peculiar things because that is what makes a language special.

Sometimes we argue with our friends and we do this because they are different from us and it is normal. We just accept the way they are and this should be exactly the same with languages!

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Remember how you meet new people. What do you do first? You say "Hi" to them. Then you get to know the person: his favorite movies, his favorite music, what he likes to eat, etc.

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All this happens in a friendly atmosphere. And after you have an image of this person, you start spending a lot of time together.

If you like each other, you learn the interests of this person: his habits, what he likes, and what he does not like.
With time your new friend will share with you his deepest secrets and your friendship will grow stronger and stronger.

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Sometimes you will argue (and that is normal, as I mentioned before). This is the typical process of how people become friends.

And if you're not afraid to meet a new person, then why should you be scared to do the same with a new language?

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Just get to know a language; become acquainted with it in a friendly atmosphere. Imagine what attracts you the most to the country of the language you're learning.

Maybe it's the smell of fresh croissants, or it's movies with Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee, or fantastic Korean pop; or maybe it's beautiful men or women. ;)

Whatever it is, there should always be something that attracts you to a language.

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As soon as you meet a language, you have to learn its traits.

Some rules, exceptions, and other things. You should also understand that when you socialize with people you do it at ease.

So do the same with language. Watch your favorite movies, read books and newspapers, and do whatever you like to do.

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And of course you shouldn't forget about the image of a language.
And remember one thing: There is no bad or good language, harsh or soft, hard or easy; there is only the way you treat it.

Sure, if you do not like a person you will never be friends with him. Change your attitudes towards languages, guys, and you'll be amazed how they can actually open themselves to you!

Do you agree with this? Please, leave a comment below.

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