Neil
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, in this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English to help you understand. I’m Neil.
Beth
And I’m Beth. You can watch a video of this podcast and there is a free worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
Neil
Hi Beth, how are you?
Beth
I’m very well, thank you, Neil. How are you?
Neil
I’m good. I tried to watch a film in a foreign language last night.
Beth
Oh, interestingly, today we are talking about learning languages. We know that everyone listening is learning English, and we’ve both tried to learn some languages, haven’t we? So we’re going to be talking about what it’s like to learn a language.
Neil
Let’s start.
Beth
OK. So um, Neil, what languages have you tried to learn? Or what languages can you speak?
Neil
Well, at school we learned French and also some German, but I don’t speak those. When I started teaching abroad, I tried to learn the languages in those countries. So Czech from the Czech Republic, Spanish and also Japanese.
Beth
Ah, very nice. OK.
Neil
How about you?
Beth
Well similar situation. I learnt French in school. I didn’t really try. I didn’t really enjoy it. But when I started teaching, I started learning Spanish and I was really motivated. So I’m definitely better at Spanish than I am at French.
Neil
Mmm. Do you find learning languages difficult?
Beth
I think that when you start learning a language, it’s quite easy because you can learn a lot in a short amount of time, but once you reach that sort of intermediate level, I think it can be very difficult to improve.
Neil
Yes, it’s definitely difficult when you start learning a language and then when you go to that country and try to speak, you realise, even if you think you’re quite good, that actually you’re not so good.
Beth
Yeah, yeah. What do you think is the hardest thing about learning a new language?
Neil
I think listening is very hard, but also speaking because you have to think and concentrate before you say something, and then you also then have to think and concentrate to understand the answer. And if you get lost, you can feel really bad. You can feel, um, embarrassed or awkward or anxious.
Beth
Yeah. I think sometimes you memorise or you try to remember words and phrases, and then you use them and you feel really good because you said a fluent sentence, and then the person replies and you’re so focussed on ‘yes, I said something good’ that you then don’t understand what they’ve said back to you.
Neil
Absolutely, yes. I think everyone studying a language has experienced that.
Beth
Yeah, definitely. Um, have you ever done any exams? Any tests in a different language?
Neil
Yes I have. I’ve, I’ve done A-level, Spanish, A-level is the school exam you take when you’re 18 in the UK.
Beth
I did, um, a GCSE in French. That’s an exam that we take in school when we’re 15, 16 and I failed it.
Neil
Oh no! I’m surprised you’ve told everybody this.
Beth
I know. I don’t know why.
Neil
Do you have any tips for memorising things? Because when you learn a language you really have to memorise things.
Beth
So, I find writing things down and putting them in my house really helps. And it’s about seeing and practising those words again and again. Because the more you say them, the more they get into your head.
Neil
Yeah, we get lots of comments from our audience asking how to be more fluent. What does that mean?
Beth
So fluent is when you’re able to speak a language without too many pauses. We are both English, so we can speak English fluently. Um, but I can’t speak Spanish fluently. I can speak it OK, but I still have to pause and think quite a lot when I speak it.
Neil
Let’s recap the vocabulary we heard in this conversation, starting with memorise. Memorise is a verb which means to learn something until you can remember it.
Beth
We also had exam which is a test of a student’s knowledge.
Neil
If you are fluent in a language, it means you can speak it easily without having to think too much.
Beth
And we heard anxious, which means nervous or worried. People are often anxious when they speak a foreign language.
Neil
And we’ve made a brand new series all about how to feel better when you’re speaking English. There are short videos with tips to help you, and longer podcasts about why learning a new language is so difficult. Head to our website to find the latest episodes, bbclearningenglish.com.
Beth
And that’s it for this episode of Real Easy English. See you soon.
Neil
Goodbye.