Focusing on the most important things

章小玲

Focus on the following most important things while learning a new language（在学习一种新的语言时，要做到以下几件最重要的事情）：

1. Learn a few greeting words in the language before you learn the alphabet （在学习字母前学几句打招呼的话）.

This way when you do learn the alphabdt of the language you will already know some pretty basic words such as “Hello”， “Goodbye”， “How are you？”， “I am good”， “What is your name？”， “My name is____”， and so on.

2. Learn the alphabet of the language you are learning （學会所学语言的字母表）.

It will make it ten times easier for you and you will be able to read/pronounce words， which will help you memorize words with greater ease. Whats more， it is better for you to be sounding the words out rather than just looking at the words.

3. Learn vocabulary （学习基本词汇）.

Mastering basic vocabulary is probably one of the most important things you can do when learning a new language. Even if you cant understand whole sentences， the ability to pick out keywords can help you to understand the general meaning of a speech or text.

Focus on 100 most common words. Picking out the most common 100 words in a given language is a clever way to start. From there， you can work your way up to the most common 1000 words. It is said that learning the 1000 most common words in a language will allow you to understand 70% of any text.

Focus on the vocabulary that has something to do with you - learn business vocabulary if youre learning a language for business， dont waste time learning the words for different kinds of fish！

You should also learn words and vocabulary about your everyday life， so youre able to talk about your life and your background to people you meet.

4. Learn to count in the new language （学会用所学语言数数）.

Start off by learning to count from one to ten， because it is usually the easiest thing to memorize at first. Each day learn a new set of ten numbers， keep going each day until you are satisfied with how high you can count. If you are up for a challenge， memorize all the numbers up to one hundred in one day.

5. Dont worry too much about grammar （不要太为语法担心）.

Most people cant remember most of the language they spent years learning in school. That is because school classes tend to focus a huge amount of time on learning grammar and very little time on speech. This is pretty much backwards - if you want to learn a language quickly， you should learn how to talk first. Grammar will come later.

Of course， that is not to say that grammar is not important - you need to learn how to give the different forms of basic everyday verbs and have some idea of the correct word order in a sentence.

The point is that you shouldnt spend hours and hours learning verb tables by heart， or worrying about how a certain preposition can be used. Youll learn these things as you go along！

6. Work on pronunciation （注重发音）.

Pronunciation is another place where you should focus your energies. Theres no point in memorizing hundreds of words and phrases if you pronounce them so strangely that they cant be understood. Therefore， its important that when you learn a word， you learn the pronunciation at the same time.

Pronunciation can be difficult to learn from a book - so this is where chatting with native speakers （or using interactive software programs） comes in handy. You need to actually say the word out loud in order to learn how to pronounce it correctly.

If youre practicing with an actual person， make sure that hes not too shy and nervous to correct you when you pronounce a word incorrectly， otherwise you may never fully get the hang of it. Remember - pronunciation can be the difference between speaking a language well and speaking a language fluently.

7. Dont be afraid to make mistakes（不要怕犯錯）.

When youre learning a new language you cant be afraid to make mistakes， otherwise you wont get very far.

Youre certain to get yourself in a few embarrassing situations， but whats the big deal？ The native speakers might have a good laugh， but theyll still appreciate the effort youre making and be willing to help you out.

You are not aiming for perfection here， you are aiming for progress. Making mistakes （and learning from them） will help you to progress.