Chapter 1

Its as difcult as......breathing

Learning Chinese is really difcult, she said to me. I worked solid for two
years, and even then only had the basics. And, theres no way a person can learn
Chinese faster than that.
I was at a seminar in Hong Kong, and the young woman who said this really
meant it. She could speak Mandarin Chinese and, quite clearly, it had been a
difcult process for her. There was only one problem, if you can call it that. It
didnt have to be that way. It certainly didnt match with my own experience,
or that of the many other people who have learned a new language easily and
effectively.
I told her that I thought Chinese is quite an easy language, and that it can be mastered very quickly by a Westerner - in just a few months, actually. She replied
that this was not possible, and looked at me like I was slightly mad.
Rather than get into an argument with her, I decided to write this book.
This book is about you, and the things that you can do to learn a new language
faster and more easily than you ever thought possible. Its also a very practical
book, because it explores the real life experience of learning a language in the
land in which it is spoken. Throughout the book you will nd the experiences of
people who have successfully mastered at least one new language, and in certain
cases many more.
I also share with you the journey that I have taken to learn what are considered,
in the West, quite difcult languages Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese. My
personal experience relates mostly to learning Chinese and Asian languages.
Because these are considered difcult, the lessons about how to learn a language
apply equally to languages that could be considered easier.
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In the pages that follow I will share the strategies and techniques that have
worked for me, and other successful language learners that I have talked to.
Im writing this book for one simple reason - I want you to discover how to better use your natural language talent more effectively. After all, youre a language
genius anyway you have to be if you mastered your mother tongue! Remember, you came into the world with no words and no grammar. You had nothing to
hook on to, and, somehow, you still became uent.
If you are reading this book you probably want to learn a new language. Maybe
you are about to go to a new country to live or work. Possibly you are already
there. Maybe you have decided that, for work or some other reason, you need to
master another language even if you are staying at home. Or maybe you are just
interested in learning a new language. Whatever your reason, Im sure you want
to know how to do it with the greatest ease and the most fun.

But its Soooooo Hard! - NOT

I wrote this book because I had to. Every day, as you look around you may see
people struggling to learn a new language. And, you know, the struggle is unnecessary! Anyone can learn a foreign language quickly...easily. Even adults.
Even if you have heard things to the contrary.
I spend most of my time living in Hong Kong, but often travel to other countries
in Asia, especially China. Everywhere westerners are struggling to learn Chinese, or Vietnamese, or some other Asian language. Many have just given up
trying to learn these languages. And I see Asians who want to learn English, or
some other foreign language. They too seem to be struggling!
True, there are many people who have learned at least one foreign language.
Some people do it very well, and many who nd it difcult decide that these
successful people are naturally gifted at language. This conclusion is often used
as an excuse for not trying. Its sad because, for every person who has been
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successful, it seems there are dozens who are nding it either very difcult or
impossible. This is especially the case when the languages are as different from
each other as English and Chinese, for instance.
A few years ago I was on a ferry on my way home. It was late and I was hungry,
so I went to the canteen to order some instant egg noodles (fast food, Chinese
style). As I nished ordering, a young English man asked me how to say egg
noodles in Cantonese. I was, I must admit, a little surprised. Most westerners
in Hong Kong dont even bother to make the effort. They have given up even
before they started. So, this was a little novel, but very much welcomed.
So, I told the young man how to say egg and noodles (daan meen). He repeated it after me, with the sounds and intonation being almost perfect. I nodded
and smiled, and said yeah! Thats right. Then I said it for him one more time.
He again repeated it accurately.
Inhaling deeply, he turned to the man behind the counter to order his noodles,
suddenly allowed his posture to slump, said nervously Ill leave it till next
time and proceeded to order in English.
What a let down! This young man had started on the path to successfully learn
a new language, and he threw away the rst win! He had it, and he let it go!
If you only think in terms of quantity, one simple phrase doesnt seem much.
But, speaking even a few words and getting a result is critical. When you break
through that rst tinge of embarrassment, and start communicating in a new language, youve got it made. One word. Two. A few gestures. And youre away.
Ive not spoken to him since, but I would say hes probably going around thinking that Cantonese is too hard for him to learn, even though he had shown very
clearly that he could learn an element of the language correctly in just a few
seconds!
So why did this happen? I believe there is a very simple explanation. Many
people in the world today have accepted the myth that a new language is difcult to learn. Ask anyone why they dont speak another language and they will
say that they dont have the talent for it, or they are tone deaf (a great excuse for
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not learning Chinese), or that its been proven that adults cant learn a foreign
language very easily. Or...and I hate this one...they speak my language, so why
should I bother?
It doesnt have to be that way. Let me give you an example.
Paul is a young Australian man who, until recently, was living in Hong Kong.
I have know him for several years, and each time we met he would tell me that
one day he was going to learn Mandarin. He also told me that he wasnt really a good language learner, so he was quite worried about his ability to learn
Chinese.
Several months ago I challenged him to really use the techniques in this book.
He took the challenge to heart, and recently made a ten-day trip to Qingdao in
the Northeast of China. In about ten days he was communicating in Chinese, at
a very basic level of course. He returned to Hong Kong for two or three weeks
to pack his belongings, and now he is living in Qingdao and learning Chinese.
After just two weeks on the ground in China he is able to communicate simple, everyday things with relative ease. He is well on his way to being uent in
Chinese in six months, or even less.
Clearly, there are techniques of learning, and ways of thinking, that can help
anybody learn a new language easily and quickly. But thats not enough. You
have to have a reason.

