The Best Way To Learn Anything

What if someone tells you that there's a universal method for learning anything? ANYTHING!

Before we begin, apologies for the late update. Though not many of you are following this blog, you're here and you've read it. Sorry but thanks! This may well be our last written piece. Coming 2023, the plan is to turn content into audio/video.

Free The language is an English-based site so we'll take English as an example but what is about to be revealed can be applied to everything you're learning. Let's first look at how we, learners of English as a second language, learned when we were little.

Here in Taiwan, most of us don't have anyone in the family that could speak English. Though the parents may have some understanding of the language, they tend not to speak in full sentences or at all. However, children were all "encouraged (or forced)" to learn English "because it is important". We started learning English in elementary school and from having just one class a week to now they offer at least three. Students finish those classes and are almost always signed up for extra English classes like those in cram schools, private tutors, online...etc. No matter how many hours there are, people just don't seem to be able to speak English well enough and our/us parents are getting more and more worried and thus spending more money and time adding more hours for classes. The more resources the more stress and the vicious cycle never stops unless you snap out of it by understanding what we're trying to say in the later paragraphs.

We speak to learn and then learn to speak. The simplest way to see through this notion is by examining how we learned our mother tongue. Listening, speaking, reading, writing... as the tests go, this is actually how we develop and achieve language acquisition.

Before babies learned to listen, they were exposed to the environment of their first language for years, consciously and unconsciously. If this is how the natural approach, why do we expect children to learn unnaturally and inefficiently? What's worse is that it also costs more by doing it wrong. Every time this point is made, many people would make the argument that "not everyone can make an environment" like Andy. That's true, but also a huge excuse not to work for the result they desire. Let's ask ourselves for a moment. As Chinese natives, are we so qualified in our native language for children to learn from? Maybe yes, maybe no, but it is clear that it's never about the ability of the target language. It's about the will and the attempt. This isn't the 60s when people don't even have to finish high school. It's fair to say that most before 50 years old have a basic or better understanding of English and there's the internet! The key lies in extension.

As mentioned earlier that adding hours isn't ideal, what we need is not to have extra classes but to extend what we learn in our lives. So what, if our parents don't know better? You, as a student, could extend what you learn in school by listening to songs, changing your phone setting to English, and keeping a journal in English. No one's stopping you. So what, if your children aren't doing well in English in school? You, as a parent, could use easy, everyday phrases and it doesn't cost a thing. Stop encouraging children to learn; learn with them!

We need to stop thinking that we are learning English to be English teachers. You don't have to be a teacher to teach the young; you don't need to learn only from your teachers but from yourselves. The best way to learn is to teach. To teach is to practice what you learn. To practice is not just doing homework but applying the knowledge in real life.

It would be foolish to give a list of things for you to choose to follow because we all learn, teach, and practice differently. What applies to some, doesn't apply to others. Options usually don't help people choose but make people picky. When help is offered but not appreciated, the helpers tend to stop and that doesn't just mean they stop helping people, they also stop helping themselves. Therefore, when teaching others, try to teach knowing that you're mostly teaching yourself so don't give up because of a reluctant learner or two.

Teach to learn; learn to teach. That's how you learn everything.

#education