Catholic English

How to learn English

faith comes by hearing – Romans 10:17

… and language too! Children learn their mother tongue from listening, many hours a day… This is the method we recommend. We’ve used it to learn Polish, based on advice from Piotr from RealPolish.pl and from the polyglot Steve Kaufmann. Here is a short summary of their tips¹:

1. Spend time with the language
   • Steve Kaufmann suggests that as an adult trying to learn a language, we should try to spend at least an hour a day with the language. We can listen to podcasts while travelling to work and back, while exercising, or while cleaning, for example.
2. Do what you enjoy
   • If you enjoy learning about the Saints, then listen to these podcasts. You will be more motivated, and you will learn English without even realising it. If you prefer to watch films or read books, or go and talk to people, do that.
   • If you try to learn English by doing things you don’t enjoy, it will be boring and difficult.
3. Pay attention
   • We really have to focus on the language, on the words, how they fit together, patterns, rhythms, idioms. There is a lot going on in any language. We can learn it all, and eventually master it, but not if we think about something else while the podcast is playing in the background.
   • If you get distracted, don’t worry about it – just listen again. Then listen again. The more times you listen to something, the better you will be able to hear the details of the language you’re trying to learn.
   • After a few months or a few years you can listen again – you’ll be surprised and happy with the progress you’ve made, and you’ll be able to notice new things. The learning never has to stop if you’re enjoying it.
4. Words are more important than grammar
   • If you’ve ever tried talking to someone in a foreign language, you’ll know this from experience. If you don’t know the word, you can’t explain yourself. Making a few grammar errors isn’t such a big problem though.
   • If you listen and read a lot then you will learn words, and eventually you’ll start using them.
   • Focusing too much on grammar can make it more difficult to speak naturally. If you stop to think about which tense you should be using, or how to form the conditional, it really makes conversation difficult.
5. Be patient
   • Learning a language takes a long time, usually years. Of course we can begin to communicate in a new language in only a few weeks or months, but if you want to feel really comfortable speaking or writing then you must be patient and keep on working at it.
   • You must remember that in the beginning we seem to learn the basics quite quickly, but in the next level, the intermediate level, our learning usually slows down a lot and it can be quite frustrating. This is when you have to be really patient, and commit to carrying on learning at least a little every day. Eventually you will achieve your goals.
   • We also have to get used to forgetting what we learn, maybe many times. It happens to all of us, but eventually we will remember. Just be patient.
6. Use appropriate tools
   • Use podcasts, mp3 files, listen and read at the same time. There are a million good resources on the internet for learning English – use them.
   • Don’t get distracted by things that waste time or don’t really help you to learn.
   • Use dictionaries. Use AI if you want and if it works for you. Be careful of Google Translate – it works quite well for full sentences and longer texts, but if you want to know the meaning of a single word then you should use a dictionary which can give you different alternatives for different contexts.
   • Try out various tools and learn their strengths and limitations. Use whatever works best for you.
7. Learn independently
   • A teacher can be helpful. They can motivate you, provide appropriate material, give useful feedback. But they are limited. You can only spend an hour or two a week with a teacher, and you often have to share that time with other students.
   • When you get out of the classroom, there is a whole world of learning opportunities waiting for you if YOU choose to take them.
   • The power of independent learning is immense. That’s what you’re doing now. Keep it up – you won’t be sorry.

We describe all this in more detail in episode 1 of our podcast. You can listen to the podcast and read the transcript² (text) at the same time. In the podcast we describe the method in more detail, and then we reflect on how these tips can be looked at from a more Catholic perspective.