By Lucía Elihiday López Julián

Lucy is a musical educator; she gives a workshop for persons with learning or physical disabilities, and she is currently taking a master’s program in Education, Neurocognition and Learning. She has been learning English with Neurolanguage Coaching® techniques with Marcela Grobet for a year and a half.

Marcela: Lucy, from your experience as an English-language learner, why is it so difficult to learn a language?

Adults don’t have time to learn another language, because they have to do activities in their work or school. In Mexico, schools make available English classes from the first years, but unfortunately teachers teach the traditional way. The student must study more, because the teacher requires that they learn new vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and speak with their partners.

In the present society, perhaps the problem is not the English language, the problem is the way this language is learned. So many rules that they impose and, in the end, we find it boring, but the demand in schools and jobs is very great.

The rules tell us: you have to study every day, you have to learn all the conjugations of the verbs, you have to do the exercises and a thousand other things, but, in reality, English can be easy to speak if our mind sees it in another way, without having to learn it for a responsibility or commitment.

In this way, our brain would create more connections, because it is not thinking about an obligation, but about enjoying what is being learned. However, the English language is easier in grammar than the Spanish language, we have to decide to handle our learning as a personal growth and make it a pleasure.

On the other hand, in other countries it is said that because of their culture, roots and educational curriculum, it is easier to learn a language, because it is taught from an early age. People who grow up in polyglot environments have easier time learning several languages, because their ear gets used, they are immersed in the language and it is easier to speak it.

It is necessary to practice the language every day, because our brain reinforces the connections that have been created, until it creates a habit.

Learning a language, and not only English, will help you in the school and work, but also personally, because it will open a vision to a new culture, meet new people and interact with them and once you have learned a language, your ear will recognize other languages and you will learn another language more easily. You mustn’t learn a language without enjoying it.