Reasons To Bother
There are many reasons that you could think of to learn a new language. For one
thing, its fun. And, when you really get into it, you might nd that it can expand
your world. You get to see the world from angles that you would never have
thought of before. Of course, there are other reasons to learn a new language.
Consider for a moment that many of the problems that we have to deal with in
todays world connect to the fact that we cant communicate with each other.
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Even those of us who speak the same tongue have problems communicating.
Youve probably heard the old joke about the British and Americans being separated by a common language. Imagine trying to deal with difcult issues when
you are separated by a different language!
Recently my company was given the job of facilitating a meeting of senior managers in a US-Chinese joint venture. There were 12 people on the management
team of this joint venture, eight coming from one partner and four from the
other. Eleven of the people were Chinese and one was an American and he was
a uent Chinese speaker.
As the meeting progressed it became clear that many of the Chinese people were
in conict (with each other) because they didnt realize that, while they meant
the same thing, they were using different words. They were busy creating what
I call ghost conicts conicts that happen when you think you disagree, but
actually you agree.
To give an example of a ghost conict, you might have found yourself in a situation where you are trying to agree with someone where to meet at a certain time.
You say, Its the coffee shop to the left of the post ofce.
Your friend says, theres no coffee shop to the left of the post ofce! and looks
at you quite strangely. You know youre right, of course, and insist that most
denitely there is a coffee shop to the left of the post ofce.
With neither of you backing down, very soon you nd yourself in a heated argument and youre not quite sure how it started. You are certain there is a coffee
shop to the left of the post ofce. And, your friend is equally certain there is
not.
If youre lucky you stop to analyse what is going on before you destroy the
friendship. It turns out that you are thinking about the whole situation from the
perspective of looking at the post ofce from across the street. There is a coffee
shop beside the post ofce. As you face the post ofce, it is on your left hand
side.
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Your friend thinks about it very differently. She has a perspective of coming out
of the post ofce. The street is in front, and the post ofce is behind her. From
that viewpoint there is a coffee shop just down the street, if she turns right.
The argument started because neither of you understood the perspective that the
other was using. And, in this example, your friend omitted to mention that in her
mind there was a coffee shop to the right. She simply disagreed with you that
there was one to the left.
So, what happens is that you nd yourself arguing and there really is no disagreement. You both know there is a coffee shop. You can both see it in your
minds eye. And yet you argue about whether or not a coffee shop exists in that
location. A problem caused by missing pieces of information and different perspectives on the same issue. A ghost conict. When you realize that is not real
the conict ends.
Remember, this happens between people speaking the SAME language! Imagine what can happen when they are speaking different languages.
As the group explored different peoples mental models, and resolved the ghost
conicts, they were able to begin discussing the more important and difcult
issues that existed in the group. As they went deeper and deeper into these,
you can imagine that it became somehow obvious how important it is to speak
someone elses language. One really interesting thing was that, even though he
was a uent Chinese speaker, the American manager misunderstood the motives of some of the Chinese managers because of the subtlety of some of their
concerns. Clearly, the Chinese managers meant well. But they could not convey
what really mattered for them. So they mis-communicated. To understand what
was needed for a solution the American manager needed to understand personal
histories, cultural limits, as well as some very subtle language distinctions.
The group did work it out. It took some effort and some back-and-forth discussion about business and personal issues. Today, this joint venture company is
operating much more effectively, with a much higher level of cooperation.
Later, as I reviewed the learnings from this, I wondered - could the group have
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solved the problems so easily if participants at the meeting were unable to speak
a common language (in this case Chinese)? What would have happened if the
only means of communicating was through an interpreter? I shudder to think...
Interpreters ALWAYS fail to convey all of the subtlety and the multiple levels of
meaning that are present in the original message. Its not that interpreters dont
understand, its just that THINGS DO GET LOST IN TRANSLATION. I know.
I have worked as an interpreter. In many cases, to understand a persons meaning you must rst have the cultural stories that go to make up that meaning.
Without these stories true communication is difcult sometimes impossible.
Of course, you learn these stories as you learn a language but you cant give all
the background to a word or phrase when you are interpreting for someone in
real time!
So, to get things done between countries, companies, across cultures and between people who speak different languages its important even critical to
master other peoples languages. Even if they already speak yours. Because only
then can you truly understand why they say what they say.
For Paul, the reason is much more simple. He just wants to be able to have deep,
interesting, philosophical discussions with Chinese people in Chinese. The added incentive of quite a hefty bet adds to his incentive.
Lyn, a middle-aged Caucasian lady living in Hong Kong feels that its more
a matter of respect. After all, shouldnt you learn the language of a culture in
which you have chosen to live?

