Management – My Life series

Easy-to-digest tips on learning languages quickly & effectively

Fredrick A. Rothhaar spent over three decades as a crisis manager in North America as well as in Central and Eastern Europe, working mainly in the food, pharmaceuticals and confectionery industries. In this excerpt, from his book Organise Yourself and Your Environment: 20 Aids for a Stress-free and Successful Life at Home and at Work outlines his approach to a problem managers from the English-speaking world often find hard to deal with: learning languages.

A lot of people find learning languages difficult. But it is possible to get to grips with a language if you approach the task in the right way.

Besides my native German, I have learnt six languages: French, Italian, Spanish, English, Russian and Hungarian.

Don’t give yourself false hopes. You still have to have some important abilities for learning a new language, for example diligence and perseverance.

There are lots of ways of going about it but in my experience the best options are the following:

Get a teacher to start with. He or she is only allowed to speak to you in that language. The teacher has to go on explaining things you don’t understand in the target language until you do.

Start with simple notions of everyday life. I began my Italian studies, for instance, with a menu borrowed from a restaurant.

Choose the time of day you want to take your classes. In the evenings you are too tired. Going to school during the day takes up a lot of time.

If you receive the teacher in your office, you will not be able to learn undisturbed. I found the best time and the most efficient system while I was learning Russian in Moscow. Learning in the morning is the best. You can focus entirely on your studies.

Use your diary as a second step. Write ten new expressions you learn every day in it and number them. That’s 300 words a month or 3,650 words a year. The basic vocabulary of a language. Revise regularly and often, preferably daily. As a next step, buy one or two simple books written in the new language. When you are more advanced, you should read a lot in the new language.

I haven’t read a single book in my mother tongue in the past 30 years. When a bestseller which I am interested in is published, I wait until it is translated into one of the foreign languages I know. This way I can kill two birds with one stone. I satisfy my interest in the book and practice the language.

It’s different with newspapers. In Hungary and Russia for instance, I always read the local German- or English-language papers first, then the Hungarian or Russian one. I became familiar with the facts from the news written in languages I know well. After that it was easier for me to understand the message in the as yet obscure new language and get practice.

To be able to speak a new language fluently, you have to read out loud from a book for ten minutes every day. Preferably in front of a mirror. You’ll be surprised to find in five days that you have become more fluent.

Tune your ears to the language by listening to the radio. Write down what you hear. This sounds absurd at first. But there comes a word you know every now and then. Write it down. As soon as you have finished, there comes another one you know and you write it down immediately. I used up loads of waste paper that way. Do it for 15 minutes every night.

Use every minute of your precious free time to listen. There are pre-recorded teaching materials for almost all languages. For driving, walking, jogging or workout, use a personal stereo or MP3 player.

Watch films which are subtitled in your target language in addition to the dubbing.

Always keep a dictionary close at hand. Look into it every time you have a free minute – whether on a train or the underground. And always read a couple of expressions for a few minutes every night before going to bed.

If you live in a country whose language you want to learn, use every single chance it offers. I only allowed my employees to speak to me in their native language. Even if they would sooner have practised their German or English with me.

There’s the old joke that in order to learn a language you need to get yourself an indigenous partner. That will definitely help. A circle of friends from the country you are staying in will broaden your cultural horizons, in addition to your knowledge of the language.

Having thus mastered a language using all the above aids, you should keep up your skills – even if you no longer live in the country whose language you learnt. As well as a cultural asset, it is a professional advantage for you.

Summary: By following certain rules you can learn a new language quickly.

Rothhaar has written three books in the series “Management – My Life”. They are not available in the shops, but can be exclusively purchased from the Casablanca Café, Caviar, Steak and Music House at Váci utca 30 in District V. Tel.: (1) 266 7118. www.casablanca-club.hu and www.faro.hu Each volume costs EUR 11. All three are available for a discounted price of EUR 30.