Hello, Global English Learners AKA "The New English." This is a reminder that self-dialogue in your target language is extremely important to help you reach your desired fluency level. In other words think, i.e.talk to your-self in English as much as possible--just like you do in your native language. I know this is helping me with my German, which is my target language. Some psychologists call it meta cognition; others call it introspection. In any case, I have learned in my language learning experience that it truly helps. There is also research to support this claim, but that is another blog topic on another day perhaps...Moving to another topic, did any bloggers read Marilyn vos Savant's column (Houston Chronicle, Parade Magazine, January 21, 2007) today regarding simplified spelling? Amusingly, she states that "simplified spelling aims to reduce the clutter that has accumulated over time, helping students learn to read faster and better." Her two examples are 'hiccough' and ' 'plough' which would respectively become 'hiccup and plow.' Hmmmm, I think I will check out her advice and "visit parade.com and click on 'Ask Marilyn.'" There is definitely more to this working theory...I for one don't like any sort of clutter in my life--much less with language learning through reading. Well, Houston actually has sun today--and I hope you find some somewhere on the planet.

The thing about learning a language is this: Classroom "learning" is seemingly important to a certain extent and possibly even face to face encounters in an artificial class such as in an "old school" classroom setting, but real, authentic language--i.e., fluency comes by full submergence of the self into the language and culture of the target language--it's just that simple--so one has to decide on the degree of desire, motivation, and ability to acquire another language...another day we will talk about the intellectual ability factor, yet know this now: Motivation, enthusiasm and human will and even prior knowledge are not all they are made out to be in terms of language acquisition and don't forget about the mystery of it all particularly regarding the brain. Oh, yes, and then there is the age conflict...