Challenging the Myth

It does not have to be difcult to learn any new language. You can do it in a
much shorter time, to a much higher level, than you could ever imagine this
is possible. When you start looking, you might be surprised at the number of
people who have actually mastered the trick of learning a new language. Paul is
a great example among many. So is Lyn.
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Before she read the rst drafts of The Third Ear, Lyn believed that all foreign
languages, especially Chinese, were forever beyond her. Encouraged by the
ideas in this book, however, she jumped into learning Cantonese and has, slowly
but surely, become conversational. For her there was one very important key.
She just needed to understand that her previous difculties at learning language
were NOT because she was dumb, but because she had been going about it the
wrong way. She started doing the learning differently, and her understanding and
skill naturally began to follow.
I have seen others do it, too. And, my own story is a little like Pauls. I dont
have talent for language learning at least no more than the average person. I
can get really annoyed when people suggest that I speak more than one language
because, somehow, I have some special talent. In fact, I probably had LESS language talent than many of my peers!
When I was growing up in New Zealand, I was only average at learning English. I was relatively slow to understand the written word, and I had quite some
difculty with grammar. Actually, I hated...absolutely hated...grammar lessons.
What was the point?
I wasnt much better in other ways, either. I was always the last to nish when
we had to read a passage for comprehension. I much preferred the science subjects because they required abstract and conceptual thinking.
Foreign languages werent any better. When I was learning French, I was in the
lowest third of my high school class. I just couldnt quite seem to get it. It didnt
make sense. It was boring. And there was no way I could pronounce the sounds
properly. I believed, at the time, that I could never learn the language well. And
my interest in it grew weaker and weaker. Probably the most important point of
all was that I had absolutely no personal reason to learn French. None.
Then something happened that gave a new spin to my life. I learned French! I
found I could converse with French people and Have Fun at the same time.
When I was 15, an exchange student from Tahiti (a French speaking colony in
the South Pacic) came to stay for a few weeks. Then, several months later, I
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went to Tahiti for a total of 6 weeks. Its amazing what necessity and the right
environment can do for you.
In that short time, I learned to speak good conversational French. I could communicate with anyone as necessary, and the language was no longer a mystery to
me. Sure, there were words that I didnt know, but I could always nd out what
they meant. And in any case, even today there are words in English that I dont
know. I came across one just recently - Semiotics. What does that mean? The
day I rst saw it I had no idea!
I was told that it has something to do with symbols - the science of how people
perceive and relate to symbols. But I still dont have a full understanding of
what it means! Which doesnt matter. Just like you, I can still communicate
effectively in the English language. Not knowing certain words does not stop
that.
Actually, linguists have calculated that an individual learns, on average, 10 new
words in their mother tongue every day for as long as they live! So, even though
English was probably your rst language, youre going to be learning it for the
rest of your life.
Back to French. What is important is that in just a few weeks I was able to master
the structure and functions of the French language. My accent was denitely acceptable. AND, I was in the position where I could grow the language naturally
as we all do with our mother tongue. Which is where Lyn and Paul have gotten
to in Cantonese and Mandarin. A good initial understanding of the language
that you can then use to learn even more about the language. A self-reinforcing
cycle.
My story might have ended there. But it didnt. If it had, I wouldnt be writing
this now. As it turned out I went on to major in psychology at university. One
of my topics of interest was psycho-linguistics. A very inuential theory about
language learning in force at the time said that a second language can only be
learnt really well by children. According to the theory, by the time a person gets
to adulthood, he or she has lost the ability to easily and readily learn a new language.
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This theory was easy to accept because of the overwhelming evidence that we
see around us - all those adults out there struggling with, or failing to, learn a
foreign language effectively. It was almost TOO easy to accept the theory.
Despite the fact that everyone seemed to believe the theory, I couldnt accept it.
I didnt believe it, partly because I didnt want to believe it. It felt horribly limiting. Did this mean that, because I had not learned other languages as a child, I
was now barred from communicating with most of the people in the world? No
way! This was something I refused to accept.
Something inside me said, if your method of learning is correct you can learn a
foreign language at any time. Age is no barrier. I even had the audacity to write
the idea into a term paper. The professor grading the paper must have agreed,
because I got a good pass. Maybe he just rewarded me for being cheeky!
Two years later I had the chance to test the theory on myself. I was 22 at the
time, and was able to land a two-year scholarship to China. This was in 1981,
when China was just opening to the outside world. I had done a few hours of
Chinese language during my second year at university, with one outcome - I just
managed to scrape through and pass. And I hadnt enjoyed the classes at all.
The teacher at the time was much more skilled at hypnosis than at bringing
out any language learning ability in his students. You know, he was one of those
teachers who speaks in a soft, almost monotone voice. And, as he droned on, in
spite of myself, I would nd myself starting to drift off somewhere else. And
it is a comfortable, warm, dark place and you know that you should keep your
eyes open, if only to be polite, but they feel maybe heavy, maybe sticky, and the
muscles in the forehead cant hold them up any longer ZZZZZ!
Suddenly, through the mist, you hear YOUR NAME being called. A QUESTION. And you cant even understand the question...
As you might imagine, I didnt learn very much. And the professor never did
work out that the sleepiness of his students had very little to do with the temperature in the classroom. By the time I got to go to China I could not speak a word
of Mandarin Chinese. I was totally blank.
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I arrived at the language institute in Beijing in September of 1981. Classes

didnt start for two weeks, so I had a bit of time on my hands. What to do? Well,
one thing was for sure, I didnt like being in an environment where I could not
understand what was being said, where I could not communicate with the local
people, and where I could not even read simple signs and warnings.
Ive subsequently been to other countries where I havent learned the language
yet, and the experience is the same. I just dont like being in a place where I
dont understand the language. Its so much more fun to understand, to interact,
to know what is going on.
So, in September 1981, as I sat around in Beijing not understanding, and feeling
increasingly uncomfortable, it was obvious that some action was needed. I had
to learn the language and I had to do it fast.
On my second day I met my rst friend. He was a slight but lithe and wiry
young man from Thailand. He went by the name of Mao....which is Chinese,
and Thai, for cat. It sounds like a cat call. He taught me my rst words - zenme
yang (zun mo yang) - hows it going? And I was off. For the next two days, I
said this to just about anyone I met. People were responding and telling me how
they felt, admittedly with words that I didnt yet understand. But I was hearing
the words and beginning to notice patterns. From the looks on their faces, and
their body language, I could guess some of the meaning.
Ive heard something similar from Paul as he goes about his learning adventure
in China. By using just a few words to start with, and engaging in even the most
basic conversations, he is noticing patterns and correctly guessing meanings.
He reports that very quickly he was able to strike up conversations with people
who would tell him the names for things, as well as important and useful words
like please and thanks. Within a week he was getting into simple conversations. Very much repeating the sort of experience that I had had in the early
80s.
In my experience, after just a few days immersed in this way in Chinese, I was
thinking to myself, this is great....Im getting somewhere. I could already read
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a few signs - caution, Male, Female (pretty important distinctions when

diarrhoea was a frequent reality). And, I could buy things and survive at a basic
level on the street.
Ten days into my new adventure, a newly made Palestinian friend took me and
two New Zealand students off to Beidaihe (sounds like Bay Die Her), a Chinese
seaside resort Northeast of Beijing. We went by train, spent a couple of days
chilling out, then had to head back to Beijing to begin the process of nding out
which classes we would be assigned to.
At that time, public transport had for many years been pretty limited in China more people wanting to travel than there was vehicle availability. Of course, we
had left the purchase of train tickets until far too late. It would be three or four
days before we could get seats.
There was only one thing for it. We got on the train anyway, paid the price of
a ticket and the ne for being on board without one, then camped down in the
dining car for the 6 hour overnight trip back to Beijing. Ten minutes after we
had pulled out of the station a man in an ofcial looking white jacket, wearing
an ofcial looking cap, approached me. I found out a little later that he was a
railway security guard. He sat down, smiled, and began talking.
And that is what we did - for six hours straight. Just talked, all in Chinese. All
night. One of many all-nighters that I experienced as I grappled with the language. He didnt understand a word of English. Initially, I didnt understand
much of what he said. But he apparently had nothing important to do, and neither of us was going anywhere, so we stuck with it.
He drew pictures, and wrote out Chinese characters for me, and mimed things.
As we talked I increasingly got the sense that I understood what he was saying.
My notebook was covered in scribble, and notes, and little pictures. That night,
I was probably exposed to over 1000 new words, and most of the commonly
used elements of the whole Chinese language. I couldnt pin them all down, but
I could sense the patterns that were emerging. An important idea that. Sensing
the patterns.
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A few days after my return to Beijing it was test time. The school I was attending
made everyone go through an oral and a written test to check out their understanding of Chinese. When my turn came, the examiners were bafed. I was
already able to hold a simple conversation with them. But, my ability to read
Chinese was still limited to a few dozen characters. They couldnt gure this
out, but had to stick me in an intermediate class rather than a beginners class. I
was obviously well on the way to mastering the Chinese language.
At the end of the train journey I was by no means uent in Chinese. But it was
a turning point. For me, from that night on, learning Chinese was easy and fun.
Sure, I had to apply myself. Effort was required. But it was always pleasurable
and I learned faster and faster as the days went by.
For Paul, the story is similar. After immersing himself for just a couple of weeks,
he has turned the corner with his Mandarin. In a recent note he writes:
Opportunities to speak mandarin on the street are plentiful .. my personal highlight was the house-hunting ... didnt really know the language, but managed to
get by and picked up words for things like
bed (chuang), fridge (bingxiang), hot water (kaishui), air conditioner (kongtiao),
couch (shafa) etc which was lots of fun!
Just using the simple ideas and techniques in this book he is now mobile in a new
language. Within just a few months he will be communicating competently in
Chinese, having long (often philosophical) conversations with Chinese friends,
and handling China easily and naturally.
In my case, within just a few months I was able to read and write at a basic level.
By the time I had been in China for less than six months, I was writing (quite
basic) letters in Chinese to communicate with friends I had met, and deal with
ofcial business. I even wrote letters to senior ofcials in the Chinese government in my efforts to get to the Beijing Institute of Physical Education, where I
hoped to study Chinese Martial Arts (an effort that was ultimately successful).
Today, I speak uent Mandarin and Cantonese, and use both of these languages
as the medium of interaction in much of the organizational consulting work
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that I do. I have also been exposed to a number of other Asian languages. On
a two-week trip to Japan, after two days getting the basics of the language with
the help of some friends, I was able to hitch hike around the country using just
Japanese. After 2 weeks, I could understand about 60% of what was said to me
on the street, or in shops, or just in casual conversation.
It hasnt stayed with me, of course, because since then I have had no more serious contact with Japan or the language. With any language there is a need to
use it or lose it. Its like a muscle. You can even lose your mother tongue if you
dont use it for a long period of time. In 1984, as a 24-year-old, I found that my
English had deteriorated to about the level of a 15 year old simply because I
had been communicating almost exclusively in Chinese for three years.
What is very interesting is that, the more languages you have learned, the easier
it seems to be to pick up the next one. And, more importantly, by applying the
right techniques all languages are relatively easy to master.
Allen is a Canadian who, over the years, has mastered many different languages.
He speaks uent English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin and Cantonese. In
writing this book I interviewed Allen, and a number of other people who have
successfully learned several different languages. Allen learned all his languages
in much the same way, using techniques and approaches very similar to what I
outline in this book.
What is both fascinating and important is that each of the successful language
learners I spoke to approach the challenge of learning a new language in much
the same way. They have all learned to create the right motivation. They each
put themselves in situations where they needed to use the language to communicate. They created many opportunities for practice. And so on.
Today, every one of the good language learners I have spoken to are at the stage
where they can go to any country and, in just a few days, enter into the language of that place. They can understand a great deal of what is said in an everyday context, and can make themselves understood in most general situations.
Most importantly, when they come across a new language they are very quickly
able to have a feel for the dynamics of the language - how it works, and the rules
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that people use to stick words together to create meaning.

These are things that you, too, can master quickly and easily. It is part of your
heritage.

The Difference That Makes the Difference

When I tell people about this ability that some people have to learn a new language so quickly, I get two quite different reactions. Some people simply do not
believe that it is possible. Others immediately assume that the language learners are somehow talented, and say something like some very talented people
can learn language quickly and easily. But, theyre not normal like the rest of
humanity. Most of us dont have this talent.
To which I would add yet...
Clearly, it is possible to learn new languages quickly. You probably know at least
one person who has picked up a new language easily. As I said above, what is
really interesting is that each time you learn a language, it becomes faster and
easier. In fact, it appears that the more languages you know the faster YOU can
learn ANY new language. You can learn how to learn a language. Which means
there must be a technology of language learning.
NOW, just for the sake of argument, what if it was possible to inject languagelearning talent into you? How would that change things for you? What if there
was a way to make it easy?
Because, learning can be easy. Tennis coach Tim Galway who wrote the book
the Inner Game, was able to take a 55-year old woman who was very overweight, and in 20 minutes teach her to play tennis. The process was captured
on lm as a record of what is possible for people when they do things with appropriate methods.
Its the same with learning a language. There is a way of approaching the whole
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challenge of mastering a new language that can make the whole process elegant
and enjoyable. The more you discover about the language learning process, the
more certain patterns emerge. A couple of different elements seem to be important.
Firstly, the way in which you are exposed to a second language has a major
impact.
Secondly, the way you choose to think about a new language has important
consequences. What is commonly called talent is actually the specic mental,
emotional, and physical strategies that you use to approach a certain task. What
is really exciting is that you can learn the strategies that others use to be successful, in any area. Even in language learning.
Which is what this book is about. The mental, emotional, physical and practical
strategies used by successful language learners.
As you learn the language acquisition strategies and approaches of people who
speak more than one language, you too will discover that you can pick up a new
language faster than you imagined could be possible.
In this book I use a lot of examples that are about Chinese or other Asian Languages. I have done this deliberately because of the large difference between
Asian and Non-Asian languages, and also because in the Western world Asian
languages are perceived as amongst the hardest to learn. Chinese and English
are much more different than, say, French and English. The principles that are
covered in this book can help you learn ANY language, no matter how different
it is from your own. Languages that are much closer to your own will just be
that much easier.

Using This Book

This book is not intended to be scientic or academic. Its not intended to sum
up all of the language research that has ever been done. It is, rather, a practical
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guide. Its about simple, obvious, and intuitive things that you can do to make
your language learning experience exciting, interesting and, ultimately, successful.
This book is intended, ultimately, to help you learn a new language any language that you may choose easily and effectively. To help you achieve that
outcome, I share some insights from both scientic and psychological research,
as well as personal insights from real people generating real results with language learning. I will also share my own observations and insights gleaned from
100s of years of learning language and thinking about the process my own,
and that of countless others.
The book is intended to be fun to read, and easy to follow. In that spirit, I have
taken artistic license and included many anecdotes and stories. They do have a
point. I have also avoided too much detail that a language learner would consider
overly technical, or irrelevant. Simplication is my intent, so the more feedback
I receive about having missed something from the literature the happier I will
be! It will mean that my goal to simplify has been achieved. Ill also be thrilled
to learn anything new that I can about the language learning process from the
feedback that I hope youll send back in.
There are three main sections to the book. In the rst section we explore how,
and why, it is going to be easy for you to learn another language.
In the second section, I talk about the basic principles and elements of a model
for language learning. These principles work, and you will need to think through
how to apply them in your own language learning situation.
In the third section I give you a set of specic tools and techniques that you can
immediately apply in learning your new language. You should be able to apply
these techniques, with little modication,
You can read the chapters in any order you choose. If you prefer to understand
why you do certain things, then starting at the beginning is probably better for
you. If you like to learn by trying things out, and then review them in your mind,
working backwards is probably just as good.
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Whatever way you choose, I trust you will enjoy the rest of the book and that
you will discover, like me, that learning a second language can be a wonderful
journey of insight and discovery!

- End Chapter 1 Copyright 2005, Chris Lonsdale & Associates Ltd.

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